Chocolate Denver Pudding

Oh dear, another recipe where I fear I have to advise dieters to look away now.  But honestly, this is much lower in fat than last week's butter-fest pear cake with fudge sauce.  (OK, we won't mention the sugar content......).  Basically, this is a self-saucing pudding, made by mixing up a light batter, topping it with sugar and cocoa, and pouring cold coffee over.  When I first made it, many, many moons ago, I remember panicking and thinking "What the...?" but it works, like magic.  The cocoa and coffee cobine to form a gorgeous sauce on the bottom and the sponge rises to the top.  If you like chocolate fondant puddings, you'll love this, and SOOOO much easier to do.  No eggs, too, so suitable for egg-allergy sufferers or vegans, if you replace the butter and milk with a non-dairy alternative.  So, not too bad for you after all!  OK dieters, you can look now.
Recipe (from Sainsbury's Winter Pudding book 1986 - out of print sadly).  This serves 4-6 and is rich, so small portions are all that's needed.  Nice cold the next day if leftovers

50g butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, 75g caster sugar, 125g plain flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder,6 tablespoons milk and a few drops good vanilla essence.  Topping 50g dark brown soft sugar, 50g caster sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 100ml cold coffee made with two teaspoons of instant coffee or left-over strong filter coffee

Place the butter and cocoa in a pan over a medium heat and stir until melted and combined.  Stir in the sugar, flour, baking powder, milk and vanilla until well combined.  Turn the mixture into a deep greased 20cm square or round oven-proof dish.  For the topping, combine the sugars and cocoa and sprinkle over the batter, then pour over the cold coffee.  It will look dreadful, but bear with me.  Bake in a preheated oven 170C fan oven or Gas 4, for 40 minutes.  Serve with cream, if liked, but for once I think it is better without.

Roast Kabocha Squash and Sweetcorn Soup

I know, another squash soup, but they are rather lovely to cook with and make for healthy and filling lunches.  This week we ordered a special extra box from Riverford Organics which delivered 8 beautiful specimens of kabocha, acorn, butternut and small pumpkin varieties.  The kabocha was particularly beautiful, a deep speckled green with a blush of orange, and as warty as a witch's nose, so it seemed appropriate to mark Hallowe'en, or perhaps more appropriately for a Scot, Samhain, by cooking it.  The regular Riverford veg box also provided us with some sweetcorn cobs, so it seemed logical to combine them.  The usual method: cut the squash into wedges and roast.  Sweat an onion in olive oil, add the roasted squash, scooped from the skin, and the kernels from a couple of stripped sweetcorn cobs.  Just cover with veg stock, simmer for 20 minutes or so and then blend - I left half unblended to give texture.  No chilli or herbs this week, just gentle, unadorned sweetness and goodness!  Like me. (ha!)

Dorset Apple Traybake

A friend mentioned last week that she had made Dorset Apple Cake, and I thought it would be a great candidate for our lunchboxes this week.  There are as many recipes for this as there are cooks in Dorset and the debate rages as to whether there should be spices and dried fruit in or not.  I decided to retain the purity of the apple and a good buttery sponge, so followed a recipe on BBC Good Food, albeit it with some tweaks - I know, I just can't help myself.  So I used this recipe, but grated the zest of the lemon in too, I replaced the caster sugar with some soft brown sugar to give a wee bit of depth of flavour, and I also used eating apples (British Cox and Gala) instead of Bramleys as I thought they would keep their shape better.  Lovely simple recipe that took about 10 minutes to whip up in the KitchenAid.  The smell in the flat as it baked was fantastic too!

Roast Butternut, Goats' Cheese and Sage Souffle

Supper really was the highlight of my day today.  Whether that meant that I had had a particularly bad day at work, or just that I am greedy, I'll leave you to decide - a bit of both, if truth be told.  I've wanted to do this recipe, by Sarah Raven, for a while, and as I had some leftover roasted butternut squash in the fridge, today seemed like an ideal opportunity.  So, a bit of mashing of squash, a bit of grating of parmesan and chopping of soft, squidgy goats' cheese, tearing of sage leaves, and beating of egg whites, and we're done.  I made a little 'panade', the classic thick white sauce, as a base, and beat the mashed squash and 3 egg yolks into this along with most of the parmesan and the sage.  Then, I folded the cubed squidgy goats' cheese in along with the egg white, tipped it into a gratin dish lined with butter and more parmesan, and sprinkled the remaining cheese on top.  Twenty minutes later, it emerged from a hot oven all golden, wobbly and crisp.  Dear reader, it was delicious, and the day seems nicer and life more mellow, with a full tum and a fragrant flat!

The Lifecycle of Joint of Roast Pork

So, next meat to get the lifecycle treatment.  A wonderful piece of pork loin - really good, outdoor reared and organic.  Not cheap, but we will, again, get three meals from it for the two of us, so fourteen quid well spent for superb meat.  Yesterday, it was roasted on a bed of thickly sliced onion with fresh sage and rosemary.  This base made a marvellous gravy later.  Tonight, with a desire to eat lightly after yesterday's fudge sauce excesses, I made egg noodles with stirfried cavolo nero, onions, pork, and mushrooms in an aromatic broth of chicken stock, deeply flavoured with chopped ginger, garlic and red chilli, and a splosh of soy sauce.  Light, low fat, yet filling, this was perfect.  More tomorrow on the remaining chunk of roast meat.

Between the Sheets Cocktail

Tonight's cocktail is a classic, and we make it with equal quantities of Bacardi white rum, cognac, Cointreau and fresh lemon juice, shaken over ice and strained into a martini glass with a lemon twist.  Totally.  Delicious.   Served with crisp little Cheddar and Rosemary biscuits.  I think Sundays are my favourite day of the week!  Hic!
NB: many thanks to Helen for spotting the deliberate error in my original posting, where I listed gin instead of Bacardi white rum.  What can I say?  I was drunk at the time.

Cinnamon Pear Cake with Vanilla Fudge Sauce [#252]

Now, safety alert: if you are on a diet, please look away now, as this posting will only make you cry.  For the rest of you, read this recipe, then go out, buy the ingredients, and make it.  Every now and then, we all need this, and it does feed a lot of people.  This is essentially a buttery sponge, with nuggets of buttery, caramelised cinnamony pear embedded in it, doused in a buttery fudge sauce.  Have you picked up on the fact there is a lot of butter in it?  Well, we just won't eat any of the stuff for the rest of the week, and indulge (almost) guiltlessly.  When I die, can you please ensure I am embalmed in this sauce?  And if I eat any more of it, that particular event may not be too far off.  Here is a link to the recipe, as cooked by the lovely blogger, Little Bird Eats.  It should come as no surprise that this recipe is from the marvellous Nigel Slater, and can also be found in his recently published 'Tender: Vol 2'.  You won't ever regret buying this, or the first volume.

Chocolate and Beetroot Cake

I haven't made a cake for a while so thought I'd use up some beetroot in this good, plain, cut-and-come again cake.  Beetroot adds moisture and extra sweetness to proceedings, and the cake keeps well as a result - or as well as a slab of home-made chocolate cake lying around the kitchen can ever keep!  Some people react very strangely to the idea of it's presence in a cake, with a wrinkled nose and a 'bleugh!'.  Why?  We eat carrot cake with no qualms.  And it amazes me that people will pounce on Red Velvet Cake which is made with a huge quantity of artificial red food colouring.  Surely better to eat something wholesome and healthy?  Anyway, a quick google for a simple, melt-and-mix recipe came up with this one on Netmums, and it is a doddle - do try it.  You will also find a variation on BBC Good Food, which uses oil instead of butter for those trying to avoid dairy.

Roast Butternut Squash Soup with Leek and Chilli

It is very rare indeed that Hubby is off work on a Saturday, but today is one of those days!  Hurray!  But, a 'proper' lunch is called for rather than my usual making do with some toast.  Yesterday's Riverford Organic Veg Box brought a HUGE butternut squash, which I chopped and roasted on foil-lined trays.  Whilst this happened, I sliced two magnificent leeks (also form the box) and sweated them slowly in olive oil, with a little garlic and a chopped bird's eye chilli.  Into the pot went one of the trays of roasted squash, along with a litre or so of Marigold veg stock mixed with a tablespoon of tomato puree.  Twenty minutes of simmering, and a quick whizz with the handblender (still leaving some chunkiness for a bit of texture) and we had a thick, warming bowl of soup with just a prickle of chilli.  Loads left for lunch on Monday too.  The remaining squash will be mashed and turned into a Squash, Sage and Goat's Cheese Souffle from Sarah Raven that I've had my eye on for a while.

Creamy Fish Pie

So, last night, I had a lump of leftover smoked haddock from the previous night's Kedgeree in the fridge, and had originally intended to make a recipe my sister suggested - a cauliflower and smoked haddock souffle.  However, it was cold, and we were tired from a week at work, and needed comfort - sorry Sis, but Fish Pie won the day!  I promise I'll try your recipe soon and blog about it on here.  Anyway, comfort indeed, with a fillet each of cod and salmon rescued from the depths of the freezer and the aforementioned smoked haddock, folded into a creamy bechamel sauce with a touch of white vermouth, sauteed mushrooms, frozen peas and lots of parsley and dill - oh, and a leftover boiled egg from yesterday too.  Topped with creamy mash and baked until lovely and golden, it was a marvellous supper, and we drank a fine white Burgundy in it's honour.

Kedgeree

Ah, Kedgeree....for me, this is true comfort food, a dish I grew up eating, and which always reminds me of my dear old Dad, who would probably have killed for a plate of it.  Over the years, I've made it many ways - pre-cooked rice with the other ingredients stirred in, with and without a creamy curry sauce, all delicious.  But now, I make it in one pan, by the absorption method, which is much simpler.  Now, some recipes I have seen omit any spices, and simply have a dish of cooked rice, smoked haddock, boiled egg and parsley - imagine that, no spices?!  Not right, not right at all.  Anyway, how I make it (for 2): boil a couple of good-sized eggs, and poach some reaaly good, undyed smoked haddock very gently in water to cover for about 5 minutes.  Drain, and cool, then flake into large juicy chunks.  Finely chop an onion, and gently cook in about 25g of butter until lightly golden and softened.  Stir in a level teaspoon each of turmeric and ground coriander, and half a teaspoon of garam masala powder.  I also added a little chopped green chilli, simply because I had some.  Now, measure in a jug 7floz of basmati rice, then tip into a seive and rinse.  Add to the buttery onions along with 14floz of hot water from the kettle.  Stir, cover, bring to the boil then turn right down and cook for 15 minutes until all the water has been absorbed.  In the meantime, peel and chop the eggs, flake the fish and chop a good handful of parsley - for once, I think the curly parsley is best here.  When the time is up, stir the egg, fish and parsley through the rice with a fork, cover again and leave to sit for a couple of minutes, then eat.  Nom nom!

Beefy Bean and Tomato Soup

Earlier in the week, I looked at the lifecycle of a roasted beef topside and how to eke out the leftovers.  After a mammoth Cottage Pie, yesterday I made a huge pot of this soup.  It is a bit of a storecupboard standby as it uses tinned items too, but I think good tinned tomatoes and pulses are essential!  Anyway, I sweated a couple of good sized onions (use leeks instead if you have them) in a little olive oil, with a couple of diced carrots and couple of sticks of celery.  After a few minutes, I tipped in a tin of chopped tomatoes, a tin of borlotti beans and a tin of green lentils - the pulses having been drained and rinsed.   Then, a litre and a half of beef stock (go ahead, use good old Oxo for this) along with two potatoes, peeled and chopped fine, and a couple of handfuls of frozen peas.  Bring to the boil, then simmer gently for an hour, stirring occasionally.  The potatoes break up and thicken the soup deliciously.  A few minutes before serving, chop up your remaining beef, removing any fat, gristle etc, into small chunks and add to the soup.  You can also add some finely shredded cabbage if liked - which we do.  Allow to heat through thoroughly, add some fresh parsley and dish up in big steaming bowls.  With crusty bread and some cheese, this is my idea of heaven on a cold night.

The Lifecycle of a Joint of Roast Beef

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the lifecycle of a leg of roast lamb, and how, as just two people, we don't eschew a large joint of roasted meat.  This weekend, we roasted a lovely topside of Aberdeen Angus Beef, around 1.5 kilos in weight, which we had with the usual accompaniments for Sunday dinner.  Tonight, we have just demolished a proper Cottage Pie, made with half of the remaining beef, minced, sauteed carrots, onions, mushrooms and peas, with the last of the gravy.  I commented to Hubby that the dish was big enough to feed a hungry family of four, and his response was, "Well, it will feed a hungry family of two instead" and he proceeded to have two huge platefuls.  He truly has hollow legs.  The remaining third is being turned into another favourite, our Big Beefy Beany Broth, which I'll blog tomorrow.  This will feed us for supper and a couple of work lunches, with lots of crusty bread, some cheese and an apple.  All for an initial outlay of twelve quid.

Raymond Blanc's Tarte Tatin

photo by Jean Cazals

Oh, rarely has a dish been so badly abused than the Tarte Tatin.  Common mistakes are: too little caramelisation and too few apples, with a pale, flabby puff pastry layer.  The apples should be halved and packed, upright, into the buttery caramel base, and the pastry should be cooked until crisp and flaky, to provide contrasting textures.  I was privileged, many years ago, to watch a live cookery demonstration by the demi-God, Raymond Blanc.  From what I can remember, dragged out of  memories obscured by sheer lust and awe, he produced a Tatin of utter brilliance (I also remember him tasting olive oil by pouring it onto his palm and licking it off - I didn't recover from that for several weeks).  So, I have followed his recipe every Autumn for our annual treat, probably for the last 20 years or more.  The recipe works, so I shall simply point you to it to follow too, along with a picture from his cookbook that shows what perfection should look like.

Salmon en papillote

I love baking salmon fillets (and other fish fillets for that matter) en papillote - it keeps the flesh super-moist, creates a sauce, reduces washing up and also seems to cut down on some of salmon's oilyness.  I take a sheet of foil and top it with a smaller sheet of baking parchment.  Then build the dish - you can simply put the fish in with a dot of butter, some lemon and seasoning.  Or you can put a bed of spinach, chard, julienned leeks, whatever, on the bottom first, then lay the fish on top.  I added some lemon and a tablespoon of Noilly Prat (white wine would be fine), then sealed the package tightly, placed on a baking tray and baked in a hot oven (200 degrees) for 20 minutes.  The smell when you unwrap the parcel is divine.  Serve as it is with the juices poured over, or pour the juices into a pan and boil for a minute, then stir in a spoonful of double cream or creme fraiche and some chives for a bit of indulgence.  I'll leave you to guess what we did.

Cavalo Nero and Meatball Soup

This recipe came from the BBC Good Food Magazine via Riverford Organics, and I have seen it blogged quite a lot recenly.  I made meatballs using minced British veal, flavoured with lemon and nutmeg, and also used Cavolo Nero, as that's what came in the Riverford box this week (and they use it in their version of the recipe).  Simple, filling elegant and quite low fat if you use lean veal (or beef, pork or chicken mince would be fine too).  Here is the Good Food version of the recipe, and I used their photo too, as I forgot!

Chard and Ricotta Cannelloni

I had a bag of mixed chard leaves from the Riverford box - ruby, golden and green.  They were quite small with not much stem, so I had no qualms about throwing away some of the stems, although I would normally want to use them too.  The blanched leaves were chopped finely and mixed with ricotta, nutmeg and grated Parmesan.  I use lasagne sheets rather than cannelloni tubes, cooking them for a few minutes to soften and drying on kitchen paper.  Marcella Hazan's tip is to spread the filling all over the sheet of lasagne and then roll up, rather than having a wodge of filling in the middle and several layers of pasta round it.  This makes for a much lighter finish.  Place the rolls on a layer of chopped, skinned fresh tomatoes, and then top with a simple bechamel sauce and more Parmesan.  Forty minutes in a medium oven, until all is tender and bubbling with a golden cheesy crust, makes for a most scrummy dinner.  Use spinach if you don't have chard.

Apple Tart with Amaretti Biscuits

Surely the simplest apple tart ever?  Based on a recipe from Riverford Organic's cookbook, it is a doddle.  Line a round or square tart tin with parchment paper.  Take 100g of plain flour, 40g of hard Amaretti biscuits, 70g of melted butter and 50g of caster sugar.  Whizz it all together in a food processor until it is sandy and moist.  Tip this mix into the tin and press down well into a compact an even layer.  Now top with sliced apples - the recipe stated Bramleys but I had English Cox's, so used them instead - and make a pretty pattern if you can be bothered.  Melt a tablespoon of butter and brush over the apples, then sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of caster sugar mixed with half a teaspoon of cinnamon.  Bake in a hottish oven, around 190 degrees, for half an hour or so.  The base crisps up deliciously in the oven.  Serve with custard, cream, or ice cream.  Or all three?  Only kidding!

Sweetcorn with Chilli and Coriander Butter

We have a bit of a veg glut in the house at the moment, so lots of veggie dishes recently, which is no bad thing.  After starting with a big bowl of my favourite beetroot soup, served with crisp bread croutes and melting goats' cheese with fresh thyme, we had chunks of corn-on-the-cob slathered with chilli and coriander butter.  Very simple to make - take about 4 oz or 100g of butter and allow to soften to room temperature.  In a pestle and mortar, crush a clove of garlic with a little salt, then add the grated zest of a lime and a finely chopped red chilli - I used a teaspoon of Lazy Chilli.  Mix a little then add the softened butter, and mash all together.  When amalgamated, add a couple of tablespoons of chopped coriander and a squeeze of lime juice.  Mix well, and either shape into a log, wrapped in clingfilm (it freezes well this way) or just dollop on the freshly cooked or barbecued corn.  Delicious!

Rosemary Saddleback Potatoes

This recipe comes from Sarah Raven's magisterial work, 'The Garden Cookbook' and is her version of the perhaps better known Hasselback Potatoes.  You take a medium potato, King Edward's in our case, and cut it through almost to the bottom at regular intervals.  Stuff chopped rosemary into as many of the slices you can (easier said than done!), sprinkle with salt and pepper and spoon over a couple of teaspoons of olive oil.  Repeat for as many as you want/need/think you can scoff.  Roast for an hour in a medium oven - around 170, ours sat happily next to a roasting chicken.  Simple and delicious.  You could vary the herbs, with thyme perhaps, and also garlic, which I might use next time.

Appetizer Cocktail

Regular readers will know of my passion for Campari, but I also have a fondness for Dubonnet, which has a reputation for being naff though I don't know why.  It was originally developed for French Foreign Legionnaires to take quinine in North Africa in the 1840s, apparently. This is a delicious way to use it, whether or not you have malaria, being equal quantities of gin, Dubonnet and freshly squeezed orange juice, with a couple of dashes of Angostura Bitters.  Shake over ice and pour into a martini or rocks glass, garnished with a strip of orange peel.  Just right to accompany the Parmesan Biscuits.  Chin chin!

Parmesan Biscuits

Well, we've been off on our hols in sunny St Ive's, Cornwall, so apologies for the radio silence.  We ate well down there, in some wonderful restaurants, including the famous Porthminster Beach Cafe (who did a stunning Beetroot and Goat's Cheese puree) and Alba (wonderful Mussels with Curry, Cream and Tomato).  Back to my own kitchen, and to accompany our cocktails tonight, I have made Parmesan Biscuits.  Simply blend in a food processor:
120g each of plain flour, grated Parmesan cheese and cubed, ice-cold butter, along with a good dash of cayenne pepper and black pepper and a teaspoon of English mustard powder.  It should come together into a ball, but if it is dry or crumbly, carefully add a teaspoon of water at a time until it is the right texture.  Knead lighly on a sheet of clingfilm and then, using the flat palms of your hand, roll out to a sausage roll shape.  Wrap tightly in the clingfilm, and chill in the fridge.  Now, cut slices off the roll with a sharp knife, about half a centimetre thick, and place on a baking tray, preferably non stick.  Space them apart to allow for a little expansion.  Bake for 10 minutes at 200 degrees - keep an eye on them so they don't burn.  They should be an enticing pale golden colour.  Leave on the tray for a few minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool.  Allegedly, these keep well in a tin but we always eat them in one sitting.  I know, I know...........