What's New in the Kitchen #12 : Like, Love, Adore

In the past few months, Pebble Soup HQ has received a few products for review.

One I liked

Having been crowned "Cook Like a Celebrity" champion boosted my baking confidence. Telling the world that I am a baking disaster is not appropriate any longer but I am still shaky on the cake and biscuits front and I like to play safe.

The new Easy Bake Non-Stick Bacofoil paper, non-stick on both sides so there is no need to grease is a handy tool for a good result. I used it with the French Bread and Butter Pud: Le Pudding.

One I loved

We travel the Chablis route before. This is a reminder that wine pairing is as important as choosing a festive menu. If you are looking for a fresh and lively wine over the next couple of months for fish and poultry terrine or simply for a pre-dinner drink, with bottle of Chablis Appellation d'origine controlee nothing can go wrong.

Be aware though The name "Chablis" has long been usurped and sometimes still is. There is only one true Chablis and it's from France.

One I adored
My favourite product this term.

Since the demise of the much loved and used Tefal express. Looking for a replacement has not been easy. So it was with delight and a little apprehension that I tried one of the Microplane® Gourmet Series

It's an excellent grater which comes in three colours for all of us who are a little obsess by making sure that our gadgets look as good as they perform.

It's fast and best of all it grates in both directions.
For example take cheese instead of the normal grated cheese we know it produces curls of thin ribbons. There is a lot of science behind the series and it seems to work.
The result is light and thin ribbons.

As usual, I will be doing a Xmas round up so join me again

Roasting a Suckling Pig

It's party time. About this time of the year, the clocks go back, I turn our mattress to the winter side and the bathroom scale is set back by 5 pounds. There will be no escape, we are going to feast for the next couple of months.

In fact at Pebble Soup HQ we have already succumbed. Having been lured into the world of small producers and small family businesses, my research took me to an importer of products from Spain. A bit more about this in a minute.

I was not looking for it to happen, it just did: a boneless suckling pig found its way to my freezer. But what does one do with a little pig?

It's a very good alternative to turkey but contrary to what the press would have us to believe we are still a way away from Christmas. However, a little pig is a little too large for two and certainly not adequate for friends who don't like fat on their meat (and I seem to have many of these).Having found the perfect companions for the occasion, I set myself to prepare a feast. But you know me, that was not without doing a bit of research on

The advantages of roasting a suckling pig :

The obvious reason: boneless meat, easy to pick at, very similar to pulled pork so you don't have to watch your table manners.

It is a real show stopper and a bit of an event in itself.

There is very little prep and as long as you oven is big enough, no cooking worries

It's rich, moist and tender and all the juices make the meat really sweet.

My favourite bit: the crispy skin

I borough the recipe from Basco Fine Food

Ingredients

2.5 Kg Boneless Suckling Pig

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Sea Salt

1 Large Bulb of Garlic

1 Carrot, roughly chopped

1 Onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 Stick of celery, roughly chopped

1 Leek, roughly chopped

300ml Water or chicken stock

Method

Pre-heat your oven to 250°C for 30 minutes.

Cut the garlic bulb in half round its diameter and lightly rub the skin of the suckling pig.

Place the suckling pig in a large roasting tin with the garlic and chopped vegetables, drizzle some good quality extra virgin olive oil and season with sea salt.

Roast joint for 20 minutes at 250°C top get the skin of the piglet going, turn the heat down to 200°C and roast for a further 50 minutes.

Keep an eye on the garlic to make sure it does not burn. Increase the oven temperature to 250°C once again, remove the garlic, keeping it warm and roast for a final 25 to 30 minutes or until the skin is golden brown and crispy.

Remove the piglet from the oven and take it out of the roasting tin onto a serving platter with the garlic.

Drain the oil excess from the roasting tin, keeping the roasted vegetables inside and pour about 300ml of water or chicken stock into the roasting tin and return to the stove to deglaze the bottom of the pan with the liquid and make the sauce.

Use a whisk to scrape all the caramelisation from the pan.

Bring to gravy to the boil and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes, pass through a fine sieve and serve with the roast suckling pig.

All in all very simple, the only difficulty is to source the meat. Which brings me to Grey's Fine Foods. Their products are delicious. They are an importer of food and drinks from Spain and work with small producers and family business.

For more info call 01937 845 767.

Disclaimer: No money was exchanged for this post- I received a sample- all the words are my own

Comfort Food Inheritance Recipes Round up & October Winner

Thank you all who visited the Inheritance Recipes in October and to the lovely bloggers who linked up their comfort food recipes. Here is the round up and the winner's name who will received £30 delivery from Asda.

The theme in October was comfort food - Let's start with the savoury recipes

One word stood out SAUSAGES. Sausages are always popular when the cold starts to show its ugly head

Starting at the center on the top row and in a clockwise motion

From Farmers Girl Kitchen a classic sausage and bean casserole

Apron Free Cooking shared her Grandma’s Lil Smokies Casserole

A recipe from From the Gluten Free Alchemist her mini sausage pasty

As it was curry week Bangers and Mash drew on her Malay inheritance with a Malaysian Lamb Curry

Two recipes from myself a Chicken and Chorizo and a Simple Caramelised Onions

And from Margot of Coffee and Vanilla two from her native Poland a Kasha: Roasted Buckwheat and Egg Dumplings used in a delicious veggie soup with dill

And now for the desserts and preserve

Starting with a classic comfort food, nothing soothes better than a classic Jam tart Tyn and Thyme's recipe

From a regular of Inheritance Recipes De Tout Coeur Limousin a Sticky Toffee Pud and a French Rice pudding, un Gateau de Riz

We always enjoy to see one of From Fab Food for All's recipe. Here is her inherited lemon curd

A recipe which travelled a long way, passed down to generations is From Food Glorious Food a coffee tart from the Blue Mountain range, in Jamaica

Last but not least what Apron Free Cooking describe as a Pink Fluff

We called on ASDA which kindly offered the prize and ask their representative to pick a winner and the

Many congratulations, we will be in touch soon.

In November, Inheritance Recipes is hosted by Margot Coffee 'n Vanilla, head here to link your Festive Recipes. We'd love to see what you've concocted for Thanks Giving, Christmas and al.

Home sense kindly sponsored Inheritance Recipes with a £50 gift card to spend in of their stores on festive decorations, gifts or other treasures you may find.

Do join us and good luck

Inheritance Recipes - November -

In November, Inheritance Recipes is hosted by Margot Coffee 'n Vanilla, head here to link your Festive Recipes. We'd love to see what you've concocted for Thanks Giving, Christmas and al.

Home sense kindly sponsored Inheritance Recipes with a £50 gift card to spend in of their stores on festive decorations, gifts or other treasures you may find.

Do join us and good luck

Le Pudding

Facts on food waste: "We throw more than 7 million tonnes of food and drinks from our homes every year, that's 19% of what we buy. The majority of which could have been eaten" according to Love Food Hate Waste campaign. Not only this cost the average household £470 a year but it's bad for the environment.

There are initiatives to stop waste. One of the most original, I've come across is local to me, in Greenwich, the local council organises a Gleaning project to stop fruits and vegetables to rot on the spot and make these products edible again as jam, drinks, chutney etc.

Personally, I still hang on to a old French tradition which is to make breadcrumbs with stale bread and freeze them for schnitzels, fish cakes and the famous bakery staple called Le Pudding, a kind of bread pudding without the fat. A simple bake which has been a favourite from childhood and which I rediscovered the other day when sadly the croissants bought from Tesco were so bad that, I consider throwing them away.

Instead I baked Bertrand Bertinet's grown up version of Le Pudding.
Remember Bertrand Bertinet Here is a post we dedicated to his master-class

Ingredients
500g leftover bread, croissants, breadcrumbs etc
300g custard (bought or made)
200g sultanas
4-5 tablespoons rum
butter for greasing
icing sugar for dusting

Method
You'll need to bake the mix in a oven preheated at 180C

Put all the bready ingredients in a mixer and crumble until rough

transfer to a bowl with all the other ingredients except the icing sugar

Mix well. Line a tray with lightly buttered baking paper and pile the mixture on the top, smooth and cook for 35 minutes until the picks are crisps.

Bloggers too do their bit to stop waste here is a challenge hosted by Veggie Desserts

along with Fab Food 4 all 'n Fuss Free Flavours all Credit Munch, a challenge which collates lots of no waste recipes.

Chicken and Chorizo with Tomato Pepper Sauce

Smoky chorizo, delicate texture of chicken breast a versatile recipe which can be use as a base for mince meatballs, to fill pasta or to make burgers.

Dishes fall out of fashion and come back in, at regular intervals, riding the big wheel of fancy. If we wait long enough, we might see a version of the 70's prawn cocktail back on our tables. Though, I hope that by the time, that one makes another apparition, it will have been vastly improved by some clever Food-Blogger.

However there are recipes which we love and are a constant. Pan-fried chicken in Tomato Sauce is one of them: rustic, inspired by Italian casseroles, pleasing and filling.

This recipe uses roasted peppers

Tip: Roast 4 or 5 peppers at the time and keep the left overs in a jar filled with olive oil in the fridge, you can tip it up regularly.

Roasted Peppers: place peppers under a hot grill and grill for 12-15 minutes, turning half-way. When they have blackened, put in a plastic bag until cool or run under cold tap. They will peel easily.

Chicken and Chorizo with Tomato Pepper Sauce

Ingredients:

chicken breast (one per person)

60g cooking chorizo

2 shallots

2 garlic clove

1tsp smoke paprika (optional)

2-3 peppers

can plum tomatoes

a little sugar, salt and pepper

Method:

Flatten chicken breast with a kitchen-roll

Cook the chorizo in a dry frying pan until crisps, remove the chorizo, keep the oil and fry the chicken breast for 5 minutes.

Grill the peppers

While this is cooking nicely turn your attention to the sauce. In a little olive oil, sweat the shallots slowly, add the garlic, a little sugar, salt, pepper and the paprika if used and the grilled peppers when these are ready. Leave it to simmer for 30 minutes.

Return the chicken, the chorizo and its oil to the tomato sauce pan and cook for a further 10 minutes. serve with chunky bread.

Chicken and Chorizo with Tomato Pepper Sauce is the kind of recipe which is easy to pass on. I use to cook something very similar when I was a teenager. For this reason, I add it to #InheritanceRecipes challenge which I co-host with Coffee and Vanilla

Flat Bread with Quince Jelly & Cheddar

Creating wonderful new recipes is simple when you get flavoursome local products delivered to your door. Recipe sponsored by Caprera

It should be straight forward, on one hand you have food lovers, on the other artisans producers, as neither can really run around to catch up with the another. A third party is welcome and necessary, you know the people who organises it all: boxes the products (as in put them into boxes, not beat the life out of..) and delivers them to you.

I ordered a Quince Jelly jar. Quince is a kind of arcane fruit, sparingly used, definitely seasonal. Its flavour is subtle so you have to make sure it comes through in any mix.

Once my parcel had been safely delivered it was easy to decide on a recipe to make the most of the flavours, I chose to incorporate the jelly in a flat bread. the jar incited me to experiment further so I added cheese the bread.

I loosely interpreted a recipe from Paul Hollywood who uses quince paste instead of Jelly and Camembert instead of cheddar. The first step is to make the dough. Jelly has a soft consistency, there add it from the start in the food processor and cut the cheese as small as possible, to get tiny nugget which will not "run" when cooked.

I used a chapatti pan, any heavy pan will do, be aware the flat bread "catches

quickly" so make sure you adjust the heat accordingly

Ingredients

Makes 8 flat bread

250g strong white bread flour

5g salt

1 x 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast

140ml lukewarm water

100g mature cheddar

70g quince Jelly

oil

Method

Like for all bread you'll need to allow time for the dough to rise.

Place all the dry ingredients in a mixer with an dough attachment, start mixing as soon as you start pouring the water, let it trickle rather than pouring it in one go. Then add the jelly and let it mix for 5 minutes. The dough needs to be shiny

Remove from the mixer, flour the work-surface lightly and add the crumbled cheddar. Work the cheese in the mixing for a couple of minutes. transfer to an oiled bowl, cover and let it rise for an hour or until it has doubled the size.

Divide the mixture into 8 balls, flatten each to about 12 cm using a rolling pin and cook gently in a pan lightly pre-oiled for about 2 minutes each side.

Serve warm.

This Flat Bread with Quince Jelly 'n Cheddar recipe was commissioned by Caprera.com, Previews of the mini documentaries of producers videos are available here: https://vimeo.com/user39963960 . Caprera has also published an online food lifestyle magazine with original content about artisan food culture

Caramelised Onions : An Inheritance Recipe

Looking for a kitchen miracle, look no further than Caramelised Onions.

Since Autumn is onion season, I thought I would stop for a minute and reflect on this humble crop which we use day in, day out without paying any attention to it.

I have two vivid memories related to this common allium, the first has for background: London Bridge train station platform. I was coming back from work one chilly afternoon, years back. There were only few people. One of the passenger who was waiting for a train, was a construction worker. He was biting into a large raw onion. Never having seen anyone eating a raw onion before, let alone with such delight I stared at the scene for a long time.

How could someone eat a raw onion? such harsh, strong flavour which bounds to stay on the breath for a long time.

The other memory strand emerges from a friend's kitchen, she is standing behind her young daughter, telling her to stir the onions until they become translucent, never to stop or they will catch and burn and yes it will take a long time but the transparency is a sign of sweetness. Why did that scene stick in my mind?

I'm not sure. May be, I was already thinking about Inheritance and Recipes. May be the transformation from the harshest to the sweetest and the patience involved in the process was something worth keeping in my memory bank, it can after all be transferable, can't it?

So here is my recipe for #InheritanceRecipes, one to pass on to the next generation because what learners need most of all is a set of skills which can be adapted. Caramelised Onions or Confiture d'Onions as it's charmingly called in French is a very versatile recipe which can be spread over pâtés, used with feta as a pizza topping and much much more....and that does not include eating straight from the pan.

Inheritance recipes is a bloggers challenge co-hosted by myself and Coffee 'n Vanilla

Caramelised onions

Ingredients

Several medium or large onions, yellow, white, or red

Olive oil

Butter

Salt

. Balsamic vinegar

Method

Chop off the tail and top, discard.Slice the onion thinly,

tip : if you are slicing a lot of onions ask someone who wears contact lenses to help or wear swimming goggles it might look silly but it will stop you crying.

I use half butter half oil preferably olive oil as it heats less than another. Heat the oil/butter in a pan until shimmering. place the onions in the pan, spread them evenly to avoid burning

Coat the onion with the fat, add a little (like a tsp for one onion, a tablespoon for more) balsamic vinegar, stir for 10 minutes

Let them cook for another 20 minutes stirring occasionally, note that there is no added sugar as the onions will provide.

Use according to recipe and here are a few worthy examples

For recipes with caramelised onions take a look at

De tout Coeur Limousin: Slow cook pork in red wine with caramelised onions and aniseed

What Katie ate: Caramelised Onion and Goat’s Cheese Tartlets with Balsamic Syrup

Belleau Kitchen: slow-cooker brisket with caramelised onions