Sunday 8 July 2012

Cenci




1/2 lb flour, 1oz butter, 1oz Castor sugar, 2 eggs, Cognac, grated lemon peel and pinch of salt.

Combine together all of the above ingredients into a dough, wrap and leave to rest for a while.
Roll a small piece of dough out at a time, very thinly, and cut out shapes or into strips using a Ravioli wheel.
Heat some oil & turn the Cenci briefly in this and then remove.
Allow to cool and then dust with icing sugar

Saturday 23 June 2012

Moules Mariniere



I have decided that to consecutively cook every recipe in Elizabeth David's Mediterranean food isn't fitting in with my life, I can't bring myself to feed R & G soup every night, this means it is taking me weeks just to cook through the first chapter! Where as I am quite happy to eat meagre meals, G especially likes a 'proper meal' after work. Now, I don't bow down to such chauvinistic demands and, even though, when he gets home from work, he likes to tease me about what meat he's getting for his supper, he knows better than to refuse any food that I have prepared

So, slight change of plan, I am going to cook the recipes which suit the weather, my time, what's cheap in the shops and what I fancy...oh and what keeps the rest of my family happy.

Today they had rope grown Scottish mussels in the supermarket, the sun was shining (a little) and I fancied mussels...

3 quarts (2 pints) mussels, 1 small onion, 1 clove of garlic, 1 small glass of white wine, a small stalk celery, parsley.

Put a splash of olive oil into a deep saucepan and start to cook the onion, celery and garlic, don't let it colour, just heat. Add some pepper. Throw in the mussels and then the wine and a splash of water. Put on the lid and let the mussels steam until they are all open (disregard any which remain closed) Remove the cooked mussels and keep hot while you boil the liquor to reduce slightly, you can thicken this with butter and flour or add cream. Once you have achieved your desired or preferred liquor, pour over the mussels and serve. Sprinkle with parsley and serve very hot with warm bread.

Thursday 21 June 2012

Avgolemono




2 Pints Chicken Stock, strained
2 oz Rice
2 eggs
1 Lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Add the rice to the chicken stock and boil until the rice is cooked.
In a basin beat the eggs and the juice from the lemon.
Add the boiling broth to the eggs in the basin, a spoonful at a time and keep stirring. Add this back into the broth and stir for a few minutes over a low heat.

This soup is actually delicious and perfect for summer, well worth having a go making. It is refreshing and very moorish.

Monday 11 June 2012

Soupe Basque


1/4 Onions, chopped
1/4 lb Pumpkin (I used Butternut Squash), cut into pieces
Lard
1 White Cabbage, leaves cut up
1/2 lb Dried Haricot Beans, previously soaked
2 Cloves Garlic
Salt and Pepper
4 Pints of stock or water.

Brown the onions in the lard, add the remaining ingredients, seasoning and liquid. Cook, covered, for 3 hours.

*Served this with griddled Sour Dough Bread - surprisingly good. Excellent on such a cold winter, sorry,  summer, evening!!

Saturday 2 June 2012

Soupe Au Pistou




                                                     
1lb French Beans cut into inch lengths
3 Pints of Boiling Water
4 Medium sized Potatoes, chopped finely
3 Chopped, peeled Tomatoes
1/4 lb Vermicelli
Salt and Pepper

Into the boiling water throw the beans, potatoes and tomatoes. When the vegetables are almost cooked add the vermicelli.

For the Aillade

3 Cloves of Garlic
Sweet basil, a good handful
1 grilled tomato, skin & seeds removed

Pound these ingredients together until smooth, add 3 tablespoons of the Pistou.

Pour the Pistou into a tureen, stir in the Aillade and some grated Gruyere





A Book of Mediterranean Food




I'm not going to wax lyrical about the book which bought a little of the warmth, colour and flavour of the Mediterranean to a cheerless post war Britain. I had never heard of the author until I was about 21 and become a mother, a friend gave me their old copy of Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking. I was enchanted. I still can't quite describe what is so bewitching about her books? Maybe her written instructions reminded me of my own grandmother's? Or is it the brief, simple and precise recipes and their lack of hyperbole? Maybe it's because it reminds me of becoming a mother and the early days of the most wonderful and fullfilling time, a time where I excelled in my new occupation and was spellbound with my beautiful baby daughter, I discovered motherhood and food. I was needed and I was blissfully content.

Food will never be written about in the same way again. Now cookery books are more about lifestyle with beautiful glossy photographs of stunning houses with perfect happy families blurred in the background. It's about selling the image.

In Mediterranean Food Elizabeth David wrote about food remembered from a time in her life, just before the war, when she was young and carefree. She wasn't preaching or patronising in her writing, she was just 'passing on' what she had seen, cooked and tasted. Most recipes are just a paragraph. No separate ingredient list, no temperatures, just 'quick' or 'slow' fire and no photos. It was honest, intelligent and very clipped writing, no pretence but just peppered with anecdotes and stylishy simple illustrations.

She didn't preach the 'chef's oath' which seems to have been taken by anyone who cooks on TV "I am passionate about food and only cook seasonal, local ingredients" I could scream every time I hear this mantra chanted by another 'chef' (ex model/actress/rugby player etc), it sends all my cringe nerves rattling; you're a chef, do you really think that we automatically think you use mouldy rotting fruit and veg to cook? Do we really care if it's local, surely all food is local to somewhere? It's like saying "Mm, I absolutely love breathing and use only the finest oxygen and carbon dioxide for my gaseous exchange"

I digress...., returning to the book in question, I have simply decided to cook every recipe in the book. I'm not trying to do a Julie & Julia, that would be naff and pretentious, I just need to get my act together with this blog and having a list of recipes to cook will make it a lot easier - I will have to cook what's written rather than remembering to photograph the occasional biscuit I may have been bothered to bake. It would also be really love to bring each recipe to life with a photo!

The first chapter is 'Soups' and the first recipe I will be cooking is Soup Au Pistou.....



Sunday 20 May 2012

Chelsea Buns



Sift 500g Strong Plain Flour with a teaspoon of salt (I warm the flour in the microwave for 30 seconds. Tip a sachet of dried yeast (7g) into the middle of the flour. Warm 300ml of milk and add to the flour with the egg. Mix together to form a dough, knead for 10-15 minutes until soft and springy.

Put the dough into greased bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave for an hour to rise.

Knock back and roll out into a rectangle. Brush with 25g of melted butter and sprinkle with 75g of soft brown sugar, a generous amount of cinnamon and 150g of sultanas or mixed fruit. Roll up into along sausage and cut into slices - about 3cm.

Place slices onto a lined baking tray and cover with a damp tea towel and leave for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C or Gas Mark 5. Bake buns for 20-25 minutes.

Saturday 12 May 2012

Mushroom Fakecake



Every Saturday, once G has gone to work and I am alone, I make myself a cheese and mushroom pancake. It's definitely one of my favourite snacks and takes me back twenty years when I was pregnant with my daughter R and would visit Beaus creperie on shopping trips to Canterbury. This restaurant was run by the nicest people and the crepes were gorgeous, although cheese and mushroom was the best and I would always have two.

Disaster! Today I went to the fridge and there weren't any eggs! I had cheese and I had mushrooms....but no eggs. I did have some tortilla wraps in the freezer and, after frying off the 'shrooms I warmed the wrap up in the pan with grated cheese, threw on the fungi and the mandatory (ode to Beaus) dried herbs, salt and loads of pepper. It was crispier and I had to fold it to eat it, but it was good.

Sunday 6 May 2012

Accidental Cake



    A few months ago, rather than stretch the pennies and buy the posh vanilla in the brown bottle, I bought a smaller cheaper bottle...well that's what I thought until, whilst mixing brownie batter, a waft of Almond alerted me to my mistake - a smaller cheaper bottle of almond flavouring. I am quite generous with vanilla and so there was no hiding the almond impostor. Ah well, more cocoa helped a little.

Yesterday I decided to make vanilla cakes (I'm not using the C- word prefix anymore!) as I has promised G I would. Yes, you've guessed it, in went a gallon of Almond Flavouring! I was so cross with myself, I thought I had thrown the bottle away weeks ago and replaced it with Vanilla? No, it was still in the cupboard waiting to unleash it's unwelcome taint on the next bake. Now don't get me wrong, I do like almond and can easily chomp my way through the marzipan off cuts from the Christmas cake, but almond flavouring has it's place and the fakeness of the stuff I bought left your mouth in shock and can ruin anything just like an un-rinsed soapy cup which can ruin a perfect cup of tea and leave your mouth tasting like a super-clean toilet.

I was going to throw the batter out and start again, but I had made a lot of it and so the only option was carry on. With blueberries and some lemons lurking around the kitchen I added lemon juice to the batter and half filled a loaf tin, then a layer of the fruit and a generous swathe of Lemon Curd then topped off with the remaining batter. Baked off, cooled and then drizzled with hot lemon syrup. Not bad.

Saturday 21 January 2012

Bad Blogger makes Birthday Cake




I continue to be a bad blogger and an even lazier cook! I just can't get myself motivated. BUT I did take the time to make my mum a special cake for her 70th birthday.




Believe it or not I had to come up with a cake that was super quick and stress-free to assemble. As her birthday was on 27th December I would have to put it together so it would look good enough to serve at her surprise birthday party. This assembly would have to take place on Boxing Day as well as cooking a full Christmas Dinner.




I baked five chocolate sponges a couple of weeks before and stashed in the freezer. I bought some ready made fondant icing, coloured it and and formed simple roses and flower stalks which I stored in airtight containers (R helped with this). I bought a couple of packets of Betty Crocker frosting in case of an icing emergency.




Boxing Day and an emergency did happen as, with all that organisation, I forgot to buy any butter and so could not make the butter cream to cement the cake together!! Out came the Betty Crocker and the cake was assembled. I wrapped the cake in tissue paper to resemble that 'Florist's gift wrapped' look and tied with a huge ribbon.




Mum loved it.