Apple and Calvados Crostata

Crostata or galette - whatever you want to call them, they are my favourite way of making a fruit pie or tart.  No fiddly lining of flan or pie tins, no baking blind, and an uneven finish is positively encouraged to ensure a fashionably 'rustic' look.  I've made others on here before - peach and blueberry, fig and raspberry - this one makes use of some fabulous Bramley cooking apples from Riverford.  I cooked 4 of them to a fluffy puree with sugar to taste, and chopped another one in for a bit of texture.  To this, I added a big handful of raisins that had been soaked in a good splosh (technical term, there) of Calvados, to emphasise the appliness.  When cool, this mixture was piled into the centre of a rough round of sweet shortcrust (200g flour, 100g butter, a tablespoon of sugar and an egg yolk).  A sprinkling of ground almonds on the bottom soaks up any extra liquid from the apples.  Fold the edges of the pastry up to form a rough border, brush with the left-over egg white and sprinkle with demerara sugar and more ground almonds.  Bake on a sheet of parchment at around 180C for about 40 minutes until golden and cooked through.  Lovely served warm with a little custard or cream, to which a further splosh of Calvados has been added.

Beetroot, Carrot and Orange Soup

I have blogged the Beetroot and Carrot soup already, and declared my love for it, but it was taken to new heights by the addition of the zest and juice of an orange.  Gosh, it was so wonderful, I could have eaten the entire pot!  Anyway, if you like these flavours, they all go together really well - it is simple to make: sweat a chopped onion, some chopped carrots and peeled fresh beetroot (a ration of 2:1 carrot/beetroot) in a tablespoon or so of olive oil until softening.  Grate in the zest of a large orange, followed by its juice.  Just cover with veg stock (Marilgold is fine) and simmer gently until the veg is tender.  Puree with a hand-blender and serve.  You can add cream if you like, but we didn't, enjoying the pure, fresh tastes of the veggies and orange. 

Sticky Pecan and Raisin Buns

Gosh, these are good!  Puff pastry rolled around brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins, sliced, then baked on a bed of butter, more brown sugar, and chopped pecans.   Another contribution to the charity cake sale today, and everyone enjoyed them heated very briefly in the microwave, when they emerged squidgy, fragrant and buttery (the buns, that is, not my colleagues, though they ended up that way after eating them).  I broke the low(er) fat regime by sharing one with a colleague.  Unfortunately, I also shared a chocolate danish, a slice of the Lemon and Apple Tart, a piece of Apple and Blueberry Cake and half a Raspberry and White Chocolate Brownie through the course of the day.  My maths isn't very good, but even I know that adds up to ......errr.....rather a lot of cake :-)

Anyway, make these buns, and they will make you smile all day.  based on a recipe by Ina Garten, they can be found on any number of blogs, but here is a link to the Food Network recipe from her show.  Follow the advice in the comments boxes - cut back the amount of butter and sugar a wee bit, and I reduced the cinnamon too - 3 teaspoons would be overwhelming.  Also, DO NOT let them sit for too long before turning out, as the molten butter and sugar quickly sets rock hard, and you will be chipping them out with a pick-axe.

Apple and Lemon Tart

I am doing another charity cake sale at work, and I thought I'd celebrate the British apple this time, so I had to make my Apple and Lemon tart.  I don't know why I haven't put it on here before - it is so delicious and simple and doesn't require the pastry to be blind-baked.  You line a 10" loose-bottomed flan case (metal) with some good sweet shortcrust - bought is fine, but I just knocked some up in the processor with 200g plain flour 100g butter and a tablespoon of icing sugar, bound with an egg yolk and water.  Now, peel and grate two large Cox's apples (British please!) and add to the juice and zest of two lemons, 2 eggs, 4 tablespoons caster sugar and 120ml of double cream.  Mix well, pour into the pie crust and bake at 170C for 40 minutes.  It is like a Tarte au Citron but with the freshness and texture of apple .  It is very nice indeed!  One tip: it looks a bit like a quiche, so a heavy drenching with icing sugar just before serving helps.

Ina Garten's Italian Wedding Soup

I have been watching Ina Garten's 'Back to Basics' on the UK Food Network (obsessively, my husband would assert) and saw her make this the other day.  It is a famous recipe in the blogosphere, and consists of little chicken meatballs in a good chicken broth with diced carrots, onions, spinach and parsley.   Tiny pasta is added, in my case risoni, and it is topped with grated Parmesan.  I made the meatballs by mixing a couple of skinned pork sausages (Ina recommends chicken sausages, but it is tricky to find good quality ones), with some minced cooked chicken, some breadcrumbs, garlic, grated Parmesan, an egg and lots of chopped parsley.  The little balls are baked in the oven, which keeps the fat down.  Meanwhile, cook the carrot and onion in the stock until tender - use good homemade stock, and we got through 2 pints of it for our dinner! - and then add the pasta about 10 minutes before serving.  In the final minute, add a handful of chopped spinach, the meatballs and lots of parsley and serve piping hot with Parmesan on top.  Delicious!

Balsamic-glazed Pork Steaks

Can I say right out that I am not a fan of Balsamic Vinegar?  Unless it is very good quality (and, therefore, very expensive) stuff from Modena, I tend to find it sharp and overwhelming.  This is a good way to use it, however - in small quantities, and tempered with the sweetness of honey.  It is dead simple - saute a couple of boneless pork steaks (organic, free-range, outdoor reared, and British, please) in a knob of butter and dash of olive oil.  Make sure the meat is well seasoned with salt and pepper, and don't fiddle with it.  Let it get a good crust on each side, around 5 minutes for the first side and 4 for the other.  Unless your pork is very thick, this will be plenty of time to cook through, yet still be moist and juicy.  After about 9 minutes is up, pour in 120ml of white wine, 2 tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon of runny honey.  Stir and baste the meat with the sauce and let it reduce down to a syrupy glaze.  Serve straight away with the glaze poured over.  It went very nicely with simple boiled rice, some braised fennel and steamed broccoli.  Mash would be good too.

Apple Tart 'Facon Maman'

One of my least favourite jobs in cooking is the baking 'blind' of tart shells.  I never have enough patience and end up with mis-shapen, shrunken tarts (insert punchline here).  However, Raymond Blanc's method is dead simple, with the apples being baked in the raw shell, after being glazed with butter, sugar and Calvados.  About 10 minutes before the tart is done, a simple custard of an egg, cream and a little sugar is poured in.  What a lovely, fresh apple, flavour you get in the end, with a nicely crisp crust.  The BBC has a recipe - do try it.

Leeks, Cannellini Beans and Chard

Sometimes, the simplest-sounding things can surprise with new flavours and combinations.  This idea, from Riverford's first veggie book, sounded a bit ordinary, but I thought I'd use it to accompany a roasted leg of lamb.  It was delicious!  By all means, soak and cook your own beans, but I find that good-quality tinned ones are just as good - I use the brilliant Italian brand, Cirio, who steam their beans in the tin.  As a consequence, there is barely any liquid in the tin, so no wastage and a much better texture and taste.  It consists of a large, thinly-sliced leek and onion, sweated slowly in a knob of butter and dash of olive oil until soft and velvety.  Don't let it brown.  About 5 minutes before completely done, add a chopped clove of garlic and a teaspoon each of chopped fresh rosemary and thyme.  Add a tin of beans, drained and rinsed, and a handful of chopped chard or spinach leaves.  Add about 120ml of water or veggie stock, season, cover and simmer for a further 5 minutes until all is tender and amalgamated.  Really nice, and would make good soup with extra broth added.  As it was, it accompanied roast lamb and gravy perfectly, along with wedges of roasted Gem Squash.

Ina Garten's Apple and Cranberry Cake

Well folks, did you miss me?  I have been on holiday for 2 and a half weeks in lovely Devon and Cornwall, and then back at work for a week, where I was too tired to cook anything other than old favourites.  But, I'm back in the culinary saddle, enjoying the wonderful weather and the abundance of produce that turned up in our re-instated Riverford delivery - this week brought marrows, celery, bok choy, tomatoes, cabbages, onions, carrots, muscat grapes, leeks, little gem squashes, watercress........so much inspiration!  Whilst we were away, the digital TV revolution hit Oxfordshire, and I finally have freeview and a multitude of different channels.  However, despite all this wealth of telly, I seem to be stuck on channel 49, the Food Network, where - joy of joys - they broadcast Ina Garten, the 'Barefoot Contessa'.  I have long enjoyed her recipes through the blogs of American foodies, and to be able to see her and watch her cooking is wonderful.  So, expect more from her on these pages.  First up is this opportunity to use the glut of fabulous apples this Autumn, and also to clear out a bag of frozen cranberries before winter sets in.  This is dead simple, and almost the texture of a clafoutis with a little cakiness thrown in.  It is a heavily-blogged recipe, so I have linked to the recipe on Epicurious.  This would work with loads of other fruit combos - apple and blackberry, naturally, but pear and blueberry would be nice too.

Smoked Haddock and Sweetcorn Chowder

I love smoked haddock, and one of the best ways to eat it is in the form of the Scottish soup, Cullen Skink, from the village of Cullen on the Moray Firth, near Aberdeen.  It can be a bit creamy, though, and I wanted to incorporate more veg than just the usual onion or leek and potato.  So, I lightened it and turned it into a chowder tonight, with chunks of potato, red pepper and some tiny fresh corn niblets from a fresh ear of corn - all from Riverford, of course.  Just sweat a finely chopped onion or leek in a little butter, add the chopped veg and I like a chopped chilli too.  Just cover with an equal quantity of veg stock and milk, and simmer gently until the potato is tender.  Add chunks of good, undyed smoked haddock, simmer gently for an further 5 minutes until fish is cooked.  Sprinkle with chopped chives or parsley and ladle into bowls.  Serve with crusty bread - a hearty, warming complete meal for a dreich night, as Aberdonians would say.  And they should know, they have enough of them.

Pasta with Salmon and Courgette Sauce

I was ticked off today for not doing enough blogging over the last week, so, simple though this dish is, I thought I'd placate my fans and publish it!  I had some poached salmon left over from the weekend, so whilst a pan of pasta was cooking, I lightly sauteed a sliced courgette in a little butter with the zest of half a lemon, then added 40ml of Noilly Prat vermouth (or use white wine), the juice of the lemon, a heaped tablespoon of creme fraiche (use half-fat if watching your intake) and the flaked salmon.  GENTLY heat through (you don't want to split the cream or make the salmon go 'woolly'), and then drain the pasta, reserving a little cooking water, and toss the pasta in the sauce.  Thin with a little cooking water if needed.  Grind in lots of black pepper and some chopped parsley, and serve piping hot.  Italinas would never dream of adding Parmesan to a fish sauce, neither would I, but don't let me stop you, it's YOUR tea!

Black Pepper Chicken Curry

As the years go by, I am much more brutal about the worth of a cookbook and whether it merits precious space on my bookshelves.  If I have never cooked a successful recipe from a book, then it is OUT!  A new book I got last week has already passed the test - 'The Three Sisters Indian Cookbook' is a really good publication with what seems to me to be authentic North Indian home cooking.  The Black Pepper Chicken curry I cooked tonight was WONderful!  It was a dryish curry, which I partnered with a nice recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for Potato and Chard Curry, and simple boiled basmati.  I shan't reproduce the recipe here in full, as it is copyright, but to give an idea,skinless chicken pieces are marinated in lemon juice, ground ginger, turmeric and LOTS of ground black pepper.  A paste is made of onion, garlic and fresh ginger.  Cloves, cinnamon sticks and cardamom pods are assembled, along with more ground black pepper.  The chicken is fried in a wok along with the paste and whole spices and some water to just cover.  The dish is simmered under chicken is tender and water has reduced to cover the chicken in the spicy paste.  Lots of chopped coriander is stirred through just before serving - delicious!  Get the book for some really simple, achievable North Indian food.

Lemon Drizzle Cake with Lemon Curd Mascarpone

Lemon Drizzle Cake is a always a favourite, but if you bake two rounds, drizzle, then sandwich with a deep layer of cool creamy mascarpone mixed with tangy, buttery lemon curd, you are on to a real winner.  I made this for a cake sale at work today, and I think I could have made another couple of cakes and it would still have sold.  Really, REALLY good, just make it, eat it and ignore the calories!  I found this recipe on Waitrose's site.  This recommends using home-made lemon curd, which would be perfection, but I didn't have the time.  Instead, I used Wilkinson's of Tiptree's bought stuff - it is very good, made with whole egg, butter and Sicilian lemons.  Not cheap.  But worth it.  Also, forgive the picture.  I was too knackered to take photos last night, and it disappeared this morning before I thought to ask someone to take a snap, so this pic from Waitrose will have to do.

Courgette Koftas with Tomato and Almond Sauce

A great recipe for those of you with courgette plants taking over your homes like a Stephen King horror novel.  Mildly spiced, or perkily hot, depending on how much chilli you use, this is a recipe from the superb 'Crank's Bible' by Nadine Abensur.  She deep-fries the koftas, but I never did that, even before the low-fat purge.  Instead, I made small koftas and browned them in shallow oil, draining well on kitchen paper, before reheating in the lovely, grainy sauce.  I have linked to the recipe as reproduced in Yumski's blog.

Roasted Sweetcorn Salsa

Undeterred by a colleague's fond memories of 'fishing' in Cardiff Bay in the 1970s (basically, standing on a pontoon in Barry Docks and scooping dead fish out as they floated past), I have opted for grilled Cornish Sardines for tea tonight.  I love them slashed in 2 or 3 places, rubbed with olive oil, sprinkled with lots of crunchy Malvern sea salt and coarsely-ground black pepper, and grilled until the skin is charred and blistered - heavenly!  AND I even like the bones.  Being oily, sardines need something sharp to take the edge off them, and this sweet and limey salsa does the trick.  You brush a couple of ears of corn with oil and grill under a hot element for about 10 minutes, turning from time to time.  Allow to cool a little and then, carefully hilding them upright with a cloth, cut downwards with a sharp knife to release the kernels.  Then simply mix with a peeled and skinned chopped tomato, a finely-chopped red onion, lots of chopped coriander and plenty of fresh lime.  If not watching the calories, add a tablespoon or two of oil as well, and season with salt, pepper and Tabasco.  Serve in generous spoonfuls with your grilled sardines (or mackerel, if you are lucky enought to be in the West Country).

The Derby Daiquiri Cocktail

I haven't blogged many cocktails recently, not because we haven't had any, but they were mostly classics or ones I've mentioned before.  This was a nice variation on the usual Daiquiri, but slightly less alcoholic than usual, as you add fresh orange juice to the fresh lime juice and white rum, along with some Gomme syrup.  Dangerously quaffable........1 measures of freshly squeezed orange juice, 1 measure of freshly squeezed lime juice and 2 measures of Bacardi, with about 1/2 a measure of Gomme syrup or caster sugar to taste.  Shake over lots of crushed ice and pour into a chilled glass, with a sugar-crusted rim if liked (....there's a joke there, but I shall leave it to others).  Anyway, yummy, fruity and, as I say, dangerously drinkable.

Roast Pork Loin with Black Eyed Beans

This is a fabulous recipe from Jamie Oliver, and I knew I had to make it after my boss talked about it last weekend.  He came in with a magnificent French-trimmed loin of pork from Hedges, the organic butchers in Oxford's Covered Market and described the recipe to me.  It is simplicity itself - in a roasting tin, prepare a bed of lots of sliced red onion, red and green peppers, celery, bay leaves, garlic, chilli (some wonderful fresh ones from Riverford), chorizo, tinned black-eyed beans and tinned tomaotes, along a with a couple of glasses of wine.  Nestle the loin of pork on top, cover really well with strong foil, and roast slowly for 3 hours at around 160C.  Towards the end, remove the foil and turn up the heat to 220C to allow the skin to crisp and the liquid to reduce.  Being French-trimmed, you still have the bones attached, and this helps keep the shape and adds depth to the delicious sauce.  To serve, cut through the bones to give each person a tender, melthing chop and serve with generous spoonfuls of the beany vegetables and fresh green veg - runner beans and spinach in our case.  I don't think it needs potatoes, but don't let me stop you.  Marvellous recipe - thanks Jamie!  (Oh, and thanks Graham for alerting me to it)

Courgette Rice Bake

This is like a quiche without the pastry, the carbs coming instead from some cooked rice. Boil a couple of tablespoons of basmati (or use leftover rice) and drain when just cooked. Meanwhile, saute a small, finely chopped onion in a couple of teaspoons of olive oil until soft. Grate a large courgette and squeeze excess moisture out in kitchen paper. Beat three eggs and grate about 70g of good strong cheddar. Now, combine it all in a bowl with a good amount of seasoning and a shake of Tabasco to give it some poke. Add some finely-chopped fresh herbs too, like parsley, chervil, a little tarragon, basil - soft herbs, whatever you have. Tip into a baking tin, lined with baking parchment, or a reliable non-stick container. Bake at 170C for 25 minutes until golden brown and set. This is plenty for two, with a fresh tomato sauce or salad and some lovely runner beans. You can gussy this up with ham, chorizo, prawns, and vary the spices, favourings etc