Jam

So this is extremely long overdue, jam. Jam is one of the joys of summer- so I made a batch of strawberry which went down very well with the lucky one's who received a pot.

 All you need is some lovely, fresh unblemished and preferably hand picked fruit, two thirds of the weight of the fruit on granulated sugar, and a squeeze of lemon (for the pectin). And that is it. Simple. Well, you also need a big pan and a hob and some jars...

Put your sugar and fruit in a pan large enough, turn on the heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Then put a little plate i n the fridge, this you will use to test to see whether your jam has reached setting point.

Allow the jam to boil for, oh, about 8 minutes then spoon a little onto your chilled plate. If when you run your finger through it, the mixture creases (wrinkles, whatever you like) then you are hood to go. Have your sterilised pots to hand (washed then popped into an oven at 100 degrees celsius for 10 minutes) and fill them. It is easiest to put the jam into a jug and pour into the pots. Minimal wastage. Now I know it's a while before summer's bounty will be upon us...but remember it is almost marmalade time...

Delicious Hot Chicken Noodle Broth, Great for a Cold

I have a horrible cold and have had for at least a month now, but sometimes out of the darkness comes light. And an excuse to feel sorry for yourself is sometimes quite nice, no? Here was mine. This broth is extremely versatile and can be the receptical of whatever vegetables you have lying around. The key really is a good chicken stock, so ideally make one from the leftovers of a roast chicken. By doing so you'll be killing two birds with one stone, the stock and the chicken for shredding in one fell swoop. If you really don't have time or inclination, this broth will be just fine rather than fantastic.

So, once you have the chicken stock (or cubes- shame on you) ready and your chicken finely shredded, get yourself a couple of inches of peeled ginger, two chillis, a couple of peeled garlic cloves and a couple of pieces of lemon grass. Give it all a good bashing in a pestle and mortar...or put in an ever handy freezer bag (always good and strong) and hit it with a rolling pin, or wooden spoon.

When you open the bag it will smell amazing.

Right, have your stock boiling away in a pan, a pan that is large enough to cook the required amount of noodles in, so also consider  whether you need to add water if there is not enough stock. Through in your noodles, ensure that you do not over cook them. Next add in the contents of your mortar/ freezer bag, and the chicken. Squeeze in the juice of two lemons or limes, add a good glug of soy sauce and some fish sauce...finally lots of freshly chopped coriander and its stalks.

Give the broth a taste, it should have a real kick of chilli and zing of lime, taste it also for the balance of saltiness from the fish sauce and the soy. The main reason I haven't quantified a recipe for this dish is because it is SO subjective. Trial and error will be key.

I think it's a really good idea to serve with some extra lemon/lime wedges, coriander and spring onion. Enjoy!

My Favourite Animal is Steak

This is a take on Jamie's Fillet Steak with Creamy Leeks and Butter Beans. If you fancy pepping up your steak, this is a brilliant recipe. The sauce created when the meat juices, leeks and beans are combined  is really something to behold. It would work well with rib-eye or sirloin...but is especially wonderful with a nice piece of tender fillet. I aslo served it with wedges and a green salad. I'm a bit of a salad enthusiast and deem it a necessary element of most meals. If you don't agree, don't have the salad, but I will never understand you.

The raw elements of the dish:



The ingredients, for two:

2 200gm fillet steaks (or as big you want)
About 4 maris piper/ king edward potatoes
Salad (optional but advised)
A good couple of glugs of Olive Oil (EV)
Salt
Pepper
1 Lemon

For the Leeks and Beans:

1 Garlic Clove
2 leeks
1 tin of Butter Beans (or dried)
Knob of Butter (about 10 gms)
Big pinch of Thyme (fresh would be best)
Small handful of Parsley finely chopped
About a glass of White Wine
1 Tbs Creme Fraiche

Right, so if you want to do the wedges, start by pre-heating your oven to about 190, and chop your potatoes into eighths of roughly the same size to ensure even cooking. Put a roasting tray of a size that means the potatoes can be spread in one layer into the oven with a good glug of olive oil in it. Preheating the tray and the oil really helps to get the potatoes cooking.

Potatoes in, now get on with washing and finely slicing your leeks. Keep any off cuts if you think there's a chance they'll be handy in a stock etc in the next couple of days. Whatever you do with them, please refrain from putting them in the bin! Get a suitable pan on the go with the knob of butter and a little olive oil. Finely chop the garlic and thyme and add to the pan with the leeks. Sweat gently on a low heat for about 20 minutes, until the leeks are really soft. Check your potatoes and give them a jiggle. If you have wisely opted for a salad, now is its time.

Increase the heat and slosh in the white wine, allow it to boil and once it does, toss in the drained beans and a splash of water so the beans are almost covered with liquid. I would recommend getting your griddle pan, or thick frying pan, or whatever best equipment you have for cooking your steak. I used a griddle on the hob, you want it super hot. Simmer for ten minutes to soften the beans and thicken the sauce slightly. Now you can add in the final bits; the parsley, creme fraiche, a glug of olive oil and season.

 

Time to cook your hunks of meat, season and brush with olive oil. I cooked mine, which were roughly an inch thick, for about 2 minutes on each side for rare, but it obviously depends on the thickness of your steak.

 When you're satisfied, pop them on a plate to rest for five minutes, drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice and slice thickly. Spoon the leeks and beans onto hot plates and lay the steak over the top. Pour over some of the resting juices and you're done!

Bill's Lunch...is it worth it?

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the food at Bill's in Lewes. The aesthetics of the cafe teamed with the constant hustle and bustle create a lovely atmosphere. Displays of beautiful artisan breads, oversized pumpkins and hanging chillis really draw you in, making every item on sale an absolute necessity.

 I went on Mum's Birthday this week for a quick lunch. We both chose the same dish on the menu, a feta and cous cous salad.

 

As you can see it is a visual feast...but really, it's rocket, cheese and cous cous for a tenner. But I knew that when I ordered it. And I didn't feel over charged (not that I picked up the bill (haha)). What you pay for at Bill's is the whole experience, the queuing and other negatives that are often cited are from people missing the point. Bill's has achieved the incredible in terms of marketing, it's a cafe charging twice what it should and that's why people go. They might not realise it but it is. Everyone wants a bit of Bill's. Including me. And the salad was good by the way, for what it was. I know this has probably been a misleading passage, but I do feel slightly misled (in a positive way) every time I find myself in the establishment. Delight and bewilderment sit side by side, time and time again.

Joss turned her back on me because I didn't save her any feta.

Tuscan Noodles, Homemade Pesto and a Salad

My dog bought me a pasta machine for my Birthday this year.

 So I made ravioli a few weeks ago with some success, but tweaks will be made. My latest attempt doesn't need alterations though, it really was easy too. Granted it's more effort than opening a packet of pasta and a jar of pesto. But unlike the product of that combination, I would happily serve this dish to the foodiest of people. Without a pasta machine, a rolling pin and firm hands will do the job. There is something incredibly indulgent about the silky fresh pasta that is born.

For the pasta, (this serves 2/3 but can be easily multiplied):

150gm OO Flour (pasta/pizza flour)
2 Eggs
1/2 tsp Salt
 Semolina Flour for dusting

And that is it!

For the Pesto:

1 medium sized bunch of Basil
1 clove of Garlic
25gm Pine Nuts
30gm Parmesan
75-100ml Olive Oil (EV)

Ok, so start with making your pasta dough. Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl, lightly beat the eggs and add about 3/4 of them to the flour. Bring the mixture together, I find it easiest to initially use a fork, then your hands once the egg has been absorbed. Persevere, it will bind- try to refrain from adding more of the egg, this dough easily becomes too wet. The drier the better!

This is the hard work, knead the dough for about 10 minutes using a lot of weight on the base of your palms. The dough will be smooth and silky when it is ready. Now rest it on a plate with an upturned bowl on it for 30 mins.

In this interlude you can make the pesto and a salad. There are two options here- easy (if you have a processor) and slightly time consuming (if you have a decent pestle and mortar). So take your pick. The pestle and mortar give better results everytime, it's something in the way the flavours are blended without becoming an indeterminable mush.

Basically all of the ingredients must be blended, so in the quick method just chuck everything in the processor, but do grate the cheese and mix this in at the end. In the pestle and mortar do the garlic first, then add in the basil and pine nuts, the friction from the pine nuts will help break down the basil. Remember, it wont look like bought pesto, and that is a good thing. Use the olive oil to swill the deliciousness out of the mortar. And hey pesto! (Sorry)

Make yourself a leafy salad. Go crazy.

Now, time to get on with the pasta, either set up your pasta machine, or get your rolling pin and make sure you have a nice clean area to roll on. Dust a clean tea towel with semolina flour and keep the flour to hand.

Get rolling!

Once it is thin enough to see through it easily, you're there! Lie out the sheets on the tea towel and dust with more semolina flour. Allow the sheets to dry out for about 40 minutes.

During the drying time, get your biggest pan out and fill with water, add a good tablespoon of salt. That may seem excessive but it makes all the difference. When the time is up, loosely roll the pasta and cut with a very sharp knife about 1/2 an inch wide.

When the water is at a rolling boil, cook your pasta for about 2 minutes, be careful not to overcook- these really don't need long. Drain retaining a little of the cooking water and in a shallow pan toss in the pasta, the water, as much pesto as you fancy and a glug of olive oil, toss quickly over a high heat. Serve in hot bowls with your salad, with parmesan and black pepper and that's it. Making pasta is not so hard.

A Sort of Surprise Birthday Meal (Great Gammon Recipe)

I organised a semi-surprise Birthday dinner party for my Mother at the weekend. And, not to blow my own trumpet, it went pretty well. It's always more of an ordeal to try and impress those closest to you I think.
On the menu:

Potted Prawns (served in an array of shells),  Mackerel and Fennel Pate

with homemade Breadsticks

Gammon baked in Cider with Onion and Apple sauce,

with Mash, slow roast Jerusalem Artichokes

 and Spring greens

Seville Orange, gold splattered Meringue Pie

I made the bread dough the night before, when I also prepared the potted prawns. The prawns are really so easy to do. I ended up buying ready cooked in shell from waitrose (had run out of raw), but they worked really well. Make sure you buy prawns in their shells, it works out a lot cheaper, it just takes a bit of time.

I melted butter, and mixed in cayenne pepper and nutmeg, then popped in the peeled prawns. Then divided the mix into a selection of shells from my childhood collection. (Ramekins would obviously do the job). And they are done!

Now, it was the gammon that saved the evening from being stressful, and allowed me to leave the kitchen. This forgiving recipe really allows you to relax and has never failed to give me fantastic results. Also, it works out very cheaply per head, I bought a good quality gammon for £18- NOT BAD.

To serve 12 (ish), takes about 3 1/2 hours...or as long as you need

1 3kg Gammon (unsmoked)

2 Bramley Apples

3 White Onions

1 Bulb of Garlic (optional)

1 tbs French Mustard

500ml chicken stock

500ml good medium/dry cider

Firstly, if your gammon is salted soak it, most aren't thought. Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees celsius. Next, pop the meat into a roasting dish/tin that has high sides. Cut the apples in half (don't peel), skin the onions and cut them in half also, if using the garlic cut the whole bulb in half. Arrange all of these in the tray around the gammon.

In a large bowl or jug, mix the hot stock (should be hot to get the gammon cooking immediately), the cider and the mustard. Pour the mixture all over the gammon, season with pepper (no salt) and in the oven it goes!

Baste every 30mins, and cook for roughly 3 hours, no harm will be done if it's 4. The beautiful liquid will keep the meat nice and moist.

Take the meat out of the pan and let it rest on a hot carving plate for about 20 minutes covered in foil. While it's resting, spoon the fat off the sauce in the pan, which should have thickened to a perfect pouring consistency. Keep on the heat on a hob, when ready to serve the meat strain into a warmed jug.

Enjoy- works really well with mash and cabbage- but go to town on veg. The leftover meat, if there is any, is fantastic! And I use my leftover mash for fish cakes- for which I will post a recipe soon.

I've been growing some mustard. Not much else yet.

I came back from cookery school on a bit of a food high, anything seemed possible. The perfect veg garden, the chickens, maybe even the pigs. The reality is that we have thousands upon thousands of rabbits in our garden. And my mum doesn't want chickens or pigs because apparently once I've gone off somewhere, she'll be the one looking after them. She's right of course.


So, I've sort of started a compost heap. (Very sort of) I've started growing some onions and I've, actually rather successfully, grown some mustard.

The funny thing about it is, that as much as I love to cook...it was the growing process that I found really exciting. Then I barely knew what to do with the stuff, there isn't really that much. So it is definitely the the process that holds the pleasure. 

There were a couple of potential set backs, I hadn't used the recommended compost (shock horror), there was mould growing before there was mustard growing. But, sitting tightly and watering when I remembered to, they grew!I celebrated the glory with a salad, the mustard may not be the main ingredient (that would be wierd and just too spicy) but it certainly adds some peppery pizzazz.

The moral of the story is, give growing a go, in your kitchen, on your window-sill, in your garden. You'll enjoy the results even if they are not an essential dietary need. I'm actually really proud of my little plastic trays. I'll keep you posted on the onions...there might be a bit of a wait. In the mean time, once February begins, it'll be time to plant my nasturtium seeds. Now that is going to be excting.

A really lovely risotto recipe

I think risottos are a failsafe dinner, quick, delicious, and potentially very reasonable per head if you make certain choices. While I was at university and living in a house of seven, often with extra bodies, risotto made an appearance about once a week. So long as you follow several simple steps, the results will always be a pleasure.

The basis is the receptacle to many flavours- and unless you make some really bad choices most things can work. With a little salad, and maybe or maybe not some bread, there you go. Last night I made a really delicious risotto, even my Mother really liked it and she is a tough one to please. So, the combination was butternut squash, fennel seed and spinach- plus all the delicious parmesan, wine and stock that you would expect. As a staunch meat eater, this vegetarian dinner didn't fail to hit the spot. The key is how you treat the individual elements in this dish.

I wasn't working from a recipe- but here are some rough estimates of what I used, it serves about three but can be easily multiplied. It probably would have served four if my Mother hadn't eaten so much.

150gm of aborio risotto rice (carnaroli or vialone nano would also be fine, but aborio is the most available. If you're really really stuck use pudding rice- gives fairly good results)
500ml veg stock- now for mine I used a vegetable bouillon powder with the celery stalk off-cuts and onion stalk skin and root, plus some whole pepper corns and parsley stalks, as well as some bay leaves. Basically, put in what you have, carrots would also be a great addition (adding these other bits really enriches the stock. Obviously make a veg stock from scratch, or if you have some use that- just AVOID super cheap stock cubes)
75gm Parmesan (not ready grated- I know it's pricey but a piece will last you and more than pay for itself in flavour)
1 white onion- finely chopped
2-3 stalks of celery- peel off the stringy outside for the stock pot then finely chop
1 clove of garlic- either finely chopped or crushed
40gm butter and a swig of olive oil
300gm spinach
1/2 teaspoon of fennel seeds pounded to dust in a pestle and mortar
1 medium size butter nut squash
Glass of white wine (something you'd happily drink because you probably will)
Low sided wide saucepan (as thick as you have), high sided sauce pan for stock

Start off by boiling the kettle and checking what you have that you can use to make your stock cube/mixture that bit more tasty. Pop it all in the pan with the boiling water and pop a lid on it. Now get peeling the butter nut squash, you'll need to use a knife because it is very thick, I find it easiest if you cut the squash across the circumference and peel the two ends separately.

 Get your low sided pan heating to a medium heat with half the butter in it and a drop of olive oil. Next, chop the sqaush into about centimetere squared pieces, crush or chop your garlic, and have your pounded fennel seed ready. Toss all of this in  the pan and give it a good mix around so that the squash gets coated in the delicious fennel and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes stirring regularly, then add about 4 table spoons of water and allow to simmer away.

Now you have time to chop your onion and celery as finely as you can, pop any off-cuts in the stock pot. Grate your parmesan, a fine setting is best. Wash your spinach. Right now you have pretty much everything ready. Have your rice and wine to hand as well.

See how the squah is doing, the water will evaporate, but will leave a glossy shine. The squash is ready when you can easily mash it. Do this in the pan then scoop out the mash into a bowl. Don't wash the pan, just add the rest of the butter and a swig of olive oil- put in back on the heat for a minute then add the onion and celery, season. Allow these to sweat without getting colour for about ten minutes, it's quite a good idea to make a lid with baking paper- helps them to sweat.

Add your rice when you're happy the veg have softened, cook on a medium high heat for a minute then slug in the wine, it'll sizzle away quite quickly. Once it has disappeared, add your hot stock by the ladle, waiting for one to be absorbed before you add another. It should take about 18 minute for the rice to be cooked al dente, just a little bite in the middle of the grain. After about 15, add back in the squash and mix it in well, and add the spinach- encourage it to wilt. Taste it! There's no going back, is the rice cooked, the seasoning right (remember the parmesan is salty)?  Add the parmesan and turn off heat. Mix the cheese through, the consistency should be nice and creamy, not dry but not soupy. Serve! In warm bowls!
 Delicious with a peppery salad and some ciabatta.

There should be a photo of the finished dish, but we ate it before I got the chance.

My first loaf of Granary post Ballymaloe

So my days at  the moment consist mainly of trying to persuade people to employ me/let me work for them for free. (Which I thought was a good deal). Alas, nothing so far. Usually about mid-afernoon I am getting frustrated and start the hunt for some productive procrastination...baking. Or marmalade, or pasta...anyway, yesterday was baking, and the end product was a monstrous loaf of granary bread. It is absolutely delicious, light and airy with a beautifully crisp crust. And it honestly barely took up any of my time, it used the airing cupboard and the ovens' mainly.

I used the Ballymaloe recipe which calls for (if you do the mixed flour type which I would recommend):

450gm of granary flour
110gm of strong white flour
1 rounded teaspoon of salt (table)
20gm yeast (try and get fresh, it does make a difference- ask at your bakery, even supermarket bakeries often have it)
About 300ml lukewarm water
1 teaspoon black treacle or golden syrup (treacle gives a slightly richer loaf)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kibled wheat for top (optional)
12x20 cm loaf tin

Firstly, in a big bowl mix the flours with the salt
Mix the yeast with the lukewarm water, treacle and oil
Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix to a pliable dough
Turn onto a floured surface and knead for several minutes until smooth
Shape into a ball, pop back in bowl, cover with a tea-towel and put in an airing cupboard if you have one, if not next to a radiator or anywhere warm (this will help the yeast get to work)

Let it at least double (when you poke it it should almost bounce back- but not quite)
Knock it back and knead for a couple of minutes
Now preheat your oven (conventional) to 230 degrees celsius

Shape the bread so it has a smooth outside and place in the oiled tin (sunflower or olive)
Put it back in it's warm place until it's risen above the top of the tin (do the poke test)
Brush with water and sprinkle with optional kibbled wheat
Bake for about 25 minutes then turn down to 200 degrees celsius for 20 minutes- take bread out of tin for last few minutes if you want a crisper crust- when it's ready it should sound hollow when you hold it up to your ear like a telephone and tap it.
Allow to cool on a rack

Now you should have a wonderful, if rather rustic looking loaf. Mine has risen a lot, I think this was because I was a rather liberal with the yeast and didn't bother to weigh it. Of course you can mess around with the flours used, more white etc. Also, try using honey or golden syrup instead of treacle for a slightly lighter loaf. For other variety shape into rolls, smaller loaves, or whatever you fancy. This bread really does have a delicious taste and texture and barely require any hands on time. I urge you to give it a go.