Saturday 19 November 2011

Apple curd

'Making apple curd' said my friend Ruth's Facebook status.
'Ooh, lovely, recipe please!' I commented.
She turned up at breakfast a few days letter with the recipe, a sample pot and a huge bag of cooking apples. As I took the cellophane cover off, the smell of Christmas filled the room. Deliciously spicy, with the consistency of a firm lemon curd and the sweetness of jam, a little goes a long way. Cook it quickly for a soft, appley curd or slightly longer for a firmer, darker preserve. I used slightly more apples and the quantities still worked, albeit slightly less spicy...

Apple curd
1 kg cooking apples - Bramleys or similar
1/2 kg sugar
2 eggs
250g good Guernsey butter
5ml (1 teaspoon) each of ground cinnamon and ground cloves.

Peel and core the apples. Cook in a little water until pulpy. Add the other ingredients, cooking over a moderate heat until thick. Do not boil the mixture. Pot into warmed jars, cover with wax and cellophane.

I kept mine in the fridge to make sure it kept well before I could give the sweet little pots away. I don't trust myself sometimes.

Monday 5 September 2011

Lavender cake...coffee cake...

Take a normal sponge cake recipe: equal weights of butter/margarine, flour, sugar and eggs and a tad extra baking powder if required - and add a handful of washed, chopped lavender.  A ring tin is the best!

Do the same for coffee cake, leaving out the lavender and adding a tablespoon or two of boiling hot water with at least a teaspoon of instant coffee dissolved in it. Fill layers and ice the top with butter icing, coffee flavoured in the same way....

And then there is a coconut cake: the same mixture with a handful/half cup of desiccated coconut mixed in, iced with butter icing flavoured with desiccated coconut too...

Tuesday 16 August 2011

Soggy Bottom Pudding

Out for lunch with Alison and Richard Wildsmith, old friends from Nairobi who have been staying with us for a week, on holiday. I love it in the summer when friends come...
Choosing dessert from a selection of pastries made by the Austrian cook was a CHORE.  There was a wonderful selection - raspberry cheesecake, lemon tart, sachertorte, apple strudel...and mixed berry pie.  Not mixed berry tart, but PIE.
"No, we can't have that," proclaimed Richard P with great authority. "It'll have a soggy bottom."
This provoked much hilarity from Richard W, whose sense of humour verges on the scatalogical. And rude. That's why the two Richards get on so well.  But it was especially amusing to them as their wives found themselves sitting on chairs that had obviously been left outside overnight, as the seat cushions were rather damp - soggy, almost. Eventually, when we realised where our own particular dampness had come from, we changed chairs.
But soggy bottom was the phrase of the day.
So, for pudding that evening, I just HAD to make Soggy Bottom Pie...

SOGGY BOTTOM PIE

Pastry: 8 oz plain flour, 2 oz self-raising flour, 3 oz vegetable fat, 2 oz margarine, 3 oz sugar, cold water.

Roll out to line a 10" flan dish.

Cover the base of the pastry with a layer of thinly sliced peeled and cored cooking apples: minimum 2 apples, up to 4. Cover apples with a layer of fresh blackberries, washed and drained well, to come level with the top of the pastry. 

Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar.

Cover with remaining pastry (slit top to stretch into a lattice if the pastry doesn't quite fit), brush with water and sprinkle with 1 - 2 tablespoons sugar.

Bake for 30 minutes at 200 degrees.

Cream? Ice cream? Yummy custard? !

Saturday 6 August 2011

Cheesecakes

I was looking for a no-bake cheesecake recipe when I came across these tips for achieving a good BAKED cheesecake.

And then there is a variant on Joan's cheesecake/key lime pie:

crust: grind 400g ginger biscuits and mix in 150g melted margarine or butter, press into a loose-bottomed flan tin - 10 inches plus across.  chill

whip half a pint double cream
whip together for 1 minute 1 tin condensed milk and 200g cream cheese - low fat still works - with the juice of 4 limes and 1 lemon.
stir all together with the zest of the citrus as well

pour onto crust and chill for at least 2 hours

Tuesday 12 July 2011

Saturday 18 June 2011

Lavender cake

  • 125g (4oz) caster sugar
  • 125g (4oz) self-raising flour
  • 2tbsp lavender flowers, fresh or dried
  • 125g (4oz) butter, softened
  • 2 medium eggs
  • 2tbsp milk
For the topping:
  • 350g (12oz) fondant icing sugar
  • Purple, violet or lilac liquid or paste food colouring
  • 12 sprigs of lavender
  • 12-hole bun tray, lined with paper bun cases

Method

  1. Set the oven to gas mark 5 or 190°C. Tip the sugar and flour into the bowl of a food processor, add the lavender flowers and whizz to grind the flowers a little. Sift the mixture into a mixing bowl, then discard the pieces of flower left in the sieve.
  2. Add the butter, eggs and milk to the bowl and beat the mixture until smooth then spoon it into the paper cases in the bun tray. Bake the cakes in the centre of the oven for 15-18 mins, or until they have risen and are just firm to the touch. Remove the cakes from the oven and transfer them to a wire rack to cool.
  3. To make the topping, sift the fondant icing sugar into a bowl and then beat in 4-6tbsp cold water to give a thick, glossy icing. Add some food colouring to the icing to give it a lilac colour, mixing well so that it's not streaky. Use a small palette knife to spread some icing over the top of each cake and, before the icing sets, place a sprig of lavender on top of each cake. Leave the icing to set before serving.

Thursday 16 June 2011

Vetebrod...Swedish cardamom buns

I have been making this bread for 30 years. Every time I make it, I wonder about the Swedish name for it, which translates as ‘Wheat bread, also known in English as sweet yeasted bread. What a boring name for these delicious little treats. It has only just occurred to me that wheat was perhaps a delicacy in Sweden which, until the middle of the twentieth century, was a very poor country. I wonder if the staple grain is rye: certainly unleavened rye breads and crackers feature in Swedish baking...?

1 quantity of bread dough. In the breadmaker, I put 1 cup of water, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 splash of oil or melted butter – approximately 1 tablespoon, 2 ¾ cups of plain flour, 1 scant teaspoon quick-acting dried yeast

After the dough has mixed and risen – 1 ½ hours in my breadmaker – slap the dough onto a large floured surface (up to 1 metre by 50cm if you need a definition of ‘large’). Roll it out as thinly as possible into the largest rectangle you can make: it will probably be approximately 60cm by 30cm.

Working as quickly as possible spread with 1 – 2 generous tablespoons of melted butter (10 seconds on medium high in the microwave – best not to let it ‘spit’, it makes a mess). Scatter with a handful of sugar – white or brown, it doesn’t matter. That’s probably about 3 – 4 tablespoons. The dough should be covered but not thickly.

Sprinkle with 1 – 2 teaspoons of ground cardamom – the more, the better. I crush 20 seeds in my Swedish brass mortar and pestle, because it’s hard to buy ground cardamom here.

Roll up along the short side into a long ‘sausage’. I feel the need for a diagram here, but will try to explain: the ‘long’ side is up to 60cm long, so the ‘sausage’ should be approximately the same length.

Flatten the sausage, smash the rolling pin on it a bit, fold it up like a pillowcase and then roll it out again as much as you can – it will be ‘springy’ by this stage as the dough will have started to rise again.

Dedicated bakers will roll and fold several times, brushing each layer with more butter as they do so and putting the dough in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes to calm it down and make it easier to roll out.

I don’t do that.

When you have a rectangle of approximately 20cm by 10cm, or larger, depending on what the dough feels like letting you do to it, pick up a SHARP knife.

Cut the dough into fingerwidth strips, one at a time. After each strip is cut, pick it up, twist it like a rope, knot it together (or mess it around in some other way) and put it on a lightly greased baking tray. Cut another strip and repeat the messing around, continuing until you have approximately 16 – 20 little knotted buns.

Let rise. EITHER, if you are well-organised enough, for at least an hour in a warm place OR for 20 minutes ditto, then put in the cold (electric) oven and let the pastries rise as the oven warms up. I don’t know what to do for gas, sorry.

Bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 10 – 14 minutes, depending on the oven. The buns should be lightly browned on the top and bottom. If you have to choose, I think slightly undercooked is better – not so hard and dry.

Remove from the trays IMMEDIATELY. If you don’t , the lovely caramelly butter and sugar leakage on the oven tray will GLUE THE BUNS ONTO THE TRAY AND YOU DEFINITELY DON’T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN. Cool on a wire rack.

If you want, you can drizzle icing over them: either water icing (icing sugar and hot water) or white icing (1 tablespoon butter, 1 cup icing sugar and boiling water to mix). You could even sprinkle chopped or flaked almonds on top, too.

I never bother: too much faff, and I’d have to wait another five minutes. I never want to do that.

Friday 3 June 2011

How to barbecue properly!

Tips from LeAnn Rice at She Cooks:
  • Before cooking, remove meat from the marinade. Then let it sit on kitchen counter for 30 minutes to relax the muscles in the meat. If you take cold meat from your refrigerator and put it directly onto or under heat, your meat will be tough.
  • Before serving any meat, let it sit for 15 minutes after removing it from the heat source. This will allow the juices to redistribute through the meat. If you serve or cut into it immediately after cooking, all the juices will run out and leave your meat dry.
  • Don’t poke or squish your meat with your fork or spatula. All this does is remove the yummy juices.
  • Preheat grill and reduce heat to medium. Place meat on the grill rack over the heat but not over direct flames. If it looks like a fire is under your meat, move the meat to the other side of the grill.
  • A meat thermometer will be your best friend. Getting the internal temperature correct is a fail-proof way of grilling, roasting, broiling, etc. You can’t go wrong if the temperature is correct! For medium rare steak, you want a temperature of 145 degrees. For medium, you want a temperature of 160 degrees. You always want your pork to reach a temperature of 160 degrees and chicken should reach 180 degrees.
And here are some standard cooking times:
  • For boneless 1” thick steaks, 10-15 minutes (check temperatures based on your preferred doneness)
  • For a larger steak like flank or London Broil, 18-22 minutes (check temperatures based on your preferred doneness)
  • For pork chops, 10-18 minutes, depending on thickness.
  • For pork tenderloin, 30-40 minutes.
  • For bone-in chicken pieces, 40-50 minutes.
  • For boneless chicken, 12-15 minutes.
  • For fish fillets, 4-6 minutes or until it flakes easily with a fork
If you don’t have an outdoor grill, you can broil meat, chicken or seafood using the same temperatures and cooking times as above. Simply place meat on a broiler pan about 5 inches under the heat, turning over once halfway through cooking time (except for fish fillets which do not need to be flipped).
Go get your grill fired up! Here’s a very easy marinade recipe that uses ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen. This works on just about anything!
Brown Sugar and Soy Marinade
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
  • 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
  • dash or two of cayenne (optional – add as much or as little heat as you like)
Blend all ingredients and rub over beef, pork, poultry or salmon. Cover and marinate 2 to 24 hours in the refrigerator. (This makes enough for four steaks, chops, fillets, or one whole cut up chicken.) If using with salmon or other fish, only let it sit in the marinade for about 30 – 40 minutes.

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Resurrection Rolls

I want to try these this Easter, as we have guests staying for the weekend. I haven't done it before - so I hope it works.  The link to the dough recipe is here.

Resurrection Rolls

  • sweet butterhorn dough, 8 large marshmallows
  • 1/4 cup melted butter
  • 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F on lightly grease a baking sheet.
  2. Roll dough into individual triangles.
  3. In a small bowl, mix together cinnamon and sugar.
  4. Dip a marshmallow into melted butter, then roll in sugar mixture. Place marshmallow into the center of a dough triangle. Carefully wrap the dough around the marshmallow. Pinch the seams together very tightly to seal in the marshmallow as it melts. Place on a baking sheet. Repeat.
  5. Bake in a preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Sunday 30 January 2011

Try and try again biscuits

There are two reasons for the name of these biscuits. The first is the Rugby connection. The recipe comes from one of the masters' wives at Rugby School, found in a book called - surprise, surprise - The Rugby Cookbook. A small, spiral bound collection of recipes from various folk associated with Rugby School, it was produced to raise funds for The Home Farm Trust with sponsorship from, among others, Billington's Sugar.  It is noticeable how many of the sweeter recipes include sugar of the Billington variety!

The second reason is that these little biscuits are amazingly moreish. Try one, and you'll want to try one again.  So there we are...

Try and Try Again Biscuits

Cream together 4 oz (125g) each Stork (or similar) margarine and sugar. Mix in to a soft dough 4oz (125g) self-raising flour1oz cocoa powder and 2 oz custard powder or cornflour or a mixture of both.

Roll quantities of the mixture into balls the size of a LARGE marble, or roll the same amount into a rugby ball shape.  Put on a baking tin with a little space between each one - they spread slightly - and press down on each one with a fork or the back of a spoon.

Bake at 150 degrees C (Gas Mark 2) for 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Sunday 16 January 2011

Soup ideas

I love soup - but tend not to follow recipes - not always a good idea.  So thought I'd jot down a few good ones here and add to them as I come across them. The key to good soup is superb stock. Not always possible, but I need to remind myself of that and use stock I have stored in the freezer.


Ham and Corn Chowder (from Karen Ehman's blog). Basically, boil 1/2 a cup each of chopped onion and celery with 2 cups chopped potatoes in 2 cups chicken stock. When soft, add 1 tbspn butter, 1 cup finely chopped ham, 1 cup sweetcorn, 1 can cream of chicken soup (or just 1/2 cup stock and 1/2 cup creamy milk or cream, I guess) and 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese.  Just before serving, add 4 floz sour cream or creamy milk, thin if necessary.

Lentil and Tomato soup: onion, lentils, tomatoes, tomato puree and GOOD STOCK

Butternut Squash



Friday 14 January 2011

French cinnamon toast

I decided to make this for my ladies who come to breakfast once a month. It seemed like a fun dish to eat together as we chat about what it means to be a Christian woman in a working world. 

Per person: 1 egg, 1 dessertspoon milk, 1 dessertspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract: beat together.
Dip both sides of a slice of white bread in mixture: do not completely soak through.
Grease a frying pan, fry for approximately 4 mins on one side until golden brown. Sprinkle with cinnamon, flip and fry other side. Serve warm with butter and syrup.


Thursday 13 January 2011

Caesar salad

Great recipe from Coconut and Lime cookery blog for Caesar salad. Very simple.

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Strawberry and Spinach salad

This is from Janelle: Comfy in the Kitchen, found while I was 'blog trawling' and too good to pass by. Awesome!  This is what she says: 


Merry Christmas everyone...we are so blessed to have one another as Sisters in Christ...the internet is an amazing thing isn't it? We can "meet" one another from across the globe and share our love for Christ with each other! Even in areas that are not predominately Christian, a person can "log on" and feel connected in fellowship. God is good. 
Love to you all, Janelle

Strawberry Spinach Salad 
1 10oz bag of baby spinach (or appx 6 cups of leaves)
2 cups sliced strawberries (I use an entire plastic container)
1/2 cup slivered almonds

Dressing

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 tsp worcestershire
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp sesame seeds
1 Tbsp poppy seeds
1/4 cup minced white onion

Whisk all the dressing ingredients together. Place clean spinach in a bowl and top with sliced strawberries and almonds. Toss with dressing.

Saturday 8 January 2011

Chili!

I LOVE slow cooker recipes. I love that I can just throw everything into the pot, switch it on and forget about it. I love that the smell of food cooking is so wonderful to come home to. And I love that I don't have to throw myself into food preparation as soon as I get home.


I found this recipe, through looking at a friend's photo of jams and chutneys!  The fruit of a half hour on the internet of blog diversions...like going on a treasure hunt, or entering a maze where I'm not bothered about finding the 'right' way.  It is from a cookery blog called Coconut & lime.

Here it is:


Slow Cooker Cincinnati Chili

Ingredients:
1 1/2-2 lbs lean ground beef
28 oz can crushed or coarse ground tomatoes (or whole, smashed)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon chipotle pepper
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
Instead of all these different spices, I used garam masala which has them all and more... because I love shortcuts. Didn't have any Worcester sauce, either, which didn't seem to matter.

To serve:
1 lb spaghetti
sour cream
chopped raw onions
dark red kidney beans (heated through)
shredded extra sharp cheddar

Directions:
In a large skillet saute onion, garlic, ground beef, and chili powder until ground beef is just barely cooked. Take care to break the meat into small bits. Drain off any excess fat. Add to a four quart slow cooker. Add all of the remaining ingredients. Stir. It might look a little dry but that is okay. Cook for 8-10 hrs. Stir.

Cook spaghetti according to package instructions.

There are several ways to eat Cincinnati style chili:
3-way: Spaghetti topped with chili, covered with shredded cheddar cheese
4-way: Spaghetti topped with chili, cheese, onions
5-way: Spaghetti topped with beans, chili, cheese & onions

Sunday 2 January 2011

Carrot cake

A simple carrot cake recipe always seems hard to find. This one is adapted from three different versions!  It seemed to work, anyway. I thought I'd better write it down as I'm bound to forget it later...
Using a food processor is easiest for grating carrots and beating wet mixture together.

From BBC Good Food:
175g light muscovado sugar or a mix of brown and white sugars
175ml sunflower oil  - perhaps even only 5 fluid ounces
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
140g grated carrots (about 3 medium) or 1 carrot and 2 bananas
100g raisins or 75g marmelade
grated zest of 1 large orange
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp grated nutmeg (freshly grated will give you the best flavour)

Mix altoether lightly, bake 180 degrees for 40 - 45 minutes.

Ice with butter/icing sugar/lemon or orange juice. OR for a sticky topping: heat 2tbsp thick-cut marmalade and 2tbsp orange juice together. Make small holes all over the top of the cake with a skewer and brush the marmalade mixture all over. Leave to cool completely before slicing and serving.
Also, for a larger cake:

Grate 12 oz/360g carrots.  Beat in 8 oz/225g sugar (any combination of white/brown sugars and honey if wished), 4 fl oz oil and 4 eggs.
Sift together  9oz/ 260g self raising flour, pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 - 2 teaspoons mixed spice (I used garam masala, ginger and cinnamon). Mix into wet mixture.
Bake in 8 inch square deep tin for 25 - 35 minutes or in 2 shallower tins for 20 - 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Optional: finely grated rind of half an orange, if you can be bothered.  I couldn't.

Ice with normal orange flavoured butter icing, or a mixture of 240g/8oz low fat soft cheese or mascarpone cheese beaten with 1 - 2 tbspn orange juice and 2 tablespoons icing sugar. However, I've always found this cream cheese icing too runny.

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

I began to use the slow cooker a lot when we were living in Rugby and my job meant that I didn’t arrive home until 6.30pm, late to start cooking for hungry teenagers. The slow cooker was a gift from my friend Carol, and I bless her for it. It is so useful and the wonderful smell of stew or soup warms and fills the kitchen. This is just normal stew, but the day I made it I had run out of onions. I didn’t miss them but could add if necessary.


Layer 750g thinly sliced carrots, 750g thinly sliced potatoes, 5 crushed garlic cloves and 500g topside or stewing steak in the slow cooker. Add 3 tablespoons tomato puree and 1 tablespoon fruit chutney, mix slightly. Pour in enough water to almost cover the potatoes. Season generously with salt and crushed pepper.

Cook on High for 6 hours.

Mix half a cup of flour with a little water to make a paste. Add a ladleful of liquid from the stew to mix, then add the paste to the stew and stir to mix in. Add 2 cups frozen peas if wished, or serve separately.

Cook on High for a further 2 hours. Serve in wide bowls as the gravy might be quite runny.

Good with French bread and green vegetables.