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.