Stuff yer bake

I first had this meal cooked for me when I was in Cumbria and I knew I had to do it again. This is no ordinary couscous recipe, it’s spicy, sweet and full of flavour and texture. The list of ingredients is quite comprehensive but each ingredient adds its own dimension to the rich and full flavour and the spices can of course be used again. The recipe is from the Guardian newspaper’s column “The New Vegetarian” by Yotam Ottolenghi, give it a go.

I am struggling to get my act together to write blog posts recently. Maybe it’s just because of the amount of energy that goes into making the cakes and I need a couple of weeks to recharge my batteries after making one. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. So to make amends I will tell you about this dessert I made last weekend.

Last Saturday I saw James Martin making an iced coffee and honeycomb parfait on Saturday Kitchen. I had never made parfait before, but it looked nice so I thought I would give it a go. As usual my inability to stick to anything written down or done for me, i.e a recipe, lead me to make a totally different, but delicious, chocolate and amaretti parfait.

Ingredients

150g dark chocolate

3 free range eggs - separated

150g caster sugar

500ml double cream

50ml Amaretto (optional)

100g Amaretti biscuits

Line a loaf tin with cling film. Lightly Crumble 50g of the amaretti biscuits into the base of the tin. Put the egg yolks and half the sugar in a bowl over some simmering water. Whisk the mixture for about ten minutes until thickened. Remove the bowl and set aside. Melt the chocolate in another bowl over the simmering water with the Amaretto and then add to the egg mixture, stirring to combine. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks and then add the rest of the sugar to make a raw meringue mixture. Stir this into the chocolate mixture. Finally softly whip the cream and fold this into the chocolate mixture with the other 50g of the amaretti biscuits crumbled lightly. Pour this into the pre-prepared tin and tap to settle out properly. Put in the freezer for about four hours until set. To get the parfait out of the tin, either use a chefs blowtorch around the outside of the tin or sit the tin in warm water for a minute, then simply turn out. Cut into slices and serve.

I was wondering what to do with the rest of the fabulous crab I got in Devon so I browsed through the selection of cookery books I brought with me and found a crab ravioli recipe from Rick Stein’s Seafood book. I have never been terribly successful at at making ravioli as they are so fiddly and always seem to fall apart on me and I haven’t made fresh pasta in a while so it took me time to get to grips with the pasta machine again. I really need to invest in one of those ravioli tray things as they are supposed to be quite useful.

Apart from the fact that it took me the best part of two hours to make and some of them burst they turned out very nicely. The sauce in particular was simple yet very flavoursome and well worth the wait.

Fresh Pasta

225g Plain flour (type 00)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 teaspoon olive oil

2 medium eggs

2 medium egg yolks

Put all the ingredients into a food processor and blend. Once it has come together, tip out onto a work surface and knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is soft and elastic. Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Ravioli

175g fresh white crab meat

1 tblsp melted butter

a small sprinkle of cayenne pepper

Parsley and lemon butter

100g butter

2 tblsp chopped flat leaf parsley

1/2 tsp grated lemon zest

2 tsps lemon juice

2 garlic cloves very finely chopped

Mix all the ingredients for the ravioli together. Divide the pasta into three or four pieces and roll out in your machine or with a rolling in until quite thin. Keep dusting the pasta with flour to stop it sticking to the rollers. On one half of a sheet of pasta dot a teaspoon of mixture at 3inch intervals. Wet around each mound of crab with a little water, then fold over the other half of the pasta and starting from the inside out press down around the little mounds pushing out all the air so you have no bubbles in the ravioli. This is the complicated bit and would be so much more simple with a ravioli tray if you have one. Make sure that you flour each one well so that they don’t stick together as they will tear easily. Once your have used up all the mixture get some salted boiling water ready and add the ravioli. Cook for about three minutes, then drain.

While they are cooking make the butter dressing. Simply melt the butter with all the other ingredients, seasoning to taste and once the ravioli is drained and plated up, spoon over the top and serve. Then sit down for a well deserved rest.

I was watching Jamie Oliver a couple of weeks ago and spotted this tray baked meringue. Incidentally I’ve just had a look at his new website and it’s worth a look. I always save egg whites when I’m only using the yolks and freeze them so I can whip up meringue really quickly and with a meringue not having many ingredients, it was ideal to make while we were on holiday in self catering accommodation last week. I love chocolate and hazelnuts so anything with those in is winner in my book.

Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients:

4 large free-range egg whites

200g unrefined golden caster sugar

a pinch of sea salt

100g hazelnuts, skins removed

2 x 400g halved pears, in syrup

2 pieces stem ginger, thinly sliced

200g dark chocolate

400ml whipping cream (he suggests double but I just can’t bring myself to do it)

50g icing sugar, sifted

1 vanilla pod, halved and seeded

zest of an orange

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees centigrade and line a large baking tray with grease proof paper. Put the egg whites into a very clean bowl and whisk until it forms soft peaks (this is when it forms a peak but it flops over at the end, the eggs whites will not whip up properly if there is any grease or yolk in them). Keep the mixer on and gradually add the sugar and the salt. Whisk the eggs on full power until they are soft, silky and smooth. Heap the meringue onto the baking tray and spread out into a rectangular shape with the back of the spoon making sure you don’t spread it out too thin. Bake in the oven for about an hour until crisp and slightly golden. Whilst the meringue is cooking, place the hazelnuts on another baking tray and put in the bottom of the oven to cook with the meringue until golden brown (this should take the same amount of time as the meringue but keep an eye on them). Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool

To make the topping softly whip the cream and add the icing sugar and vanilla seeds  (you get these by slicing the vanilla pod down the centre and scraping out the seeds with a sharp knife). Drain the pears and reserve the syrup from one of the tins. Add this to a saucepan with the ginger and warm gently. Take off the heat. Chop the chocolate and add to the pan stirring to combine.  I didn’t have any ginger but instead added a little pear brandy. Heap the whipped cream on to the meringue, tear the pear halves into chunks and place on top, scatter the roughly chopped hazelnuts, drizzle the chocolate and zest the orange over the top to finish. Perfect to revive you after a long walk along the beach on a very windy day.

I have only cooked polenta a handful of times so I thought I’d give it another whirl. It is relatively simple to make as you just add four times the amount of boiling water to polenta and cook over a high heat until firm, about five minutes. You will need to add a good amount of flavouring like olive oil, butter, salt and pepper and Parmesan as polenta is quite bland. Once the polenta is very thick spoon out onto an oiled tray and leave to set. Once it has set, cut into long pieces and fry in a dry grill pan until it has dark grill lines on it. Then serve with whatever you like, but roasted vegetables is what you see it with most often. A healthy meal, made in minutes.

I am enjoying making recipes out the new Bill Granger cook book. One of the most successful recipes I tried this week was a recipe for roasted pumpkin with cumin and cayenne pepper but unfortunately there seemed to be a pumpkin/squash drought and so I plumped for sweet potato instead.The combination of the soft luscious sweet potato, the salty cheese and olives and the sharp shallot dressing was to die for. This is a really quick and simple recipe that I will definitely be doing again.

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 packet of washed salad leaves
• 2 medium sweet potatoes
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil
• 100g feta cheese, crumbled
• couple of handfuls of kalamata olives, pitted

Dressing

• 1 tblsp red wine vinegar
• 60 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 1 shallot finely sliced

Cut the sweet potato into roughly 2 inch cubes and place in a bowl. Add the cumin, cayenne pepper, a good slug of olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and mix to coat all of the sweet potato. Tip the sweet potato out onto a roasting tray or tin and spread out. Bake at 220 degrees centigrade for about 30 minutes or until slightly golden on the outside and nice and soft in the middle.To make the dressing simply whisk together all the ingredients. Assemble the salad on a plate and drizzle over the dressing. Enjoy!

I don’t mean an actual baby but a new addition to my family of cook books. I got a book voucher for Christmas so what else would I buy? After much deliberation I decided on Bills Food by Bill Granger which is full of yummy looking, simple and light and mostly healthy recipes.

One of the long list of new years resolutions I made was to stop going out for lunch so much at the weekend and making something tasty at home instead. Potato cakes (much like a Rosti) with smoked salmon and mustard dressing was the recipe I plumped for as it seemed light, quick to make and relatively cheap.

It turned out nicely but I think it could do with a bit of tinkering. I made the potato cakes a little too thick and I liked the mustard dressing but I think a dressing made with creme fraiche, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper would be just as nice, if not better. You could also oven bake the potato cakes so you use less oil.

Ingredients :

3 large potatoes

2 tblsp chopped fresh chives

60g butter melted

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

60ml olive oil

8 slices smoked salmon

For the mustard dressing:

2tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tblsp white wine vinegar

60ml canola oil

Grate the potato coarsely and squeeze out the excess liquid. Put the potato in a bowl and season, then add the chopped chives and melted butter. Heat the oil in a pan to a medium to high heat. Drop a tablespoon of mixture into the pan and flatten out a bit and cook until golden on both sides. Take out of the pan and drain on kitchen paper then place in a warm oven while you cook the rest. Make the dressing by combining the salt, sugar and vinegar until the sugar has dissolved then drizzle in the oil and whisk to combine. Serve the potato cakes topped with the salmon and drizzled with the dressing.

Serves 4

Unlike the vast majority, or so it seems to me, I love Brussel Spouts. It’s like declaring that you enjoy wading knee deep in manure, when you get that sour-faced, nose turned up look of disgust when they are mentioned. Infact I don’t know why I don’t have them more often. I think I just tend to forget about them, or maybe I don’t want to own up to my distasteful 20 a day sprout habit and simply pretend that you only have them on Christmas day when your mother tries to force them down your throat and the only thing you can do to stop the ever rising tide of bile is to hold you nose.

Instead of having just sprouts for Christmas day, which don’t get me wrong would make me just as happy, we tend to boil them and then fry them in butter with white breadcrumbs and chopped brazil nuts or we slice them raw and fry them with pine nuts and pancetta.

Just before Christmas I thought it would be nice to try sprout soup. I thought it turned out very nicely. If you don’t like sprouts, I’m not gonna lie to you, you may heave at the very sight of it.

I simply boiled the sprouts in a saucepan filled with weakish vegatable stock, a clove of garlic and a bay leaf. When the sprouts were tender I reserved the cooking liquor, refreshed them in cold water and blended them to a smooth soup with the cooking liquor, a little grated nutmeg, salt and pepper and a little butter. The soup ended up a little thick so I just thinned it out with a little water, but the consistency is, of course, entirely up to you. I then swirled a little creme fraiche into the soup and topped with ciabatta croutons that I cooked in the oven with olive oil, salt, a clove of garlic (which I removed before serving) and a handful of pine nuts.

I made some shortbread and chutney for people to have at Christmas this year. I had had a go at making shortbread before, but it didn’t really turn out quite as expected. I found a Jamie Oliver recipe, which he claimed was the best shortbread recipe in the world. Even though I didn’t quite buy his bold statement, I do like his easy to follow recipes and thought that I couldn’t go far wrong. This was a basic shortbread recipe which I tinkered with slightly (I can never leave things alone) to give it more of a festive edge.

Ingredients:

• 250g plain flour
• 250g unsalted butter
• 125g semolina or cornflour
• 125g golden caster sugar
• Finely grated zest of two oranges
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• Seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod (put the pod into a bag of caster sugar to flavour it after use or use in vanilla ice cream)
• More caster sugar and flour for dusting
• 8 inch square tin, greased

Simply cream the butter, sugar and orange zest together until light and fluffy, then sift in the flour and cornflour. Mix together lightly and then bring the mixture together with your hands and pat into a ball. Roll the mixture on a floured surface until it is the right size for the tin and press into the tin. Prick the top all over with a fork and cook at 150 deg centigrade for 50 minutes until slightly golden brown on top.

While the shortbread is cooking mix together a couple of tablespoons of caster sugar with the cinnamon and vanilla seeds. Once the shortbread is cooked sprinkle this over the top (it will give off the most amazing aroma). When the shortbread has cooled a little, cut into squares.

I really love trifle but I hate the ones with jelly in them. I’m probably being a bit snobby but I think jelly is a bit tacky and I also don’t really like the texture. This recipe is really quick and easy, which is a must for around Christmas when you have run out of time or can’t face any more slaving over hob.

Ingredients

• 1 box of Trifle sponges
• 500ml ready made custard (get the best stuff you can or make you own if you like)
• 250g Mascarpone cheese ( I found a reduced fat one which made me feel less gluttonous)
• Ground cinnamon
• 280ml Whipping cream
• Frozen berries 300g (anything you like)
• Brandy
• Juice and zest of 1 orange
• 4 tblsp Golden caster sugar

First cut the trifle sponges in half and use them to line the bottom of the trifle bowl. Put a splosh of brandy (it is really up to you how much you want to add) into a bowl and add half the juice of the orange and the zest. Pour this over the trifle sponge base and leave to soak in. Put the berries into a saucepan with the caster sugar and heat until the berries have melted and the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool and then pour over the trifle sponge base. Take the custard and add the mascarpone cheese and a couple of tsp of cinnamon, whisking together until combined. Pour this over the top of the fruit and let the trifle set in the fridge for a while. Whip the cream until soft peaks and use to decorate the top of the trifle. Serves 6-8