Start Again at Zero

Roasted romanesco with chilli and soy

2010-12-27T18:00:00.001Z

This makes a nice side dish, or can be served with rice for a quick mid-week supper. The vegetables take about 15 minutes to cook, which is just long enough to get some water on and cook the rice. The recipe (Annie O'Carroll's Roast Calabrese with Chilli and Soy) appears in the Riverford Farm Cook Book and works equally well with romanesco.

Cut the romanesco (or broccoli) into florets, toss in olive oil, and roast in a 200℃ oven. After 10 minutes, add 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced, a hot red chilli, finely chopped, and a teaspoon of sesame seeds. Roast for a further 5 minutes, remove from the oven, season generously with soy sauce, and serve immediately.

I find this works best with smaller florets (so you get more crunchy bits). If the vegetables aren't cooked enough for your taste, you could increase the initial cooking time to 12-15 minutes, but don't cook for more than 5 minutes after the garlic has been added as it will burn and become bitter.

Book review: Cooking for Geeks

2010-12-24T19:30:00.002Z

My shelves are groaning under the weight of cookery books, but there aren't many I've read from cover to cover. "Cooking for Geeks" is one of those gems that is both an excellent reference manual and a good read. While this book does contain some recipes (100 or so), it's not the one to buy if you're looking for a recipe book. Recipes give you quantities of ingredients and step by step instructions for transforming those ingredients into great meals. This book goes some way to explaining the whys and wherefores of each of those steps. Once you have an understanding of the processes involved in cooking and preparing food - and the science behind them - you can start adapting recipes and inventing new ones. You'll know when an ingredient can be substituted, and what with. You'll know when a step in a recipe can be skipped. You'll start to spot - and correct for - mistakes in published recipes.

The book encourages us to treat our kitchens as our own personal chemistry lab, and it builds the confidence we need to start experimenting. Most important of all, it encourages us to have fun with our cooking. A geeky humour runs throughout the book, with the title of the first chapter, "Hello, kitchen," setting the tone. Of course there’s some serious stuff in here too, including an essential section on food safety and foodborne illness.

I'm surprised at just how much information has been packed into the 400 pages of this book. Want to know how to pasteurize an egg? The temperature collagen starts to break down when you cook meat? Where to find enzymes that will do the same job? It’s all in here. (See http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596805890/ for the full table of contents.)

There are also plenty of helpful tips along the way. I now cook pancakes without any fat in the pan. You need a good non-stick pan to do this, but they cook more evenly this way. And on the gadget front, I’m looking out for a compressed gas cream whipper so I can try foamed scrambled eggs and instant chocolate mousse.

As expected, the chemicals used to make the foams, spheres, and heat-stable gels of molecular gastronomy make an appearance, and the book gives a good introduction to sous vide cooking. This is where food is vacuum-sealed in a plastic bag (the "sous vide" part) and cooked in a temperature-controlled water bath, a method of cooking used extensively in top restaurants where consistency is key. Sous vide is gaining popularity in domestic kitchens, with the first water bath aimed at the domestic consumer arriving on the European market just a couple of months ago. My friends thought I was crazy when I spent almost a month’s salary on a water bath and vacuum packing machine earlier this year, but once you’ve tried fillet steak cooked sous vide (a perfect medium rare throughout) and confit pork cheeks (cooked gently in goose fat for 36 hours), there’s no turning back.

If you’re really interested in the science of cooking, you’ll want Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking” on your shelves and perhaps “The Science of Cooking” by Peter Barham. But you can’t have too many cookery books, and “Cooking for Geeks” is a very readable introduction to the subject with plenty of light-hearted diversions to keep it from getting too dry. I particularly enjoyed the interviews and guest appearances by some of my favourite food bloggers - it was like having old friends around.

The author sums up my feelings brilliantly in the afterword:

"Curiosity and the joy of discovering how something works are two of a geek's defining characteristics. I can think of very few other things that have brought me as much joy as learning to cook and providing for others. It scratches the same neurons that solving a puzzle or producing a brilliant piece of code does, but tastes better and often takes less time - not to mention that you can do it for other people and make them happy too!"

Some of my geek friends might find a copy in their seasonal festive stockings this year. Now, back to the kitchen.

This review appeared in the December 2010 issue of news@uk, the newsletter of UKUUG, the UK's Unix and Open Systems User Group.

Venison ragù

2010-12-21T08:00:00.010Z

This dish was inspired by one of the entries to November's "In the Bag" blogging challenge. Phil, over at As Strong as Soup, chose venison for the challenge and made a tasty-looking venison pasta sauce. You can see his recipe here. I adapted it slightly for the ingredients I had in the house (I had already drunk all the gin). It also gave me an excuse to try out my new toy: a mincer attachment for the Kenwood Chef.

I ordered a selection of venison from Riverford Organic back in the autumn (it's only available for a short season) and had some diced venison in the freezer. Once it had defrosted, I pushed it through the medium mincer blade of the Kenwood. It worked a treat, but you have to watch out for sinew that will clog it up. If you don't have a mincer, you could follow Phil's lead and simply chop the meat finely (you could use a food processor for this).

Start by making a boquet garni by tying up some crushed bay leaves, juniper berries and black peppercorns in muslin. Pour about 1/2 bottle of red wine over the minced (or chopped) venison, and tuck in your boquet garni. Leave in the fridge for a few hours, or overnight, then drain over a bowl, reserving the wine and boquet garn.

Heat some oil in a wide pan, and fry 4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, cut into lardons, until it starts to render its fat. Next add the drained meat and cook over a medium heat until it takes on some colour. Add a medium onion, two sticks of celery, and a large carrot, all finely diced. Give it a good stir, then add 2 crushed garlic cloves and cook for 5-10 minutes more. Pour over the reserved wine, add the boquet garni, a tin of chopped plum tomatoes and 1/2 litre chicken stock. Once it comes up to a simmer, reduce the heat to low and cover the pan.

Let it cook gently for at least 2 hours, stirring occasionally, and adding more chicken stock or water if it looks too dry. I removed the boquet garni about halfway through, as I was worried that the juniper was getting too strong. The flavours will concentrate as the sauce cooks, so it's best to season at the end. I added salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a glug of Worcestershire sauce.

This made a delicious and tender pasta sauce. I served it with spaghetti, but it would also have been great in a lasagne.

Afterthoughts

I'm not sure it was necessary to marinate the meat before cooking. It makes it difficult to get the meat dry enough to brown when you fry it, and there's plenty of cooking time for the wine and bouquet garni to contribute their flavours to the sauce. I'll skip the marinade next time (but that will have to wait for next year's venison season).

A dinner party for vegetarians

2010-12-19T13:31:00.001Z

A couple of months ago I bought Yotam Ottoletghi's "Plenty" with a view to broadening my vegetarian cooking repertoire. It came in handy last weekend when Eran and Melanie came to dinner. We started with a beetroot, goat's cheese, orange and watercress salad dressed with freshly squeezed orange juice and olive oil.

Next came roasted winter vegetable cous cous from the Ottolenghi book. There aren't many recipes in this book for which I have all the ingredients in the house. For this one, I had to buy preserved lemons and harissa paste (I know they could both have been made at home, but I had left it too late deciding on the menu). Carrots, parsnips, shallots, and squash are tossed in spices (cinnamon, star anise, bay, ginger, turmeric, paprika, and dried chilli flakes) and olive oil, and roasted. Then dried apricots, chick peas, and preserved lemons are stirred through. It's finished with a couple of spoons of harissa paste and topped with chopped fresh coriander. The spices give an interesting twist to what might otherwise be boring winter vegetables. It went down a treat with my guests.

To finish, I served chocolate fondants with parsnip ice cream.

The idea was that the parsnip ice cream would contrast with the bitter chocolate in the fondant. It didn't work for me and, although Eran liked it, I don't think I'll be making it again.

Bacon and goat's cheese pizza

2010-12-19T13:04:00.000Z

I found myself in London a couple of weeks ago with a bit of time to kill. What better than a visit to Neal's Yard Dairy in Covent Garden? I was quite restrained, and came away with only two cheeses. One of them was the Childwickbury goat's cheese that found its way onto this pizza.

This cheese was recommended by the shop assistant for a goat's cheese custard I planned to cook for some friends who would be visiting the following weekend. It's a lovely fresh, zesty, cheese that I'm sure would have worked wonderfully in the custard - if only cheese could last a whole week in my house. It worked brilliantly on the pizza, along with some bacon lardons, a basic tomato sauce, and a mix of grated mozzarella, cheddar and parmesan. The custard (which I planned to serve as a sauce for broccoli) will have to wait...

A partridge (but no pear tree)

2010-12-06T22:16:00.001Z

I should have been visiting my friends Sébastien and Laurène in Toulouse at the weekend, but the weather here in the UK conspired against me and my flight was cancelled at the last minute. I was half-way to the airport when I learned about the cancellation, so found myself with some time to kill in central London.

This would have been the perfect excuse for another visit to St John, only they were fully booked that lunchtime. Fortunately there are plenty of good places to eat in London, and Corrigan's was happy to oblige with a table. Being in Mayfair, this is a bit more upmarket than St John, and the food a bit more dainty. It's more expensive, too, unless you go for the market menu, which is very tempting and excellent value for money at just £27 for three courses and a 250ml carafe (a.k.a. large glass) of wine.

The offerings on the à la carte menu were more tempting, though, and I opted for a partridge dish: roast breast and confit leg served with pumpkin ravioli. It was very good, but not quite perfect: one half of the breast was nicely cooked, but the other half a bit dry and tough, and the confit leg was extremely dry. Could I improve on this at home? I thought both breast and legs would benefit from sous vide cooking.

My local butcher (Barker Brothers in Great Shelford) had some nice looking partridges in the window, so I snapped one up for my experiment. Roasting a whole bird is always a challenge, as the time and temperature needed to cook the tougher leg meat will dry out the tender breasts - hence Corrigan's approach of cooking the two separately. Following his lead, I removed the legs and breasts from the carcass and prepared the legs for confit. (The breasts were simply brushed with olive oil, seasoned, vacuum packed, and put to one side in the fridge.)

To make the confit, start by salting the legs. About 1tbsp coarse salt and some crushed bay or thyme leaves will do, but I used some of the cure left over from my last batch of home-made bacon (a mix of salt, sugar, bay leaves, peppercorns and juniper). Toss the legs in the cure and set aside in the fridge for at least 12, but no more than 24, hours.

It would be a shame to waste that carcass, so it went into the pressure cooker with some roughly chopped onion, leeks, celery, carrots, parsley stalks, peppercorns and a litre of water. 30 minutes at high pressure and you have partridge stock. Strain, cool, and refrigerate until needed.

When they've had their time in the cure, remove the legs from the fridge, rinse off the cure, and dry thoroughly on kitchen towel. Vaccum pack with a good dollop of goose fat and transfer to a 68℃ water bath.

After 24 hours, reduce the temperature of the water bath to 62℃ (add some cold water to bring the temperature down), and add the breasts. They will be ready in an hour. To finish, drain and dry the legs and pan-fry to crisp the skin. Drain the breasts and pan-fry to colour, then rest for 10 minutes.

I served these with fondant potatoes (cooked in the partridge stock), creamed cabbage, and a white wine butter sauce (made with the partridge stock and cooking juices). It turned out to be quite easy to separate the cooking juices from the goose fat floating on top: simply snip a small corner off the sous vide pouch and let the juices run out, pinching it shut as soon as you get to the fat. The reserved juices can be added to the sauce.

Corrigan's win on presentation, but I think my partridge was better cooked: both the leg and breast were moist and tender. That was quite a lot of effort (2 1/2 days) for one meal, but I have some stock and a little meat left over, so dinner tomorrow will be a nice quick risotto.

In the Bag: game

2010-12-06T09:00:00.004Z

Submissions for November's "In the Bag" are now in, and Scott has collated the entries here. Along with my rabbit pie, there are two other rabbit recipes, a hare ragu from Scott, two pheasant recipes, a venison pasta sauce, pressure-cooked quail, and peri peri ostrich.

The venison pasta sauce looks good, and I think I'll have a go at that. I've got some diced venison in the freezer, and it will make a change from another pie.

I'm curious to know how the pressure-cooked quail turned out. It's quite a delicate meat and McGee, in his latest book "Keys to Good Cooking", tells us "...avoid pressure-cooking most meats. The high temperature does tenderize tough connective tissue, but also squeezes out the meat's moisture and leaves it dry and stringy." I'm quite a fan of pressure cooking and, if the quail isn't too dry after the pressure cooking, this would be a nice recipe to add to the repertoire.

Potato cakes

2010-12-05T21:28:00.000Z

The recipe for these potato pancakes comes from Jane Grigson's "English Food". I cooked them on a cast iron skillet which, as you can see from the photo, does not heat evenly. I'll try a non-stick aluminium frying pan next time. That said, the dark crusty patches did not detract from the enjoyment.

For each 450g cooked potatoes, you will need 30g butter, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder, 125g flour and (optional) 1 beaten egg.

If you are using freshly cooked potatoes, mash them (or push them through a ricer) with the butter while they are still hot. If you're using leftovers, you'll have to melt the butter separately. Combine all the ingredients and mix together quickly, adding more flour if necessary to make a soft - but not sticky - dough. Roll out about 5mm thick and cut into rounds. Fry on a greased skillet until nicely browned, turning over halfway through cooking. The total cooking time will be 10-15 minutes, but you'll have to lower the heat and cook a little longer if you make them thicker.

Grigson tells us "...eat immediately, rolling the cakes like pancakes round little sticks of salty butter." She knows what she's talking about.

Run rabbit, run!

2010-11-29T21:50:00.004Z

November's "In the Bag" blogging challenge is hosted by Scott over at The Real Epicurean. The rules of the challenge are simple: cook something using the ingredients in the bag and write a blog post about it.

This month Scott has given us game. This gave me the perfect excuse to use my kitsch rabbit cutter for the first time and to dig out a recipe from one of my favourite chefs, Fergus Henderson. The recipe, from Henderson's Beyond Nose to Tail, is one of several to use his trotter gear. This is a rich stock made from pig's trotters cooked in Madeira and chicken stock. It's easy to make (you can find a recipe here), but you will probably have to give your butcher a few days' notice to get hold of pig's trotters. If you're a regular customer, you might even get them for free. I tend to make a big batch of trotter gear a couple of times a year and keep it in handy-sized tubs in the freezer. I pulled out my last tub for this recipe.

The rabbits that found themselves in Andrew Northrop's butcher's shop on Cambridge's Mill Road - and thence my pie - hadn't run fast enough. The butcher offered to joint them for me, but I prefer to do this myself as I usually end up with fewer small fragments of bone to pick out. That said, rabbits have lots of tiny bones and I've yet to make a bone-free pie, so you need to be a little circumspect when eating.

To make the filling, brown the rabbit portions, a dozen peeled shallots, and a pound of diced smoked streaky bacon in goose fat. Add 1/2 bottle red wine, the trotter gear, and enough chicken stock to cover. I had some stock left over from cooking pork belly last week, so used this gelatinous goodness in place of the chicken stock. The pork belly had been brined before cooking which, along with the bacon, contributed enough salt that I didn't need to add any later.

Bring the liquid up to a simmer, then put a lid on the pan and transfer to a 160℃ oven for 2 hours. The meat should come away easily from the bones when it's done - if not, give it a bit longer in the oven. When it's cool enough to handle, pick the meat from the bones and tear it into bite-sized chunks. I usually find I have too much gravy at this stage, so I lifted out the meat with a slotted spoon and boiled the liquid to reduce it by about one third. Once you're happy with the proportion of meat to gravy, combine the lot, season to taste with salt and pepper, then cool and refrigerate overnight.

Transfer the filling to a large pie dish and cover with suet pastry - made with fresh suet if you can get it. Brush with beaten egg and decorate liberally with pastry rabbits before baking in a 220℃ oven for 30-40 minutes. Made with two rabbits, this pie serves six.

Devilled kidneys

2010-11-28T15:37:00.001Z

This little treat came about after some pressure selling at the Fowlmere farmers' market (2nd Saturday of the month in the village hall). I was actually shopping for mutton neck to make some broth, but someone had beaten me to it. As I was turning to leave the stall, the farmer asked "Would you like some lamb kidneys?" I hadn't made devilled kidneys for an age, so snapped them up for £1.

The "devil" in the kidneys comes from mustard and cayenne pepper, and is mellowed a little by a splash of cream to finish the sauce. I served them with creamy mashed potatoes, cavolo nero, and swede, but they take just 5 minutes to cook so could be served with fried bread or toast for a quick snack. The following recipe is from The River Cottage Meat Book and serves 2:

4 lamb's kidneys, white core removed
fat or oil for frying
small glass sherry
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
Worcestershire sauce
large pinch cayenne pepper
1 tbsp hot English mustard
1 tbsp double cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut the kidneys into quarters and fry in a little hot fat for a minute or so to brown them. Add the sherry, then a splash of wine vinegar, the Worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper and mustard, salt and black pepper. Give it a good stir, and let it bubble and reduce until syrupy. Add the cream and reduce a minute or two more. The total cooking time should be around 4-5 minutes. Check the seasoning, adding more mustard or cayenne if you think it needs it. Serve right away.

Nigel Slater's beetroot poppy seed cake

2010-11-19T20:00:00.002Z

...so good I made it twice. The recipe is included in Slater's Tender: v. 1, but it also appeared in the Guardian in 2007 and can be found online here.

It is a pretty good cake, but the other reason I made it a second time was to try out a simplification of the recipe. Slater calls for the eggs to be separated and the whites whipped until almost stiff, then folded into the other ingredients at the end. This seemed quite a faff (not to mention I now had three bowls to wash up). So second time around, I tried whisking up the (whole) eggs with the sugar until they reached ribbon stage, then gradually adding the oil with the mixer going. Once the oil is incorporated, the beetroot can be grated in directly, and the dry ingredients weighed straight into the wet and folded through: only one bowl to wash.

The texture and lightness of the cake didn't suffer noticeably for this economy, but the mixture was a bit wetter, perhaps causing the beetroot to migrate towards the bottom. There's nothing for it but to try the original method one more time to see if stiff whites prevent this.

Venison steak, beetroot and potato cake, cavolo nero

2010-11-18T22:20:00.001Z

All this needed to finish it off was a nice red wine sauce, but I wasn't really in the mood for cooking this evening so made do without. The venison steak was cooked sous vide (30 minutes at 52℃) then finished on a ridged cast iron griddle. The 52℃ water bath ensures the meat is cooked nicely, just on the rare side of medium. The griddle is just for visual appeal and to get some nice Maillard flavours: get the griddle smoking hot then give the steaks about 10 seconds each side, rotate through 90° and repeat to get the cross-hatch pattern. Rest for 10 minutes before serving.

The beetroot potato cakes are based on an idea from the Riverford Farm Recipe Book. The recipe calls for equal quantities of potatoes and beetroot, a small onion, wine vinegar, soured cream, horseradish cream, salt and pepper. Luckily it's quite forgiving so I got away with using half a leek instead of the onion and double cream with a splash of lemon juice instead of soured cream.

To make: boil the potatoes, drain, and allow to steam dry. Meanwhile, finely chop the onion and peel and grate the beetroot. Melt some butter in a shallow pan, add the onion, and fry gently for a couple of minutes. Add the grated beetroot, a splash of wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Cook over a gentle heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. You want to keep a bit of a bite to the beetroot.

Mash the potatoes or push them through a ricer, add the beetroot and horseradish (1-2 tsp to start with), and fold it all together with enough cream to bind. Check the seasoning - add a little lemon juice if you think it needs it, and more horseradish if you like it hot. I added a dollop of hot English mustard for good measure. Form into little cakes and dust with flour. Finally fry in hot butter until browned and crisp on both sides. These were delicious and would make a great light supper on their own.

Baked eggs with spinach

2010-11-07T21:38:00.000Z

One of the pleasures of receiving a weekly organic box delivery is that you never know what you're going to get. You know it will be seasonal, you know it will have been farmed sustainably, and you know you can depend on the quality, but you're never sure just what will be in the box. This week a there was a little card telling me "We've had to replace the chard with spinach."

"Well," I thought, "that will make a nice little lunch." And it did, as you can see above.

Heat the oven to 170℃, then prepare the spinach. Wash well, remove the thick stems, then drop the leaves into a saucepan with just the water that clings to them. Place over a medium heat and give it a good stir so that all the leaves come into contact with the heat and begin to wilt. Put on a lid and leave to steam gently for 2-3 minutes. Drain in a colander, pressing out as much water as you can, then chop roughly. Melt a good knob of butter in the pan, add a splash of double cream and the spinach; season with salt, pepper and a little grated nutmeg, and give it a good stir to coat in the cream. A 500g pack of spinach looks a lot, but you'll find it's about right for two portions once it's cooked.

Lightly butter two ramekins. Spoon half the spinach into each ramekin and make an indentation with the back of the spoon. Crack in an egg, then drizzle about a tablespoon of double cream over each egg white (try to leave the yolks exposed). Place in a shallow oven tray and pour around enough boiling water to come about halfway up the ramekins. Transfer to the preheated oven and cook for 10-12 minutes: you're looking for a runny yolk and just-set white.

Add a final seasoning of salt and pepper, some crusty bread, and lunch is ready.

Pumpkin pie

2010-10-31T19:48:00.000Z

Happy Halloween!

Pearl barley "risotto", cavolo nero, tangy goat's cheese

2010-10-24T20:41:00.001+01:00

This is a tasty dish using cavolo nero (black kale) from Riverford, and tangy goat's cheese I picked up yesterday at Great Shelford farmers' market. It is made just like a risotto, with pearl barley taking the place of the rice. The barley should be rinsed in a couple of changes of cold water and soaked for an hour or so before cooking.

The following quantities will make one generous portion:

1/2 cup pearl barley, rinsed and soaked for 1 hour
splash olive oil
30g butter
1 small onion or shallot, finely chopped
1/2 glass white wine
400ml vegetable stock
4-6 leaves cavolo nero, shredded
goat's or ewe's milk cheese
salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste

Heat the vegetable stock to simmering point. In a separate pan, warm a splash of olive oil with half the butter. Add the chopped onion with a good pinch of salt and cook gently, without colouring, until the onion is soft.

Drain the barley and add to the pan with the onion. Stir well to coat with the buttery juices. Cook for a minute or two, then add the wine, increase the heat, and cook until the wine is almost gone. Now add a ladle of the hot stock and cook, stirring frequently, until the stock has been absorbed. Keep adding the stock, a ladleful at a time, until the grains are almost cooked - you want to keep a bit of a bite to them. When you judge they are almost there, add a final ladle of stock and the cavolo nero, put a lid on the pan, and allow the greens to steam for 3 minutes.

Remove the lid and give it a good stir; if there's too much liquid for your liking, turn up the heat and quickly boil off the excess. Now beat in the rest of the butter and check the seasoning. It will need salt, plenty of freshly ground black pepper, and perhaps a squeeze of lemon. Serve right away with some tangy goat's or sheep's cheese crumbled on top.

This is great served with a peppery salad (watercress or rocket) and a crisp, dry white wine.

Apple Sauce Cake

2010-10-12T20:52:00.001+01:00

...so good I baked it twice! Well, I have a lot of apples to get through, and I did take the first cake into the office to share.

I've been a fan of The Waltons since it was broadcast on British TV in the early 1980's, and one of the Walton children's favourite cakes was Olivia's apple sauce cake. So when I got home with my haul of windfall apples, I picked up Leiths Baking Bible to see if they had a recipe. They do - along with recipes for 11 other apple cakes.

My windfall apples were sweeter than the cooking apples called for by Leith's, so I reduced the sugar by 50g and added the juice of half a lemon to sharpen it up a bit. First time around, I followed the recipe and added chopped, dried apricots to the mix, but I found their flavour a bit too dominant (perhaps because I used unsulphured apricots, which have a stronger, almost toffee-like flavour). For cake #2 I used raisins instead.

To make the apple sauce, wash and core (but do not peel) the apples, then roughly chop. Put into a pan with 1tbsp water, cover, and cook gently until pulpy. Stir occasionally while they cook, and make sure they don't dry out too much. I had to add a couple more good splashes of water while they cooked to stop them from catching on the bottom of the pan. Second time around, I made the apple sauce in a pressure cooker. To do this, place the chopped apples in the pressure cooker with the lemon juice and 280ml water, secure the lid, bring up to pressure and cook at high pressure for 4 minutes. Release the pressure, then strain the apples to remove the excess water. Whichever method you use, push the cooked apple pulp through a sieve to produce a smooth purée (the peel will be left behind).

Here's the recipe; if you're using sweet dessert apples, you can reduce the sugar by 50g.

Apple Sauce Cake

340g cooking apples
juice of 1/2 lemon (optional, not in original recipe)
115g butter
225g caster sugar
225g plain flour
1 tsp ground mixed spice
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
175g raisins or chopped dried apricots
1 tbsp demerara sugar

Make the apple purée as described above, and set aside to cool.
Preheat the oven to 180℃; grease and line a 17cm round cake tin.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Sift in the flour, mixed spice, and bicarbonate of soda. Add the cooled apple purée and stir until well combined. Pour into the prepared tin.
Bake for 1 1/2 hours, until the cake is firm to the touch and a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. N.B. my cake was done after about an hour: keep an eye on yours as it bakes and test after an hour; the time it takes will depend on your oven and the size of the tin. Ten minutes before the end of cooking, sprinkle over the demerara sugar.
Cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes before turning out to cool on a wire rack.

This is a simple recipe that makes a moist cake that will keep well. The taste is good, but the apple flavour doesn't come through as much as I expected.

If you're a real Walton's devotee, you might want to try Olivia's recipe - that whiskey frosting can only be an improvement, but you'll have to track down the Baldwin sisters for some moonshine.

Squash soup

2010-10-10T21:50:00.001+01:00

This soup is based on a recipe from jamie Oliver's TV series Jamie at Home, and makes good use of the pressure cooker to cook the soup quickly. It can also be made in an open pan on the stovetop, but you will have to increase the cooking time to around 40 minutes. This soup is great made with a sweet squash like butternut; the Parmesan cheese is optional, but I think it adds a nice depth of flavour. The crisp sage leaves used to garnish are made by frying fresh sage leaves for 2-3 minutes in olive oil then draining on kitchen paper. Press play below for the photo recipe.

In the bag: stuffed roasted squash, tomato sauce

2010-10-10T20:03:00.002+01:00

Here's my contribution to this month's In the Bag food blogging challenge, hosted by Julia over at A Slice of Cherry Pie. The idea is to cook something using the ingredients "in the bag" - and any others you care to add. This month's ingredients are:

mushrooms
herbs
nuts

My first thought was to make a nut roast with a layer of mushrooms running through the middle, served with a creamy mushroom sauce. But then I thought I should strive for something more original: how about a marrow stuffed with mushrooms and nuts, served with a vibrant tomato sauce? The only problem was, I didn't have a marrow to hand, but I did have plenty of squash. So here we have it: roasted squash stuffed with mushrooms, cashews, and fresh herbs, served with a quick tomato sauce.

To prepare the squash, peel and cut horizontally into generous 2.5cm slices; scoop out the seeds and any stringy bits with a spoon. If you're using a small round squash, you might just want to cut it in half horizontally and trim the ends (for stability). The idea is to put the stuffing in the space you make by scooping out the innards.

The squash takes longer to cook than the stuffing, so it is roasted for 20 minutes or so to part cook it before the stuffing is added. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle over some salt and pepper, and roast in a 190℃ oven, turning over half way through cooking. You can get on with the stuffing while the squash roasts.

For the stuffing

1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
olive oil
100g chestnut mushrooms, diced
150g cashew nuts, roughly chopped
30g fresh white breadcrumbs
1 tsp finely chopped fresh sage
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper to taste

Gently cook the onion in the olive oil without colouring. After 3-4 minutes, add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes. Put the onions to one side, wipe out the pan, and add some fresh oil. Bring to a high heat, add the mushrooms, and sautée until nicely coloured. Allow to cool slightly before mixing together with the other ingredients. Add enough egg just to bind the lot together, and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. You might want to fry off a spoonful of the mixture to check the seasoning.

Remove the squash from the oven, spoon the stuffing into the cavity, then return to the oven to finish cooking (another 15 minutes or so).

For the tomato sauce

1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic finely chopped
olive oil
450g fresh tomatoes, peeled
OR 1 400g tin plum tomatoes
280ml vegetable stock or water
pinch dried thyme
bay leaf
1 tsp brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste

This sauce is made in a pressure cooker, and takes only 5 minutes to cook once it comes up to pressure. It can be made in an ordinary saucepan on the hob, but you'll have to add an hour or so to the cooking time.

Warm the oil in the base of the pressure cooker, and cook the onion gently, without colouring. After 3-4 minutes, add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes. Add the remaining ingredients, put on the lid, and bring quickly to high pressure. Cook for 5 minutes at high pressure, then remove from the heat and let the pressure drop slowly at room temperature. Carefully remove the lid, take out the bay leaf, then blitz the sauce with a hand blender until smooth. Pass through a sieve into a clean pan. Check the seasoning, and reheat to serving temperature.

To finish the dish, spoon a ladle of tomato sauce into the centre of a warm plate, and carefully place the cooked, stuffed squash on top. If you like, garnish with some sliced sautéed mushrooms and crispy sage leaves. The quantities given here will make about 4 portions.

The verdict

The mushrooms, cashews, and sage are a great combination, and would stand on their own as a nut roast. They went well with the tomato sauce, as did the roasted squash, but there was something jarring about all three on the plate. I think the sweetness of the sqaush was just too much: the blander-tasting marrow would have worked much better, perhaps with some thyme or tarragon in place of the sage.

The tomato sauce is a handy recipe to have up your sleeve: it can be served with other vegetables, with pasta, or used as a pizza topping - and the pressure cooker makes it a really quick.

Thank you, Julia, for the inspiration; I had a lot of fun cooking for this challenge.

Windfall

2010-10-05T22:54:00.000+01:00

There was an apple tree in the garden of the house where I lived in Oxford. It produced more apples than I knew what to do with and it's something I miss at this time of year, when the English apple season is in full swing. I'm kicking myself now for buying apples to make chutney: for the last few weeks, I have been cycling past trees laden with apples ripe for the picking.

Don't ask me how I didn't notice them until now: there were apples all over the grass verge, overflowing onto the road itself. Today I stopped to look more closely and noticed that the windfall was not too badly damaged, so I picked up as many as I could carry. There are three different varieties, all sweet eating apples rather than cookers.

Leith's Baking Bible has recipes for twelve different apple cakes, and some of tonight's haul have already been turned into an apple sauce cake to take into the office tomorrow. Most of the rest are destined for chutney or apple jelly. There are plenty more where these came from, so I might get to try some of the other Leith's recipes before the season is out.

Pigeon

2010-10-04T22:09:00.002+01:00

I don't remember what it was I went into the butcher's for, but I came out with a couple of pigeons. I thought they would make a nice autumn supper, along with some roasted beetroot from the veg box.

To cook the pigeon, I removed the breasts, vacuum packed them with a drizzle of olive oil and a grind of salt and pepper, then dropped them into a 58℃ water bath where they spent about half an hour. [Edit: I cooked the breasts from the second pigeon at 54℃; these were much more succulent, so I'll stick with the lower temperature from now on.] After drying them on some kitchen towel and flash-frying a few seconds each side in a really hot pan, they were set aside to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Meanwhile, I chopped up the carcases and roasted them in a hot oven to give them some colour, then made a quick stock in the pressure cooker. In went the carcases along with a roughly chopped onion, carrot, celery stick, some leek tops, a bay leaf, black peppercorns, and a couple of crushed juniper berries. Enough chicken stock to cover, then on with the lid and slowly up to high pressure. After 30 minutes at high pressure the stock was ready for straining.

The rich sauce you see was made by gently frying a finely chopped shallot in some butter, then adding a glass of red wine and reducing until syrupy. Next a couple of ladlefuls of the hot stock, reducing some more, then straining. Finally, a teaspoon or so of finely grated Venezuelan Black 100% pure cacao and some seasoning. Not bad for a Monday evening.

As an added bonus, the leftover stock and meat picked from the bones will make a delicious broth for lunch.

Squash

2010-10-04T21:34:00.000+01:00

Where did September go? I managed to let a whole month go by without a blog post. I blame my friends for being born too close together: I've been to two 50th, a 40th and a 36th birthday get-together in the last month. We'll keep the karaoke quiet, as I'm sure that's what anyone within earshot was wishing for. On the food front, I was delighted to be invited to King's College for a great vegetarian meal to celebrate Ben's birthday, and yesterday I made my third visit to St John for a very carnivorous meal with Aaron.

Things have settled down a bit now and I hope to have a bit more time to keep you up to date with what's happening in my kitchen this month. Autumn is here, along with these wonderful squash from Riverford. I'm looking forward to cooking them over the coming weeks; there'll be some roast squash in there, a risotto, and a batch of Fergus Henderson's pumpkin and bacon soup. Speaking of which, I need to get my hands on some pork belly to start curing the bacon.

Pikelets

2010-08-30T15:54:00.004+01:00

Pikelets are traditional English pancakes made with a yeasted batter. They are similar to crumpets, the main difference being that crumpets are cooked by pouring the batter into a ring to keep it from spreading, so they tend to be smaller in diameter but a lot thicker.

Elizabeth David, in English Bread and Yeast Cookery, recommends a batter made by increasing the milk in her crumpet batter from 550ml to 700ml (for 450g flour). Many recipes for crumpets call for bicarbonate of soda, dissolved in a little warm water, to be whisked through the batter about 30 minutes before cooking. This reacts with the acidic batter to act as an additional leavening agent, helping to give crumpets their distinctive honeycombed texture. David suggests omitting this step when making pikelets. Andrew Whitley, in Bread Matters, goes further and recommends against bicarbonate of soda even in crumpet batter, saying "...it is unnecessary and can give a slightly soapy flavour to the product." Whitley's recipe uses his ciabatta dough made with 50g extra water. Both he and David recommend a 50/50 mix of strong white flour and plain flour, as strong American wheat will produce too strong a gluten network, giving "...a tight, bound result with the texture of carpet underlay" (Whitley).

The following recipe is based on one we used at Ashburton Cookery School, which is basically a half quantity of the recipe from English Bread and Yeast Cookery. You might want to add 1 to 2 tsp sugar for a slightly faster rise and, if you follow Whitley's advice, omit the bicarbonate of soda.

Pikelets (makes at least a dozen)

115g strong white flour
110g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp oil
300ml milk
10g fresh yeast or 1/4 tsp fast-action dried yeast
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
60ml warm water

Whisk together the milk, oil and salt. Sift the flours on top and sprinkle over the dried yeast, or gently rub in the fresh. Whisk until well combined.
Cover with cling film and leave to rest for 1 to 2 hours. (If you want them for breakfast, you can make the batter the night before and refrigerate at this stage.)
[Optional] Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the warm water and whisk into the batter. Leave to prove for a further 30 minutes.
Warm a non-stick pan over a medium heat. Spoon in a ladelful of batter and cook gently until it forms a skin with lots of little holes. Turn over and cook the other side until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack while you cook the rest of the batch.
Serve warm with a generous knob of butter.

Great British Waste Menu

2010-08-27T21:36:00.000+01:00

In an interesting twist on the Great British Menu, four of the country's top chefs compete to cook food that would normally be thrown away. This program does a great job of showing just how much food we waste in this country: vegetables ploughed back into the ground because they don't meet supermarket standards; fruit and vegetables fed to pigs because of minor blemishes; unfashionable offal sent to the dog food factory; perfectly good food that has past its sell-by date salvaged from supermarket bins and the back our own fridges.

Angela Hartnett, Richard Corrigan, Matt Tebbutt and Simon Rimmer turn this 'waste' food into a fantastic banquet for 60 VIP guests. Although it's a competition and somebody has to lose, not one of them turns out a dud dish. See for yourself what they came up with and get some ideas on how to use up your own food leftovers - available on BBC iPlayer until September 1st.

Pancakes, bacon, maple syrup

2010-08-22T22:18:00.000+01:00

The bread won't be ready for the oven until this evening, giving me the perfect excuse to make pancakes for breakfast. These pancakes are based on a recipe from Michael Ruhlman's "Ratio", a book that focuses on the fundamental ratios of cooking. The ratio for pancakes is 2 parts liquid : 1 part egg : 1/2 part butter : 2 parts flour. The great thing about working with ratios is that you can vary the recipe to suit your taste. Ruhlman suggests replacing half of the liquid with buttermilk or home-made yoghurt, or replacing part of the flour with ground cereals or grains for a different texture. I kept things simple, using milk and plain white flour. A raising agent (baking powder) makes for lighter pancakes, and I added sugar and vanilla for flavour. A medium egg weighs about 55g, which gives the following recipe:

Breakfast pancakes

1 medium egg
110g milk
28g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
110g plain flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt

Melt the butter and whisk together with the milk, egg, and vanilla extract. Sift in the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined. Heat a shallow pan over medium heat, and spoon a ladleful of the mixture into the centre (the above recipe makes 4 good-sized pancakes). Turn the pancake when bubbles start to appear on the surface and cook the other side until evenly browned. Transfer to a warm oven while you cook the rest of the batch.

I used to cook pancakes on a cast-iron griddle smeared lightly with butter or lard, but I've found I get better results cooking in a non-stick aluminium pan with no fat. There's an interesting article over at Cooking Issues comparing the conductivity of cast iron with aluminium pans, where they demonstrate that an aluminium pan heats more evenly, with fewer hot spots. The idea for cooking without fat came from O'Reilly's "Cooking for Geeks": if you have too much fat in the pan, the pools of fat will keep the pancakes from contacting the hot surface and browning evenly. With a good non-stick pan, you can get by with no fat at all - I tried it this morning and this worked a treat.

Beetroot curry

2010-08-16T20:58:00.000+01:00

Not the first thing you'd think of doing with beetroot, but tasty all the same: Riverford's beetroot curry. I deviated from the recipe a bit, bulking it out with some potatoes, using tinned tomatoes rather than fresh, lemon juice rather than lime, and 400ml coconut milk (what else do you do with the other 300ml from the can?). I added the coconut milk at the same time as the tomatoes and let it reduce gently while the vegetables cooked, making for a much richer sauce than the original recipe. The beetroot gives this curry a sweet edge, so it needs the acid from the citrus to compensate. I tasted the fresh chilli before adding it to the pan: it almost blew my head off, so I just put in one. But it reduced in potency as it cooked, so I ended up adding the other one and some hot chilli powder before I was done. Acidity and heat are very much personal tastes, so best to add a little at a time and taste as you go.

Courgette tart

2010-08-15T16:50:00.000+01:00

The first of the season's leeks arrived in the Riverford box this week, and I planned to make a leek tart. I even ordered cream and eggs with this is mind, but thinking about cream and eggs gave me a craving for crème brulée. We're also right in the middle of the English courgette season, and I was looking for something different to do with this week's courgettes. Leiths Baking Bible came to the rescue with this courgette tart.

The filling is made from a roux-based cheese sauce enriched with an egg yolk and lightened with the stiffly beaten white - a denser than usual cheese souflée. This is topped with sliced courgettes sautéed in butter with garlic and lemon zest, then breadcrumbs and grated cheese before being baked in the oven. It looks a bit untidy, but tastes great. Better still, it left me with the cream and plenty of eggs to make crème brulée, which has just come out of the oven.

Confit chicken pasty

2010-08-15T16:24:00.000+01:00

I managed to stretch a single confit chicken leg and thigh to three meals by making these pasties. The filling is made from lightly sautéed onions, garlic, and courgettes, chopped tomatoes, and shredded confit chicken. The pastry is a basic shortcrust made with a mixture of butter and lard. Delicious served hot or at room temperature.

Gooseberry ice cream

2010-07-28T21:00:00.000+01:00

There's no food colouring in here, this ice cream was made with red gooseberries and all natural ingredients:

500g gooseberries, topped, tailed, and halved
150g sugar
30g water
250g double cream

Put the Gooseberries, water and sugar in a pan. Heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has melted, then increase the heat and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Whizz up in a liquidizer and pass through a sieve while still hot. Allow to cool completely, then refrigerate for a couple of hours before whisking into the cream - just until combined. Churn in an ice cream machine for 10-15 minutes, then transfer to a freezer and freeze for at least one hour before serving. Recipe from Ices: The Definitive Guide.

Pea and mint arancini

2010-07-27T20:45:00.000+01:00

I hadn't gotten round to downloading the photos from my camera when I made the last blog post. Here are the pea and mint arancini I mentioned:

and here's what they looked like inside:

These are quite easy to make. If you leave leftover risotto in the fridge overnight, it will congeal and look quite unappetising, but this makes it very easy to handle. Take a small handful of the rice and form into a ball around a nugget of mozzarella, then roll gently between your hands to shape. Toss in flour, then beaten egg, finally breadcrumbs. Once you've assembled your arancini, deep-fry in batches in a neutral oil: 6-7 minutes at 180℃ will do nicely.

Small arancini make a great appetizer, but there's something especially satisfying about deep-fried food that makes it almost worthwhile making too much risotto with an eye on tomorrow's snacks.

What's cooking...

2010-07-25T21:42:00.004+01:00

It's been a while since my last post, so I thought I'd give a quick round-up of what's been cooking over the past week. Drop me a line if something takes your fancy and you'd like a more detailed recipe.

Sous vide hand of pork
Riverford sell hand of pork (the lower part of the shoulder) with a fennel, garlic and chilli rub as a porchetta roast. They suggest roasting for 8 hours at 95℃, so I thought I'd try it sous vide and gave it 12 hours at 80℃. The meat was very tender, but a bit dry for my taste. Next time I'll try vacuum packing it with some lard, and maybe reduce the cooking time.

Gooseberry ice cream
A delightful, refreshing ice cream from Ices: The Definitive Guide. A really simple recipe, lightly cooked gooseberries, puréed and sieved, then whisked into some cream when cool and churned in the ice cream machine.

Gooseberry fool
I tried a custard-based fool for a change. It was disappointing, I'll keep it simple and use just cream next time.

Swiss chard lasagne
I thought it was spinach in the veg box until I looked more closely. Still, the chard worked very well in a lasagne, and this is something I'll definitely be making again.

Cannelleni beans, char-grilled courgettes and tomatoes
The beans cook in just 20 minutes in the pressure cooker. Drain, and toss together with char-grilled courgettes, tomatoes, and a dressing of your choice (olive oil and lemon would work well). To cook the courgettes, slice thinly along their length, salt for 30 minutes, rinse, brush with olive oil, and cook on a ridged griddle pan until just tender.

Confit chicken legs, sous vide
I didn't have any goose fat to hand, so used lard, with some garlic and lemon thyme for flavour. I chilled these down and put them in the fridge, so I'm not sure how they've come out.

Macaroni cheese with carrots, courgettes and French beans
Using up the ends of the veg box and the excess cheese sauce left over from the lasagne.

Chocolate beetroot brownies
I had some cooked beetroot in the fridge - it was intended for a risotto, but my guest turned up their nose at the idea, so it found its way into this recipe from Riverford instead. They were good, but not as nice as the chocolate beetroot cake I made earlier in the year.

Pea and mint risotto
Fresh peas from Riverford, mint from the herb garden (aka pots by the back door).

Arancini
Balls of risotto wrapped around a nugget of mozzarella, coated in bread crumbs, and deep-fried. Is there a more delicious way to use up leftover risotto?

Cranks banana and apple bread
A yeasted banana bread. This contains no eggs or butter and, being the Cranks, is made with 100% wholemeal flour. Great with a cup of tea. Recipe from The Cranks Recipe Book.

Bruschetta

2010-07-07T08:02:00.000+01:00

Traditionally, bruschetta is just char-grilled stale bread rubbed with tomato and garlic and drizzled with olive oil. This is a jazzed-up version: we have the char-grilled stale bread, but it's topped with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella, dressed with olive oil and a pinch of finely chopped garlic. There are two stars of the show here. The first is the olive oil, Merula, from Spain (perhaps I should be using Italian olive oil, but I'm not claiming this is an authentic bruschetta). This is a light and fruity olive oil, slightly peppery but not at all bitter. It's good enough to drink straight from the can. And you'll find it in Waitrose. The second star is the mozzarella, a buffalo mozzarella from Laverstoke Park Farm. Wow! This is smooth and rich, slightly salty, and so soft. It's a new discovery for me, appearing only recently on the Riverford extras list. Madalene over at The British Larder posted recently about the same thing, only she goes on to tell you how to make fresh buffalo curd - something for another day.

Gooseberry Pound Cake

2010-07-04T18:41:00.004+01:00

Gooseberries are one of the first fruits of the year, usually coming into season before the strawberries. This year, they both appeared at about the same time. I used to buy gooseberries from the farmers' market in Oxford, but out here in the middle of nowhere it's more convenient to have them delivered by Riverford. They appear on the extras list throughout July and - you know me - I couldn't resist ordering some as soon as they showed up on the web site.

I was going to make a gooseberry pie, but the 300g punnet wasn't enough to fill my pie dish (three punnets would about do it, I think). Instead I made the moist, rich, pound cake pictured above. This needed only 100g of fruit, leaving me enough to put aside for a fool. The pound cake was inspired by Monsieur Audot's Gooseberrry Cake, the recipe for which appears in Jane Grigson's Fruit Book. If the cake is to be eaten cold, Grigson recommends following a pound cake recipe instead. I took her advice, adding M. Audot's flavourings for good measure.

Pound cake takes its name from the quantity of the ingredients: 1lb each of flour, butter, sugar and eggs. Hannah Glasse, writing in 1747, gives the following recipe (excerpt courtesy of Google Books):

As you can see, it's quite a labour intensive task. Harold McGee, in On Food and Cooking, quotes a Miss Leslie who in 1857 described a technique for beating eggs "for an hour without fatigue"; he notes that she goes on to say "But to stir in butter and sugar is the hardest part of cake making. Have this done by a manservant."

Coincidentally, Ruth asked me last week if I had any references on the science of baking, in particular the importance of mixing ingredients in the right order when making a sponge cake with the creaming method. Ruth's manservant was convinced you could add the ingredients in any order, and he succeeded only in making a treat for the birds (which reminds me of an advert for Bero flour involving sinking ducks, but let's not get distracted).

As usual, McGee tells us what we need to know: "In cake making, the mixing step doesn't just combine the ingredients into a homogeneous batter: it has the critical purpose of incorporating air bubbles into the batter, and thereby strongly influencing the final texture of the cake. [...] The fine solid particles carry tiny air pockets on their surfaces, and the particles and beating utensils carry those pockets into the fat or liquid. Flour is often added only after the foam is formed, and then by gently folding it in, not beating, to avoid popping a large fraction of the bubbles, and to avoid developing gluten."

McGee also explains how modern hydrogenated fats and chlorinated flours can help make sweet, tender, moist, light cakes, but he notes that the flavour they impart is not to everyone's taste.

For a pound cake these days, we usually reduce the ingredients to 4oz each (making 1lb in total) and can cheat by using artificial leavening (self-raising flour and/or baking powder), and a machine to do the mixing. Grigson (this time writing in English Food) says "Thanks to self-raising flour and baking powder, the ingredients can be flung together in no particular order, producing a dough that will rise as it should, in seconds if you use an electric beater, or in three minutes if you have to make do with your hands or a wooden spoon." (Ruth, is your husband reading this?)

The recipe that follows is a simple pound cake recipe, with ground almonds added on Grigson's advice ("to improve the texture") and orange flower water and nutmeg added at M. Audot's behest.

Gooseberry Pound Cake Recipe

125g butter, softened
125g vanilla sugar
125g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
20g ground almonds
1 1/2 tsp orange flower water
1/3 nutmeg, grated
pinch salt
100g gooseberries, topped and tailed

Pre-heat the oven to 180℃. Grease and line a 1lb loaf tin. Place all the ingredients except the gooseberries in the bowl of a Kenwood chef, and give them 3-4 minutes on medium speed with the K-beater. Gently fold in the gooseberries, then spoon the mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for about an hour (test with a skewer). Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

The verdict

The texture is good, and the sharpness of the gooseberries adds a nice balance to the rich, sweet sponge. Definitely one to make again. The throw-it-all-together method worked fine, but it would be interesting to try this recipe without the baking powder, using the traditional creaming method instead.

Kohlrabi, and how not to cook it

2010-06-28T20:47:00.000+01:00

Kohlrabi appeared in my vegetable box this week (photograph courtesy of Lisa Norwood). I'm not familiar with this vegetable - in fact, it's the first time I've seen it. Jane Grigson doesn't think much of it, writing:

"There are better vegetables than kohlrabi. And worse. I am thinking in particular of winter turnip and swede; certainly kohlrabi is a pleasant alternative to that grim pair. It is not a true turnip, but a cabbage with its stem swollen into a turnip shape, a cabbage-turnip, by analogy with the French céleri-rave, celery turnip, our celeriac. We have adopted rather than translated the German name, which indicates a lack of warmth on our part [...]"

Fortunately Luisa, over at The Wednesday Chef, has warmer feelings for this vegetable. She gives a great recipe for a raw kohlrabi and carrot salad dressed with toasted fennel seeds, sesame oil, and chilli. My version didn't have such neat julienne as Luisa's, as I just pushed the vegetables through the fine grater of the Magimix. I substituted white wine vinegar for the rice wine vinegar she calls for, and used a milder chilli than birds eye. Even with these adaptations, it was a very tasty and refreshing salad. Perhaps if Grigson had come across this recipe, she would also have developed some warmth for this interesting vegetable.

The small matter of trifle

2010-06-27T21:59:00.001+01:00

I was all set to go into Cambridge to buy baba moulds and try to reproduce the delicious rum baba I had at Au Pied de Cochon in Paris, but I couldn't resist adding strawberries to my Riverford order as soon as they appeared on the extras list. Rhubarb is still in season, and is a great partner for strawberries, so I added that to my order too. The result was these trifles, with poached rhubarb and strawberries, a healthy splash of Marsala, thick home-made vanilla custard, and - of course - topped with Riverford's rich double cream whipped up with a little sugar.

You can make trifle with pretty much any fruit - Fergus Henderson gives a recipe for an apple trifle in Beyond Nose to Tail, and it's his custard recipe I used here. This custard contains whole eggs, so is thicker than a crème Anglaise and more luxurious than crème pâtissière. The sponge takes a lot of whisking - it can be done by hand, but is much easier with an electric hand whisk.

Rhubarb and Strawberry Trifle

For the sponge:

3 eggs at room temperature
85g caster sugar
1 1/2 tbsp warm water
85g plain flour
pinch salt

Preheat the oven to 180℃. Grease a 20cm round cake tin and dust with caster sugar then flour. Whisk together the eggs, sugar and water in a heat-proof bowl. Place over a pan of gently simmering water (the bowl should not touch the water) and whisk until at least tripled in volume. Remove from the heat and keep whisking until cool. Sift in the flour and salt, and gently fold through. Pour into the tin and bake for about 30 minutes. Allow to cool in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For individual trifles, take a plain round cutter slightly bigger than the base of the glass and cut rounds of sponge to fit snugly. Place in the bottom of each glass and pour over a tablespoon of Marsala or sweet sherry.

For the fruit compote:

100ml water
50g sugar
1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped
400g rhubarb, cut into 5mm dice
200g strawberries, hulled and cut in half

Put the water, sugar, and vanilla into a pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to a simmer. Drop in the diced rhubarb and cook until tender. Add the strawberries at the last minute and cook for a couple of minutes, but stop before they start to lose their shape.

Allow to cool, remove the vanilla pod, then spoon over the soaked sponges.

For the custard:

450ml double cream
1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
85g caster sugar

Place the cream and vanilla into a pan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Pour over the warm cream, whisking continuously. Now transfer to a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. Stir occasionally until it has thickened.

Allow to cool then pour over the fruit.

For the cream topping:

300ml double cream
30g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Sift the icing sugar onto the cream and vanilla, then whisk to soft peaks.

Spoon or pipe the cream onto the custard. Garnish with a sliced strawberry, then refrigerate until needed. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes or so before serving.

These quantities will make about 6 individual trifles.

Goodbye asparagus, hello strawberries

2010-06-26T10:28:00.001+01:00

The English asparagus season is coming to a close - I had my final delivery of asparagus from Riverford last week. They source their asparagus from Clive Martin in Cambridgeshire, a third generation farmer who has been growing traditional Fenland crops for twenty years. I know you can buy imported asparagus in the supermarkets pretty much all year round (my local Co-op currently has asparagus from Peru on its shelves), but I try to eat mostly local, seasonal food. This guarantees you a varying diet throughout the year, and you are always looking forward to the next treat coming into season. Just as the asparagus comes to an end, the spinach, chard, broad beans, and strawberries are beginning.

I try to eat asparagus at least twice a week during May and June. it is fantastic served with hollandaise sauce, but if the idea of eating that much butter doesn't appeal, try it with Raymond Blanc's lemon sabayon. You can also serve it simply with a soft-boiled egg, using the asparagus tips as soldiers - or why not try the char-grilled asparagus with a slow cooked egg (pictured above)? Still on the asparagus and eggs theme, I also cooked up this pizza - the asparagus needs no pre-cooking, it simply roasts on top of the pizza.

If you're quick, you might pick up the last of the English asparagus, otherwise these ideas will have to wait until next year. In the mean time, you can console yourself some with strawberries. One of my favourite ways to eat strawberries is Eton mess: toss together halved strawberries, Chantilly cream, and broken meringue. Eat right away.

The importance of reading the label

2010-06-22T21:12:00.001+01:00

Food labelling has been in the news recently, with the European Parliament voting against the traffic-lights system that gives a simple indication of the levels of salt, sugar, fat, and other nutrients in food. This is the system advocated by the UK Food Standards Agency, and British consumers will already be familiar with the red, amber and green traffic-light symbols on some of our supermarkets' own-brand products.

Unfortunately, such a clear and easy to understand labelling system was not favoured by manufacturers who, according to Corporate Europe Observatory, spent more than €1 billion opposing the scheme. That's an awful lot of money to spend making sure consumers can't see at a glance just how unhealthy are the processed foodstuffs they are peddling.

MEPs caved in to this corporate lobbying and voted instead to adopt the more complex Guideline Daily Amount system, which gives the nutritional content as a percentage of the recommended daily amount. They went further and said that countries should not be able to adopt labelling requirements that go beyond the EU regulations - so it's not clear whether or not our traffic-lights system will survive this corporate onslaught.

It wasn't all bad news, though, as MEPs also voted for compulsory labelling of halal and kosher meat products. In the UK, ritual slaughter of animals is exempt from animal welfare legislation, so animals can have their throats slit and be left to bleed to death without pre-stunning. While this exemption might be justified on the grounds of religious freedom, there is nothing stopping meat produced in this way from entering the mainstream food chain without being labelled as such. New EU regulations will require all meat products to be labelled with the country of birth, upbringing, and method of slaughter, so consumers who put animal welfare above primitive superstition will be able to avoid inadvertently supporting this barbaric practice.

On a lighter note, Michael Ruhlman has an interesting blog post about misleading labels. He was bemused when his wife purchased a carton of half-and-half labelled 'Fat Free'. Half-and-half is supposed to be half cream and half milk (something like our single cream), so how can it possibly be fat free? Check out Michael's blog and read the label to find out what the food technologists have really put in the carton.

Even single cream is banned from my kitchen, where the double cream from Riverford Organic reigns supreme - after all, if you need something thinner, you can always let it down with some milk yourself. Riverford's double cream has a 48% fat content and only one ingredient on the label. It is jokingly described by Rob at Ashburton Cookery School as "52% fat free", but I think it would still get a red light from the FSA.

Tesco is no champion of the poor

2010-06-14T19:02:00.000+01:00

Alex Renton, writing in the Guardian's Word of Mouth blog, gives a contrary view on Sir Terry Leahy, outgoing chairman of Tesco. An interesting piece.

Garlic and bread soup

2010-06-13T09:43:00.001+01:00

Wet garlic is appearing in the veg boxes from Riverford at the moment. It looks a bit like a spring onion, but has a mild garlic flavour. It is delicious in this soup, which really couldn't be simpler to make. The recipe is adapted from Fergus Henderson's "Beyond Nose to Tail". Henderson uses 8 heads of garlic to 1 litre of stock; I used most of the stem and got away with only 6 heads, just be careful not to use the fibrous part. The recipe calls for the soup to be passed through a mouli - I don't have one, so I whizzed it up in a liquidizer instead.

Fergus Henderson's New Season Garlic and Bread Soup

8 heads wet garlic, sliced
1 litre chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
yesterday's bread, crusts removed, cut into 1" cubes

Place the garlic and chicken stock in a pan, bring to a boil, and simmer gently until the garlic is soft (about 40 minutes). Liquidize until smooth, then push through a sieve (the fibrous parts will be left behind). Return to the pan and reheat, season to taste, and add the bread to warm through at the last minute. Enjoy!

Eating out

2010-05-16T22:51:00.000+01:00

My colleague Sébastien returns to France for good next month, and I wanted to make sure he ate out at a good British restaurant before he goes back. Where better than St. John, with Fergus Henderson's take on British cooking? This is one of only three UK restaurants to make the S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list this year; it also happens to be one of my favourite restaurants. I ate there last year with Aaron, and I know he enjoyed it, so I invited him to join use there for lunch again today.

I have long been a fan of Fergus Hendenson, and you will see recipes from his books The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating and Beyond Nose to Tail: More Omnivorous Recipes for the Adventurous Cook on this blog from time to time. His ascetic style and emphasis on using the whole beast is not to everyone's taste; some of my chef friends find the food too basic, but it's the robust flavours and unfussy presentation that appeal to me.

I was particularly pleased to see roast bone marrow and parsley salad on the menu today. This is something I have wanted to try for a while (Anthony Bourdain chose this as his "last supper"), so my choice of starter was quickly settled. Aaron also went for the bone marrow, which we both thought was delicious and complemented brilliantly by the fresh parsley and shallot salad with its acidic dressing. Sébastien started with the crab on toast, which he said was beautifully fresh and packed with flavour.

For the main course, I had crisp pig's cheeks with dandelions. The pig's cheeks are salted then slowly cooked in goose fat, drained and cooled, then returned to the oven to finish. This results in a crisp skin and very tender flesh with an intense porky flavour. (Emily at the Kingham Plough makes a similar dish: try it if it's on the menu when you're there, you won't regret it.)

Aaron and Sébastien both had chitterlings with turnips for their main. They devoured them quickly, but I did sneak a taste: fantastic!

We were all pretty full after this, but it would have been a shame to let this get in the way of dessert. So we didn't. Sébastien and I had the baked cheese cake with Marc, while Aaron finished with an Eccles cake and Lancashire cheese.

I haven't mentioned the bread. The bread was great. White or brown sourdough, both packed with flavour and a delightful acidic edge. I wish I could make bread like this. I have been making sourdough regularly for several months, but clearly I have more to learn.

All in all, a great meal and well worth the journey to London. The menu changes daily, and there are plenty more familiar dishes on offer (we could have had roast lamb, or roast Middlewhite pork, or Megrim sole, or whole sea bass). I would have been perfectly happy to eat any of these, but they are the sort of things I cook at home and I prefer to try something different when I'm eating out. Here's hoping I don't leave it another year before my next visit to St John's.

Cooking for friends

2010-05-08T14:00:00.001+01:00

I have had a lot of fun over the last few weekends cooking for friends. This started with a gathering of University friends at Steve and Judith's place in London. It was during my birthday meal at Hibiscus last year that I suggested to Steve that I come down and cook for everyone at their place, and Judith worked her magic to get us all together last month. There were plenty of volunteers to help in the kitchen, so I had a chance to relax and chat to everyone; I even got a ride in Steve's Lotus while Judith saw to the baking of the biscotti.

We started the meal with a simple asparagus soup garnished with asparagus tips and parmesan shavings, along with Ruhlman's buttermilk dinner rolls. For the main course, we had roasted rack of lamb with a herb and mustard crust (pepperonata tart and poached egg for Henry, the lone vegetarian). This was served with new potatoes cooked en papillote, glazed carrots, and purple sprouting broccoli. Next came the cheeses I picked up at the Exeter Festival of South West Food and Drink and a delicious, ripe, brie that threatened to run over the side of the cheese board. Finally dessert, a rhubarb fool sweetened with honey and served with toasted almond and orange biscotti. Steve provided wine, which flowed freely throughout the meal, and port afterwards.

Judith took this shot of me and John serving up the soup; you can see the lamb ready for the oven in the foreground:

The following weekend I invited my colleague Sébastien and his wife Laurène, who was visiting from Paris, to dinner. Sébastien has been in Cambridge for almost a year and had yet to try roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. The French call us "les rosbifs"; I hate to spoil a good stereotype, so I served up a roasted sirloin joint with roast potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots, purple sprouting broccoli, and a simple gravy made by deglazing the roasting tin with a glass of red wine - and, of course, Yorkshire pudding.

For dessert, we had poached rhubarb with buttermilk pannacotta. This is made just like a vanilla pannacotta, but replacing half of the cream with buttermilk. This gives it a slightly acidic edge, and makes it a great accompaniment for fruit like rhubarb or gooseberries.

Then last weekend I visited Sébastien and Laurène in Paris. We ate out a couple of times, but they had invited some friends around to their flat for dinner on Sunday. Sébastien and I were in charge of the kitchen. Seb made a great starter of goat's cheese wrapped in a filo parcel and baked in the oven, which we served with a green salad. For the main course, we made pan-roasted duck breasts with a sauce suggested by Laurène's mum: while the meat rests, deglaze the pan with white wine, add a handful of wine-soaked raisins, a couple of spoons of honey, and the resting juices from the meat. Simple, but delicious. We served this with new potatoes (cooked en papillote again) and French beans (what else?). For dessert I made a crumble with rhubarb poached in vanilla syrup and some strawberries we picked up at the market. Much to my embarrassment, I made a terrible mess of the crème Anglaise (aka "custard"), which at first refused to thicken then, after adding flour in desperation, thickened too much. Still, the meal was a success and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Tomorrow I'm cooking with Seb again: braised shoulder of lamb, gratin Dauphinois, purple sprouting broccoli, then a steamed rhubarb pudding and - not to be defeated by a basic preparation - crème Anglaise. Laurène is back in Cambridge next week for her final visit before Sébastien returns to France for good, so we are planning another meal together on Thursday.

I wasn't sure whether to title this post "Cooking for friends" or "Cooking with friends". I love cooking and sharing food with friends, but it's especially satisfying to cook together and learn from each other. Good food, good wine, and good friends: it's the simple things that make life worthwhile.

Exeter Festival of South West Food and Drink

2010-04-13T22:21:00.003+01:00

The seventh Exeter Festival of South West Food and Drink took place last weekend. This is one of the biggest food and drink festivals in the UK, spearheaded by chef Michael Caines. This was my third visit to the festival - my first was a site visit as part of the Cookery Diploma I completed at Ashburton Cookery School in 2007.

I studied at Exeter University for 6 years, so it is always nice to go back and see what has changed. This year I booked a B&B on campus; here's the view from my room:

Student accommodation has improved over the years: I found myself in an ensuite room complete with telephone, Internet connection, and fridge - quite a contrast to the hall I stayed in my first year, where toilet and showers were shared, and the corridors and stair wells had bare brick walls and concrete floors. That hall has now been demolished and there are an awful lot of new buildings on campus. I felt a certain nostalgia as I wandered around campus and it struck me that it's now almost 20 years since I first set foot in Exeter.

Back to the food festival. This is spread across two adjoining sites in the centre of the city: Northernhay Gardens, where you will find marquees housing local producers, a "Food is Fun" tipi, festival café and restaurant, and various stalls; and the courtyard of Exeter Castle, with the cookery theatre, festival bar, music stage, food stalls, and more vendors. The courtyard was also the venue for the Festival After Dark: live music, beer and food after the main festival closed on Friday and Saturday evenings.

There is a huge range of local produce on sale: fresh lamb, beef, eggs, honey and preserves, bread, cakes, chocolate, chillies - and, of course, cheeses and cider. There are also food stalls selling pies, burgers, mussels, hog roast, oysters, a beer tent with 15 local ales and a selection of ciders, and several local breweries with their own stalls.

I was travelling light, with just a small rucksack, so couldn't get too carried away. Still, I came away with some beer and a glass from a new micro brewery, Hunters Brewery, who tempted me with real ales at 10 o' clock in the morning, some goat's cheese from Norsworthy Dairy Goats, cheddar from Worthy Farm, some mild and creamy Cornish Blue cheese, and a small bottle of Brimblecombe's cider. With more space in my bag, I'd have snapped up some olive oil from the Tuscans too.

Throughout the day there are cookery demonstrations by local chefs and the odd celebrity - Michael Caines himself, Mark Hix (author of some great books on British food), Masterchef winners, and runners-up James and Alisdair from The Restaurant. In addition to the main cookery theatre, there are pasta, bread and sausage-making demos and a host of themed talks (bread, wine, cheese, ...) in the "Food is Fun" tipi.

I enjoyed a talk on cheese making by Mary Quicke of Quickes Traditional, who make a farmhouse-style cheddar, Sharpham who make soft (think Brie) cheeses from Jersey milk, and a group from Tuscany showcasing pecorino, a hard cheese made from ewe's milk. It was interesting to learn something about the cheese-making process and how it differs for the different types of cheese. Best still, I bought some pecorino agend in straw to make a traditional carbonara when I got home on Sunday evening.

The cookery demos were fun and it was nice to see Jane Baxter from Riverford Field Kitchen with her hearty organic vegetable dishes; Mark Hix who turned up unprepared and hungover, but turned out half a dozen appetizing dishes in 45 minutes; and the guys from Ashburton Cookery school who were on top form. I caught up with them afterwards - they are very excited about their new teaching kitchens, and I'd like to go down for a short course later in the year. Ideally this would tie in with their new dining club, but we'll have to see.

I managed to snap a few shots in the Cookery Theatre on Sunday morning, during a cook-off between local chefs and a group from Tuscany, all using local produce.

The Tuscan group was from a club called "La Salamandra". They explained that the salamander after which they are named has a double meaning: it is both a grill and a reptile. The chefs of La Salamandra also lead double lives: they are all amateur cooks with "normal" day jobs, who come together because they are really passionate about cooking and about food.

This is a really interesting idea: they get together each month to design a theme for a meal (which might be local fish just off the boat, or a season, or a meat) and invite friends and followers of La Salamandra to Michaela's restaurant, where they cook dinner. The guests pay just to cover the cost of the ingredients. Their first La Salamandra dinner in Devon was scheduled to take place at Darts Farm on Monday evening, and the organisers of the food festival are hoping to inspire a similar group in Devon who will reciprocate by going to Tuscany to cook for La Salamandra over there.

It was a great festival, and the date for next year's has already been set: 29th April to 1st May 2011. I must remember to take a bigger bag.

Risotto, poached salmon

2010-04-05T21:15:00.000+01:00

A rich, creamy risotto topped with a salmon fillet cooked sous vide. Farmed salmon is quite cheap these days, but it is cheaper still to by a side (half a salmon) or a whole fish and portion it yourself. My freezer is well-stocked with fillets vacuum packed and ready for the water bath. The salad in the background is from one of Riverford Organic's salad packs. These always provide a really tasty selection of salad greens - some bitter and pungent, others hot and mustardy. The flavour is fantastic, and it's impossible to go back to regular lettuce after discovering these. I really ought to find out what it is I'm eating. Here's a close-up:

Can you identify any of those leaves?

One-a-penny, two-a-penny

2010-04-05T16:06:00.001+01:00

...hot-cross buns. Looking for a recipe, I picked up Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery. She writes: "Bath buns, hot cross buns, spice buns, penny buns - all these 'small, soft, plump, sweet, fermented' cakes are English institutions. Very stodgy ones, too, if you buy them from the bakeries, and to be avoided by anyone mindful of their weight and, in particular, of the obesity problems of so many of today's English children."

I double-checked the publication date: yes, she was writing about childhood obesity concerns more that 30 years ago. She goes on to reassure us: "Made at home, Bath buns and spice buns are by no means heavy, and hot cross buns, well-spiced and fresh from the oven, are entirely delicious."

It wasn't David's recipe I used in the end, but the recipe from Andrew Whitley's Bread Matters. His sweet bun dough, made with a liquid ferment (flour, milk, sugar and yeast mixed together and left in a warm place until it has risen up and collapsed back on itself), is soft and sticky - the wet dough giving a less dense finished product. The hot cross bun dough is flavoured with mixed spice and has dried fruit folded in towards the end of the kneading.

One of the reasons I like Whitley's book is that it is packed with helpful tips and explanations: soak the fruit for an hour so that it doesn't draw liquid from the dough; don't mess around with pastry strips, make a runny dough that can be piped onto the buns; a whole paragraph telling you how to get a good contrast between the light-coloured cross and the darker bun dough. Best of all, he recommends a finger-licking good, sticky glaze made from 2 parts honey to 1 part double cream: warm the honey, stir in the double cream, and brush onto the buns when they come out of the oven.

Sticky fingers aside, I am pleased to report that these hot cross buns were entirely delicious.

Baked cheese cake

2010-03-31T23:33:00.000+01:00

Straight out of Leiths Cookery Bible, this is really easy to make. Tasty too.

The base is just crushed digestives bound with melted butter. I whisked up the filling (cream cheese, double cream, eggs, vanilla, sugar) in the Kenwood, but really it was hardly worth the washing up. Topped with soured cream and ground cinnamon.

Salmon fillet, hollandaise sauce

2010-03-31T23:25:00.000+01:00

Salmon fillet cooked sous vide (30 minutes at 48℃) and served with hollandaise sauce. Unfortunately I let the hollandaise get too cold so it started to split when it hit the hot plate - mostly a cosmetic problem, as it tasted fantastic.

There's a bit of a back-story here too: I split the sauce completely first time round, but managed to rescue it by starting with a fresh egg yolk and whisking in the split sauce. While I was rescuing the sauce, I let the broccoli overcook slightly (you can tell from the colour). The salmon took no harm with an extra 5 minutes in the water bath. Meat is very forgiving when cooked sous vide, and can be held for an hour or more; with fish you have about 10 minutes leeway, giving you just enough time to rescue a split sauce.

It's great to see the start of the English purple sprouting broccoli season, and the carrots from Riverford are still very tasty. The new potatoes are from France, a variety called exquisa, and are delicious simply steamed. I didn't put any butter on the vegetables here: the hollandaise is almost 70% butter, after all, and is perfect for dipping your potatoes.

Pigeon Wellington

2010-03-30T07:00:00.002+01:00

This is something that appears on the menu at The Kingham Plough from time to time. Emily's version is better than mine, so I mustn't have been paying enough attention when she was making it. Still, the home-made version was very tasty.

Here it is served with sautéed spinach, glazed carrots, and steamed Exquisa potatoes:

The pigeon breasts were cooked sous vide (25 minutes at 54.5℃) then fried for 10 seconds each side in a smoking-hot pan. The cooked breasts were then encased in puff pastry layered with blanched spinach and duxelle mushrooms. This was a very flavoursome dish, and the buttery puff pastry complemented the pigeon well. The only downside was that the pigeon was slightly overcooked when it came out of the oven - a shame given that they were a perfect medium rare after cooking sous vide. Next time I'll stop there.

Carrot and Parsnip Loaf

2010-03-28T17:16:00.005+01:00

If, like me, you get a weekly vegbox delivery, you might be looking for innovative ways to use up root vegetables. Right now, I have a surplus of parsnips in the bottom of the fridge. Rachael's birthday gave me an excuse to bake another cake last week, and a footnote in Leiths Baking Bible suggested a use for parsnips that hadn't previously occurred to me: replace half of the carrots in a carrot cake recipe with parsnips.

Although it sounds an odd combination, cinnamon is the dominant flavour and there is plenty of sweetness from the sugar and the vegetables. It went down well with everyone in the lab, even those who claimed not to like parsnips.

The quantities here are from the Baking Bible, but I have adapted the method to make use of my otherwise underused Magimix.

Carrot and Parsnip Loaf

225g butter
115g carrots, washed and peeled
115g parsnips, washed and peeled
3 eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla essence
225g caster sugar
285g plain flour
2tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tsp ground cinnamon
pinch salt

Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin. Pre-heat the oven to 170℃. Melt the butter and put to one side to cool.

Grate the carrots and parsnips into the medium bowl of the Magimix.

With the dough hook in the large bowl, break in the eggs, add the vanilla essence, and whizz together. With the motor running, slowly pour in the cooled melted butter. Stop the motor and sift in the caster sugar, flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt, and ground cinnamon; pulse a few times until combined. Add the grated carrots and parsnip, and give it a final whizz.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, level the top, and bake until firm, 1½ to 2 hours. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

I served this dusted with icing sugar, but it would also be nice topped with cream cheese icing.

Shiny, shiny!

2010-03-28T15:15:00.000+01:00

These shiny saucepans are currently on sale at John Lewis - usually £125, if you're quick you can catch their 20% discount offer and snap up the set of three for only £100. The Cambridge store sold out yesterday, but they still have a few in stock online. I placed my order this morning and will be taking a trip into Trumpington next week to collect them.

Winter Vegetable Crumble

2010-03-26T07:00:00.003Z

This is based on a recipe I found in an anonymous vegetarian cookery book; I have been making it for more than a decade. The original recipe calls for carrots, parsnips, celery, onion, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, and black-eye beans. Don't worry if you don't have all the ingredients (or don't like some of them), the recipe works well with most root vegetables. You can omit the cauliflower or broccoli or - as I did today - substitute romanesco. Diced turnips or swede work well, and fennel adds an interesting twist.

The vegetables are cooked in cider and the cooking liquor thickened with a roux to make a sauce. Chopped fresh parsley and chopped tomatoes (fresh or tinned will do) are stirred through, then the lot is topped with a cheesy, oaty crumble and baked in the oven.

The crumble can be served on its own, with a green salad on the side, or - for a hearty supper - with roast potatoes and a steamed leafy green. It makes a great vegetarian main course, and is a fantastic way to use up any vegbox leftovers.

Beef Brisket

2010-03-24T21:12:00.002Z

This is an inexpensive cut of beef that needs long, slow cooking to tenderize. It is usually brined and cooked in chicken stock to make corned beef, or braised with vegetables and served as a pot roast. Somewhat counter-intuitively, braising (cooking in liquid) can result in dry meat, especially if the temperature gets too high (at temperatures above 60-65℃, juices are lost from the muscle fibres). Although the braised meat can end up dry and stringy, this is compensated for by serving the meat in the flavoursome, gelatinous cooking liquor.

Another approach is to counteract this drying by cooking the meat at a lower temperature. Douglas Baldwin, in A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking suggests brining for 2-3 hours then cooking at 80℃ for 24-36 hours. He mentions that the French Laundry cooks their brisket at 64℃ for 48 hours. I decided to try the French Laundry method. McGee notes that collagen doesn't dissolve into gelatin until 70-80℃, so the higher temperature suggested by Baldwin might be better: something to try next time.

My local butcher only had rolled brisket, so I bought a 1.3kg piece and undid his rolling. I cut it into two pieces and placed them in a 5% brine, where they stayed for 48 hours. After brining, I dried them off and browned the outside with a blow torch before cooling and vacuum packing. Then it was time for the water bath.

I took out one piece after 48 hours and used it to make a big batch of hash, following a recipe from Fergus Henderson's Nose to Tail Eating: A Kind of British Cooking. There's not much to it really: cook some sliced onions in butter, add tinned plum tomatoes and cook off some of the liquid, then stir through some cooked mashed potatoes and the shredded salt beef; you only need to cook it until the meat and potatoes are warmed through, but I like to leave it until it forms a golden crust on one side, then turn it over and cook until the other side is nicely crusted too.

The hash was great, but the meat was not as tender as I expected. The same cannot be said of the 60-hour batch - it was melt-in-the-mouth tender. Both batches had plenty of natural gelatin, so this would also be a good way to cook brisket for corned beef: just shred the cooked beef, and set in a terrine with the gelatinous liquid that collects in the vacuum bag during cooking.

Fruit Tea Loaf

2010-03-23T18:00:00.001Z

This is an old favourite of mine, something Gran used to make for tea on a Saturday. I love fruit cake, and finished the last of the Christmas cake just a couple of weeks ago. I was missing my supper-time treat.

Here, the dried fruit is soaked overnight in cold tea so it plumps up and keeps the cake moist, at the same time giving it a distinctive flavour. I used Ceylon Orange Pekoe; you can use something different if you prefer, but don't let the tea stew or it will be too bitter. The following is based on a recipe from Leiths Baking Bible

Fruit Tea Loaf

115g sultanas
115g raisins
115g currants
grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
115g dark brown sugar
290ml cold tea
225g plain flour
1 rounded tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten

Mix together the dried fruit, zest and sugar. Pour over the cold tea, give it a stir, and leave to soak overnight. Mix in the beaten egg, sift in the flour and baking powder, and stir well to combine. Pour into a greased 2lb loaf tin and bake for 1¼ hours in an oven pre-heated to 170℃. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out.

The Baking Bible also includes recipes for Lemon Tea Loaf, Cinnamon and Apple Tea Loaf, Berry Tea Loaf, and Sherry, Date and Walnut Tea loaf - so there's plenty of room for some experimentation.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

2010-03-21T14:11:00.006Z

I mentioned in last week's post about beetroot that my next beetroot exploit would be chocolate beetroot cake. Here it is, in all its moist, chocolatey glory. A Google search turns up dozens of recipes, but in the end I opted for Nigel Slater's recipe from Tender: v. 1: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch.

I'm quite a fan of Slater, and this recipe is heavy on chocolate, using both melted chocolate and cocoa powder. This could could only be good. I also had a lot of eggs to use up; most of the recipes use only 3 eggs, but this one called for 5.

I diverged from the recipe slightly by adding more chocolate in the form of a ganache spread liberally over the top of the cake (I used chocolate with 70% cocoa solids, so there was no worry that the ganache would make it sickly sweet). I did take Slater's advice, however, and serve it with soured cream and poppy seeds. Delicious!

The recipe is also available online if you want to try it yourself. (Don't be misled by the photograph: for some reason they have printed a photograph of Slater's Beetroot Seed Cake from the same book, but the recipe is for the chocolate cake.)

Cocoa Brownies

2010-03-14T15:36:00.001Z

I picked up a great recipe for chocolate brownies from Ashburton Cookery School, which we made on their Diploma Course. These brownies went down a treat with the class, and have been popular with the friends and colleagues I have baked them for since. Serve them warm with crѐme Anglaise and vanilla ice cream, and you have a delicious dessert.

Most brownie recipes I have seen include melted chocolate in the list of ingredients, so I was intrigued by this recipe on the Smitten Kitchen blog, which uses only cocoa powder. I bookmarked the recipe thinking that I would try it next time I made brownies. Today was the day, and they did not disappoint. I was worried that they might be dry, but they were deliciously moist and fudgy, just like a brownie should be. These will certainly be added to my repertoire.

Beetroot

2010-03-14T11:53:00.005Z

If you get a weekly delivery from an organic vegbox scheme, you will probably have seen beetroot on your doorstep over the winter. Beetroot is harevested between July and November but, if kept at the right temperature, can be stored until April - so we might see more before the season is out.

I love the colour and the sweet, earthy flavour of beetroot. Beetroot can be eaten raw, grated into salads, but for an interesting twist try Hot Raw Beetroot: peel and coarsely grate the beetroot; melt some butter in a shallow pan, then toss the beetroot in the hot butter for 2 minutes, until it is hot; season with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice (from Leiths Cookery Bible). Here it is pictured accompanying smoked trout.

Beetroot should not be peeled before cooking - just rinse in warm water, and try to avoid damaging the skin and thin root. It can be boiled in a large pan of salted water for 1-2 hours, but if you're short of time 10 minutes in the pressure cooker is long enough for small beetroot, 20-25 minutes for large. Recently I have taken to baking beetroot, which gives it a sweeter, more intense flavour: simply wrap the washed beetroot in tin foil and bake for 3-4 hours in a 140℃ oven. The beetroot is cooked when the skin near the root wrinkles and comes away easily. Wait until the beetroot is cool enough to handle, then peel by rubbing gently.

The cooked beetroot can now be used in a number of dishes. There is the classic beetroot and orange salad, but Jane Grigson, in her Vegetable Book also has recipes for beetroot and potato salad, beetroot and apple salad, beetroot salad with anchovy dressing, Italian beetroot salad (onions and herbs), and Scandinavian beetroot and herring salad. It also goes very well with goats cheese and peppery leaves like watercress and rocket.

Beetroot gratin

If you prefer your beetroot hot, cut the cooked beetroot into cubes and layer it in an ovenproof dish with some grated cheese (a mixture of Gruyère and Parmesan works well, but any piquant cheese will do); pour over fresh double cream, and top with more cheese and breadcrumbs. Bake in a 190℃ oven until the cream is bubbling and the top nicely browned.

Beetroot risotto

For a colourful risotto, add diced beetroot for the last 2 minutes of cooking (just long enough to warm through), and top with a slow-cooked egg.

Of course, there is always Borscht; Grigson gives two recipes in her vegetable book, but I usually make this quick, vegetarian version from Cranks Recipe Book:

Cranks Russian Borscht

1 medium onion, chopped
1 small potato, peeled and diced
450g raw beetroot, peeled and diced
25g butter
1.2lt vegetable stock
1tsp yeast extract
45ml cider vinegar
salt, pepper and grated nutmeg to taste
soured cream and chopped parsley to garnish

Melt the butter and cook the onion, without colouring, until soft. Add the potato, beetroot and stock, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently, with a lid on the pan, for 1/2 hour. Blend in a liquidizer until smooth, add the cider vinegar and yeast extract, and season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg. This soup can be served hot or chilled. Garnish with a dollop of soured cream and some chopped fresh parsley.

Riverford Organic have more beetroot recipe ideas, but I think I'll be trying something sweet next time beetroot appears in my vegbox: beetroot chocolate cake.

Scottish Morning Rolls

2010-02-20T10:10:00.002Z

This book by Andrew Whitley of Bread Matters is one of my favourites when it comes to making bread. It is written in a readable, no-nonsense style, is packed with information, and has some great recipes for both yeasted breads and breads made from natural fermentations (sourdough). If you only buy one book on bread making, this is the one to go for.

One of the recipes I make regularly is Scottish Morning Rolls. These are soft and chewy, and remind me of the rolls we used to get from Brison's the bakers when visiting my grandparents in Berwick Upon Tweed. These are perfect for a bacon sandwich. For a real nostalgia trip, fry the bacon in lard and, instead of buttering your roll, dip each half of a split roll in the hot lard before sandwiching together with the bacon. When I was a child we would sometimes forego the bacon and just eat dippy bread, but this delicacy has gone out of fashion in our health-conscious times.

This recipe uses a sponge and dough method: the sponge is made by mixing together flour, water and a small amount of yeast and leaving it to ferment for 12-18 hours. The yeast feeds on the sugars in the flour and reproduces so that the sponge contains enough yeast to raise the final dough.

For the sponge

5g fresh yeast
OR 2g fast-action dried yeast
130g water
50g strong wholemeal flour
100g strong white flour

Mix together all the ingredients, cover, and leave in a warm place for 12-18 hours.

For the final dough

285g sponge
350g strong white flour
100g strong wholemeal flour
5g fine sea salt
270g water
15g butter or lard

Mix together and knead until smooth and elastic - about 10 minutes in a mixer with a dough hook will do the trick, or slightly longer by hand. Shape the dough into a ball, put into a lightly-oiled bowl, cover, and rest for 1-2 hours.
Gently ease the dough from the bowl and cut into 8-12 equal pieces. Shape into neat balls, dip each roll in a bowl of flour, then arrange on a baking sheet about 2cm apart.
Cover with a linen cloth and leave to rise until the rolls are just touching. This will take 2-3 hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
Put into a hot oven (230℃) and bake until risen and golden brown (12-15 minutes, depending on the temperature of your oven and how big you made the rolls).

Comfort food: macaroni cheese with leeks

2010-02-14T12:22:00.001Z

There is something especially comforting about macaroni cheese: the smooth, creamy sauce contrasting with the bland, slightly chewy pasta pieces. I am also a big fan of leeks, particularly leeks in cheese sauce. What could be more satisfying than a supper of maraconi cheese with leeks?

This is easy to make. First, put on a large pan of salted water for the pasta. Add the macaroni as soon as the water comes to the boil.

In another pan, warm some milk with half an onion studded with a bay leaf and two cloves (onion cloué - the French call cloves clou de girofle, from the verb clouer, "to nail", making them ideal for our purposes). Leave the milk on a gentle heat, allowing the flavours to infuse, but keep an eye on the pan to make sure it doesn't boil over.

In a third, heavy-based pan, melt a good knob of butter and add a medium leek, cleaned and thinly sliced. Put a lid on the pan and cook the leek gently, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or so. Sprinkle over a tablespoon of plain flour and stir well. Continue cooking for 2-3 minutes, then gradually add the hot milk, stirring until smooth after each addition. Bring to a boil and cook until the sauce thickens. Season to taste with salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, and a pinch of dried mustard. Now stir in some grated cheese (I used a mixture of Gruyère and Parmesan, but a good strong cheddar would work just as well).

Drain the pasta and add to the sauce, stirring to combine. Transfer to an ovenproof dish, top with more grated cheese and some breadcrumbs. Dot with butter, and bake in a hot oven until bubbling and browned on top. The breadcrumbs add a good crunch, a nice contrast to the smooth texture of the pasta. Leeks and mushrooms go together well, so I also tried a topping made by blitzing up dried wild mushrooms with the breadcrumbs. This was good, but the mushrooms were a bit of a distraction - I prefer the comforting blandness of the plain breadcrumbs, so will stick with that in the future.

Venison haunch, chocolate oil

2010-02-10T18:00:00.000Z

I had friends around for dinner on Friday, which gave me a good excuse to do something with the venison haunch I had been saving in the freezer. I hadn't cooked this cut of venison before, but I thought it would benefit from cooking sous vide. There is very little fat in venison, so sealing in all the juices could only work in its favour (larding is recommended if roasting conventionally).

I took a gamble and cooked it medium rare: an hour and a half in a 54.5℃ water bath worked a treat, yielding beautifully pink and tender meat. (Holding the meat for a while in a water bath at this temperature will do it no harm, so this is also a great way to cook if your guests are driving from Oxford and liable to get stuck in traffic.) Just before serving, I seared it quickly in a smoking hot pan. The chocolate oil was a bit of a gimmick, but worked well with the venison.

Best laid plans beaten by the weather

2010-02-09T22:17:00.004Z

The return of the cold weather will not be welcomed by our farmers. Last week's newsletter from Riverford, best laid plans beaten by the weather, complained that their cauliflower, cabbage, leeks, and purple sprouting broccoli have hardly moved on, so they are having difficulty balancing the root vegetables in the weekly boxes. Instead, last week's box contained aubergines and red peppers from Spain and broccoli from Italy.

Although unseasonal, these made a refreshing change: should I dip aubergine slices in flour and fry in olive oil? what about aubergine fritters, coated in a light batter? or an Italian-style aubergine Parmigiana? In the end I opted for this baba ghanoush recipe from Riverford. Right now, some dough is proving for flat breads to be cooked under the grill tomorrow.

As for the peppers, I made a batch of pepperonata, following a recipe from Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book. Thinly slice an onion and finely chop 1 or 2 cloves of garlic; cook in olive oil until just starting to colour. Deseed and finely slice the pepper and add to the pan; cover with a lid and allow to stew gently for 10-15 minutes, stirring from time to time. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and simmer gently, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes, by which time most of the liquid will have gone. Season to taste with salt, pepper, sugar, and a splash of red wine vinegar. This is delicious hot or cold - I used half of this batch to make some individual tartlets (pictured).

Of course, there were root vegetables to be used up too, and the parsnips went into another of Grigson's recipes: curried parsnip soup - sweet and spicy, and the perfect way to counter the winter weather.

Chicken breast, crisp chicken skin

2010-02-03T20:49:00.004Z

This chicken breast was cooked sous vide for 55 minutes in a 63.5℃ water bath (I'm following the times for safe pasteurization given in Douglas Baldwin's guide to sous vide cooking).

To crisp the skin, it was sandwiched in baking parchment between two baking trays (to keep it flat) and cooked in a 200℃ oven for 45 minutes. (I tried crisping the skin with a blow torch, but just ended up with burnt rubber; I must be doing something wrong.)

The carrots were also cooked sous vide (85℃ for 1 hour), while the cabbage and potatoes were cooked conventionally.

I served this with a white wine butter sauce, following a recipe I learned at Ashburton Cookery School. This is similar to a beurre blanc, but contains reduced chicken stock and a splash of double cream which acts as an emulsifier, making the sauce more stable (McGee has an illuminating section on cream and butter sauces, worth a read if you're interested in the science).

Cooking the carrots sous vide kept their shape and retained all their flavour. The chicken was succulent and very tender; it was tasty, but definitely benefited from this creamy but slightly sharp sauce.

White Wine Butter Sauce Recipe

For 2 portions:

1 shallot, finely chopped
50g butter, cut into small dice and kept chilled
100ml white wine
300ml chicken stock
50ml crème fraiche or double cream
Salt and peper

Melt a little of the butter in a small saucepan and add the shallot and a pinch of salt. Sweat gently to soften the shallot without letting it colour.
Add the wine and increase the heat, letting it bubble and reduce until the wine has almost gone.
Add the chicken stock and simmer until it has reduced by two thirds.
Stir in the cream and cook gently until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Gradually whisk in the diced butter. You should end up with a sauce the consistency of double cream - adding more butter will give you a thicker sauce.
Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Pork belly, Jerusalem artichokes, and mushrooms

2010-02-01T21:32:00.002Z

The pork belly here was cooked sous vide for 12 hours at 82℃. Before vacuum packing, it was boned and rubbed with ground fennel seeds, rosemary and salt. If I'd had some, finely grated lemon zest would have been added to the mix. After cooking, it was chilled in an ice bath and refrigerated until needed.

To serve, it was pan-fried to brown then heated through for 10 minutes in a hot oven. I haven't quite mastered the art of crisping the skin without it colouring too much (and coming close to burning) - some more experimentation needed there.

The mushrooms and Jerusalem artichokes were cooked en papillotte following this recipe from Riverford Organic, omitting the goats cheese. The greenery on the side is shreded leeks and savoy cabbage, blanched for 3 minutes in boiling water then tossed with a knob of butter and some black pepper. I've found that a teaspoon of Dijon mustard mixed into cooked cabbage just before serving gives it a real lift, but I omitted that here as the mushrooms and artichokes were cooked with lemon juice, which I didn't think would go well with the mustard.

In the past, I have braised pork belly with aromatic vegetables, then cooled and pressed it overnight before finishing as above. This "twice-cooked" pork belly is a great dish, but the sous vide version wins hands down on texture and succulence. The only downside to the sous vide method is that you don't get the delicious stock that comes with a slow braise. To make up for this, I roasted the bones with some onions and made a dark pork stock, which I then enriched with the gelatinous juices from the sous vide bag and sharpened with some sherry vinegar.

A Taste of Midsummer

2010-01-31T12:17:00.007Z

This unprepossessing building on the banks of the Cam is home to some of the finest cooking in Cambridge - if not the whole of East Anglia. Midsummer House, run by chef/patron Daniel Clifford, sits on the edge of Midsummer Common right in the heart of Cambridge. The restaurant was awarded its first Michelin Star in 2001, and has held two stars since 2005.

It would be a crime to have such a fine restaurant on ones doorstep and not give it a try. Still, it took me 6 months to get around to it. A visit from my friend Aaron, who travelled from Reading for the day, was the perfect excuse.

I met Aaron at the railway station and we had a brief wander around the centre of Cambridge before making our way to the restaurant. Here we were greeted by a friendly member of staff who took our coats before the maître d’ showed us to our table in the conservatory. We were brought menus and ordered aperetifs (I had a gin and tonic).

Three different menus were on offer: a lunch menu (excellent value at £35 for 3 courses), and a choice of two tasting menus, the 6 course Taste of the Market or the 12 course Taste of Midsummer. The lunch menu was tempting, but would have involved two decisions: which starter, and which main course? Much simpler to go for the tasting menu...

This started with a refreshing pink grapefruit and champagne foam, clearing the palate for what was to come. The first course was a white onion velouté with apple and scallions. Then a celery bavarois, a crisp beetroot tube filled with diced beetroot and an intense goat's cheese, horesradish ice cream on the side. Two courses in, and I was already thinking about coming back. But it kept getting better: sautéed scallop with truffled celeriac purée; sweetbreads with pistachio, maple syrup and mooli - contrasting flavours and textures, perfectly balanced; salt cod with pork belly and langoustine - by now I wanted to become a regular; pousse café (another palate cleanser, clearing the way for the main course); pigeon breast, sweet potato purée, cocoa nibs.

Next, a selection of artisanal cheeses from the trolley (an optional course, but how can you resist?); a light pre-dessert (lemon grass and Lady Grey); then warm kumquats with lemon thyme ice cream; finally, a tiramisu like you've never seen, with candyfloss and mascarpone ice cream.

I say finally, but we stayed on for coffee which was served with home-made chocolates and - quite unexpectedly - freshly cooked bottereaux (delicious fritters made from leavened dough - think doughnuts, only lighter) with little pots of crème Anglaise and apple compote for dipping.

Aaron wasn't drinking, but I ordered a flight of wines to accompany the tasting menu. I know next to nothing about wine, so I'm always happy to leave this to the experts. They did not disappoint: crisp, fresh whites to accompany the early courses, an earthy red with the pigeon, a citrusy dessert wine with the kumquats, and a sweet, almost treacly one to finish.

This was a very well-orchestrated meal, playful and well-balanced, with each course leading smoothly into the next. I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon...time to start saving for my next visit.

Getting organized

2010-01-25T21:24:00.000Z

I've had a busy weekend, what with friends visiting and the (rather more time consuming than I expected) task of organizing my kitchen cupboards. What would we do without stackable, air-tight plastic tubs?

baking and dried goods

flour, pasta and rice

salt, pepper and spices

hot drinks

cereal, chocolate, and baking overflow

Lunch today: the perfect soft boiled egg

2010-01-21T13:20:00.002Z

After months of indecision, I finally took the plunge and bought one of these - a digital water bath that enables low temperature cooking at temperatures accurate to ±0.2℃.

The first thing I cooked was the perfect soft boiled egg. It couldn't be simpler: set the water bath to 62.5℃, wait for it to come up to temperature, gently lower in your eggs, and come back in an hour. This gives you eggs with a runny yolk and the white set just enough for it to hold its shape, smooth and creamy, without a hint of the rubberiness that comes with cooking at a higher temperature.

If you want to know more about cooking times and temperatures for eggs, see this article by Martin Lersch over at Khymos.

Chicken, ham and leek pie

2010-01-19T22:04:00.005Z

I have a weekly delivery of fruit and vegetables (and eggs and milk) from Riverford Organic, and once a month or so I add one of their meat boxes to my order. These usually contain a roasting joint, bacon, sausages, cooked ham, chops or steaks for the grill, and often something to braise. While the contents varies from week to week, there is always a chicken.

This I usually portion, pan-roasting the breasts and saving the legs and thighs for a casserole or curry, or maybe even confit. The carcase, of course, is turned into stock.

I also love a simply roasted chicken, and last week The Amateur Gourmet had a great post describing Thomas Keller's roast chicken, following a recipe from Keller's "Ad Hoc at Home". It was this post by Michael Ruhlman, however, that swayed me, so I set out to make a chicken pie.

Of course, I could have roasted the chicken and used the leftovers for my pie, but I thought I would kill two birds with one stone by boiling the chicken, providing myself with a good batch of chicken stock at the same time. I first used this technique for cooking a chicken when making Fergus Henderson's Cock-a-leekie soup. (The recipe for this and Boiled chicken, leeks and aioli, which uses the same technique, can be found in his book Nose to Tail Eating).

It's really very straightforward. Slit the skin of the chicken where the thighs join the body (this allows the hot water to penetrate). Roughly chop 2 carrots, 2 onions, 2 leeks, and 2 sticks of celery, and put into a large pot along with the chicken, 2 bay leaves, and peppercorns. If you like, add some parsley stalks, a few sprigs of thyme or rosemary and a head of garlic. Cover the lot with cold water, bring slowly to the boil, then immediately remove from the heat and put a lid on the pan. Allow the chicken to cool in the stock, by which time it will be ready to be stripped from the bone into pie-sized chunks.

For a chicken and leek pie, wash and slice some leeks. Place in a pan, cover with a lid, and cook over a gentle heat for 5 minutes or so. Stir occasionally to make sure they don't catch. Now add about 30g butter and cook for another 5 minutes before adding a glass of dry white wine. Remove the lid at this point and increase the heat to reduce the wine to almost nothing. Sprinkle over 3 tablespoons of plain flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 2-3 minutes. Now gradually ladle in the hot stock, stirring after each addition until smooth. Bring to a boil and let it bubble for a minute or two, until the sauce has thickened. This quantity of flour should thicken about 600ml stock, but start off by adding about 400ml of stock and stop there if the sauce is to your liking.

Now add the chicken to the mix. I also added the ham that I had reserved from my last batch of ham stock. Warm through and check the seasoning - it will need some salt and pepper. You now have your pie filling, but let it cool a bit before using (otherwise the pastry will melt when you come to assemble it).

For the pastry, I used Ruhlman's 3-2-1 pie dough. This is just shortcrust pastry, the 3-2-1 refering to the ratio of flour (3 parts) to butter (2 parts) to water (1 part). This makes a richer shortcrust than we are used to in the UK, where a 2:1 ratio of flour to butter is more common. But just look at Ruhlman's rich, buttery pastry, and how can you resist?

The pie will want to be baked for about 40 minutes in a 200℃ oven. Oh, and don't forget to glaze with milk or egg wash for a nice finish.

As for quantities, one chicken (1.6kg), 4 medium leeks, and ham from a small hock made enough pie for 8 portions, with 2lt chicken stock left over.

Venison steak with port and damson sauce

2010-01-17T19:58:00.001Z

...beetroot and orange salad, cavalo nero, and sautéed potatoes.

Granny Cook's potato soup

2010-01-16T13:46:00.007Z

When I was home for Christmas, my dad described a potato soup his grandmother, Granny Cook, used to make. It was one of his favourites, warming and soothing - perfect for a winter's day. "What did she put in it?" I asked.

"She used a ham hock," he replied, "...onions, leeks, and potatoes - obviously." He remembered she added some milk, too, and served it up as a rustic broth, swimming with chunks of potato.

I set out to make my own version. Unfortunately, the local butcher had sold out of ham hocks. Instead, he provided me with some bacon trimmings. I cut these into medium dice and fried them gently in in beef dripping until they started to render their fat. To this I added an onion, a leek, and 2 sticks of celery, all finely chopped, and let them sweat, with a lid on, for 10 minutes or so. Next went in a good 500g peeled and diced potatoes, a bay leaf, 200ml milk, and enough water to cover (ham stock would be better). I brought this to a boil then let it simmer until the potatoes were tender and falling apart - about 30 minutes. Seasoned well with salt and pepper and served piping hot - not fit for a king, perhaps, but good enough to invite a neighbour to join us for supper.

I decided to give this another go when I got back to Cambridge and could get my hands on a ham hock - this is where last week's ham stock went to. I also wanted to intensify the earthy potato flavour, so cut down on the other vegetables and, following the lead of Heston Blumenthal, who cooks his potatoes in a stock made from their skins, included the potato skins in my soup. Here's the recipe I came up with.

Ray's potato soup

25 g butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
1 kg floury potatoes, peeled and diced, skins reserved
1 lt ham stock
300 ml whole milk
salt and pepper

As you see, this is a soup of few ingredients. It's important to use a floury potato variety (I used King Edward), otherwise the finished soup will have an unpleasant gloopy texture.

Melt the butter and sweat the onion, without colouring, for 2-3 minutes. Add the potatoes and cook gently, with a lid on the pan, for at least 10 minutes. You will have to stir them from time to time to prevent the potatoes from sticking. Now add a bay leaf, 1tsp salt, and the stock and milk. Tie the potato skins up in muslin and add this to the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently until the potatoes are cooked through. Remove and discard the package of skins.

To finish, blend in a liquidizer until smooth. (In retrospect, I think simply pushing the soup through a fine sieve would result in a better texture, as it would work the starch less.) If you have ham left over from your stock-making, add this to the soup when you reheat it. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Other ideas

For a real treat, omit the ham and serve each bowl of soup with a generous drizzle of truffle-infused olive oil.

Jane Grigson, in her Vegetable Book, gives a recipe for potato soup flavoured with lard and garlic, "...which both blend wonderfully with potato." She suggests serving this with croutons, also fried in lard and garlic. This is definitely something I'll try soon.

In Fergus Henderson's Beyond Nose to Tail, he gives a recipe for Potato and back fat soup. This recipe also plays on the pork fat and garlic theme: the soup is made with 10 cloves of garlic and topped with chunks of salted back fat rendered in a frying pan. Henderson writes: "But our possibilities do not end there. You could instead sear off a generous slice of fresh foie gras per bowl of soup, pop on top of the hot soup and give it a few minutes to do a little melting, then eat."

Who said that potato soup had to be boring?

Ham stock and what to do with it

2010-01-10T15:07:00.003Z

Ham stock is cheap and easy to make, and is an excellent foundation for a number of soups. You can buy a ham hock from your local butcher for about £2, and this will be enough to make a good 2lt of stock. The ham hocks come smoked or unsmoked - I prefer the latter, as I don't like the smokey taste that is otherwise infused into the stock.

You might want to soak the ham hock overnight to remove some of the salt, but if you forget or are short of time simply place the hock in a pot, cover with cold water, and bring slowly to the boil; simmer for 5 minutes, then discard the water and start again.

For the stock itself, place the soaked ham hock in a pot along with a carrot split lengthways, a peeled and quartered onion, two bay leaves, half a dozen peppercorns and a couple of cloves (optional). A stick or two of celery and some parsley stalks are also a good idea if you have them (I didn't, so made do without). Cover with cold water, bring slowly to a boil, and simmer gently for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, skimming off any grey scum that rises to the surface. The meat will have shrunk away from the bone when it's done.

Strain the stock, reserving the meat but discarding the vegetables. Cool and refrigerate overnight, then lift off the deposits of fat that have settled on top. The stock is now ready to use in your favourite soup recipe, but take care not to over-salt: taste the stock before you begin and, if it's too salty, dilute with some water.

When the ham hock is cool enough to handle, peel off the fatty skin, then pull the chunks of meat from the bone, discarding any bits of fat as you go. The reserved meat can be added to your soup, kept for sandwiches (with a good mustard), or used in another recipe (for example, added to a quiche or a chicken and leek pie).

Some recipe ideas

Lentil soup

This is one of my favourites, and is very easy to make. Finely chop an onion and a carrot, sweat gently in butter to soften, then add red split lentils and your ham stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 30-40 minutes, until the lentils are done. Blend until smooth, then reheat gently with some cream. Sprinkle with snipped chives and serve.

Vegetable broth

Cut a selection of vegetables into small dice (carrot, onion, swede, leek, celery - anything else you fancy). Sweat gently in melted butter, with a lid on the pan, for a good 10 minutes, then add the ham stock and cook for a further 10-15 minutes. Stir in some cooked pearl barley (if liked), and plenty of chopped fresh herbs (parsley, chives, tarragon, mint). Delicious served with fresh, crusty bread.

Pea and ham velouté

Sweat a finely-chopped onion in melted butter until it is soft but not coloured. Sprinkle over plain flour and cook, stirring continuously, until it is a sandy texture. Gradually ladle in the hot stock, whisking until smooth after each addition. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes, until the mixture thickens slightly. Now add green peas (frozen peas work well with this, but let them defrost first), and simmer until the peas are done. Liquidise until smooth. This is nice with minted cream: whisk together double cream with fresh, chopped mint leaves, a squeeze of lemon juice, and salt and pepper; spoon a dollop into the centre of each bowl just before taking them to the table.

Turnip bake

2010-01-09T08:00:00.004Z

This is a simple recipe from Fergus Henderson's "Nose to Tail Eating". The turnips here are small and white-fleshed, not the larger orange-fleshed swedes that are known as turnips in Scotland and the north of England.

Thinly slice an onion and fry gently, without colouring, in a generous amount of melted butter. Meanwhile, peel and thinly slice your turnips - a mandoline is good for this if you have one to hand. Liberally butter a shallow oven-proof dish, and layer in the turnip and onion, seasoning with salt and pepper as you go. Start and finish with a layer of turnip. Dot the top with butter, cover closely with aluminium foil, and bake for about 1 hour in a 200℃ oven. The temperature and cooking time can be varied to fit around other things happening in your kitchen, just probe with a fork to make sure it's done to your liking.

Henderson says that this calls out to be eaten with roast lamb, but it also went very well with my venison stew. I would say it was "surprisingly good", but I know enough not to be surprised by one of Henderson's recipes: he has yet to disappoint.

Science and magic

2010-01-06T20:27:00.002Z

There's a great article in today's Guardian Science Blog, The science and magic of cheesemaking, by Dr Andy Connelly of the University of Sheffield. Digging around in the archives turns up another of his articles, The science and magic of breadmaking, published back in November. Recommended reading, both.

Pork meatballs with rosemary, lemon, and fennel

2010-01-05T09:00:00.000Z

Here's the recipe for the pork meatballs mentioned in my last post. These are inspired by a recipe for Pork and Lemon Polpettine that you will find in
Nigel Slater's "Kitchen Diaries". Slater flavours his with lemon, thyme and parsley, but I adapted the recipe to use ingredients I had to hand. I have also used a lower proportion of breadcrumbs: just enough to bind - rather than bulk up - the meat. I like to serve these with spaghetti tossed in a quick sauce made by deglazing the pan with wine.

New year, new blog...

2010-01-03T19:12:00.006Z

I'm not one for new year's resolutions, but I've been thinking for some time about starting a blog and what better excuse than the start of a new year? This blog will be about food: what's happening in my kitchen; photos and recipes; notable meals out; maybe the occasional book review. I'm aiming (it's not a resolution, remember) for at least one post a week.

After the excesses of the holidays, it has been a frugal start to the year. I returned yesterday from visiting family in Northumberland to a flat that had been empty for 10 days. Waitrose won't be delivering until tomorrow, so I had to make do with what I could find in the freezer and cupboards.

I had saved some tomato sauce (leftover from pizza) in the freezer, and this formed the basis for last night's supper. The sauce defrosts over a gentle heat while water boils on the stove for pasta. Just before the pasta is done, add chilli flakes, anchovies, olives and capers. Toss with the cooked pasta, grated parmesan, and a good grind of black pepper, and you have that store-cupboard standby: pasta puttanesca.

While I was rummaging in the freezer, I found a tub of pumpkin soup and a quarter loaf of sourdough: lunch today. I also dug out minced pork (leftover from a stuffed chicken leg dish) and breadcrumbs. Dinner tonight will be pork meatballs with spaghetti. I usually make these with fresh thyme, following a recipe from
Nigel Slater's "Kitchen Diaries" but the thyme has not taken kindly to the cold weather. Instead, I'll flavour them with rosemary, fennel seeds and lemon (the solitary lemon found in the bottom of the fridge).

The fridge also harboured a block of butter past its use by date. Rather than see it go to waste, this was put to good use in a batch of dark chocolate cookies. Sometimes, making do is not so bad.