Slow Cook Lamb

2010 is on its way out and as far as I am concerned it is good riddance. I do not want to see another like it. I had almost forgotten what it was like to do battle with ill, loss and demons with my guard down.

I am, certainly, not grateful for the reminder. Falling hurts bad. But at least I have been reminded that every moment is precious and if treated well, there is fun in each and every of these moment.

So good-bye 2010 bring the next one on, I am focused and this time, I am not loosing sight of what is important, frivolities included.

2010 was also a year when I got much more involved in the world of food, I hope you have enjoyed reading my posts as much I have enjoyed researching and writing them.

There has been many recipes which stood out and delighted my taste buds but the  one which got my vote is "Slow Cook Lamb". I first saw it on Greedy Gourmet. Michelle describes it as a memorable meal, spot on. The first thing, my friend Anne said, after Wow was : "this is a memorable dish." Don't be put off by the cooking time, there is nothing for the cook to do whilst the lamb seats in the oven,  here is the link to the recipe.

Only one thing left to do and that is to wish you and you and you, a great 2011.

Short of a Present or Two, Turn to Baking Cherry Shortbread

If like me you were prevented to get out and about  today, prevented by snowflakes as large a flying saucers then you might not get all your presents on time. One suggestion is to have a quick look in your kitchen cupboard to see if you had the ingredients for this shortbread recipe which will make a nice present too

Cherry shortbread

Makes 10 fingers
Ready in 1 hour 10 minutes
This will keep for two weeks in an airtight container,

Ingredients
115g unsalted butter
55g caster sugar, plus extra for dusting (optional)
Few drops vanilla extract
175g plain flour
75g glacé cherries, quartered

Method
1.Preheat the oven to 170C/150C Fan/Gas 3. Line the base of a 20cm shallow, square cake tin with a sheet of baking paper.
2.Cut the butter into squares and put in a mixing bowl with the sugar and vanilla. Stir with a wooden spoon until evenly mixed.
3.Sift in the flour and mix with your fingertips until the dough starts to come together. Gather into a ball, then roll out to a 20cm square.4.Put in the prepared tin and prick with a fork
5.Arrange the cherries on top to make six lines, pressing them in lightly. Bake for about 35-40 minutes
6.Mark into fingers while hot, then leave to cool for 20 minutes. Remove from the tin to finish cooling on a rack
7.Dust lightly with caster sugar, if liked, then gift wrap or store in an airtight container.

recipe and top picture from Asda Magazine

Golden Basmati Rice with Apricots

It is panic time, the gas stove is kaput, yet again, the gas man isn't answering my calls and the manufacturer is giving me the runaround (music: click on link before continuing). I have a pressing deadline for the London Guide for Expatriates. No presents are bought, no cards sent and it is soon Xmas. My head is in a mess and I can't find the picture for today's post, probably because it never existed and the dish was gulped even before the camera came out. I bet you one day this household will be in such a hurry to get tucked in the food that the camera might get eaten too. 

There is only one recipe for this kind of feeling and that is basmati rice.

I love this recipe with its crisp apple and soft apricots. It also contains saffron which is a curious ingredient we should talk about one day, when I am not in a panic :) but you can skip the saffron you will not the golden colour but the recipe will still be good.

Though it is based on a Persian dish, this takes me back to the rice paddies of Indonesia, to the endless bus trips picking sticky rice out of bamboo canes, to the smily faces and the warm sun on my face.

So need a bit of Zen in your life, try this out

Golden Basmati Rice with Apricots

Ingredients  

serves 8 prep time 30 min Total time 1h30

• 1/4 teaspoon saffron threads
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 7 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 1/2 cups basmati rice
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 2/3 cup salted roasted almonds, coarsely chopped
• 6 dried apricots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 large Granny Smith apple, cored and cut into 1-inch pieces
• Freshly ground pepper

1.Preheat the oven to 375°. In a small bowl, crumble the saffron over the warm water and let stand for 5 minutes.

2.In a large skillet, melt 4 tablespoons of the butter. Add the onion and garlic and cook over moderate heat until softened, 7 minutes. Stir in the cinnamon, then add the rice and stir to coat. Add the stock, saffron and its soaking liquid and the salt and bring to a boil. Transfer the rice and liquid to a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes, or until the stock is absorbed and the rice is tender.

3.In a large skillet, melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter. Add the scallions and cook over moderately high heat for 30 seconds. Add the almonds and apricots and cook until the apricots start to brown, about 2 minutes. Add the apple and cook, stirring, just until warmed, about 1 minute. Stir the mixture into the rice, season with pepper and serve hot.

recipe from food&wine.com 

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Where Was I ?

"Where Was I?" does indeed start to sound a little bit like a recurring theme on this blog, may be I should call it "Where Was I, This Week?". It is such fun to scour new places. Though this time, very unusually, the place was not new to us, and yes before you get startled at the use of "us" instead of the usual "he" & I, it is not a typo, it is called for as we went back to the place we first met in celebration of decadesss. The word that comes to mind is "allegory", the past week was an allegory of these years.

A familiar starting point:

A strange ride through the night:

Reaching one of the most romantic city in......... here are some culinary clues,

Give it a go, have a guess, "in which country did we meet?" 

Leave a comment, I will put your name in the randomiser, the winner will receive a cookery book from my collection.

don't hesitate to tweet and retweet this post, the more the merrier.

No rules apply, you can comment from anywhere in the world.

Xmas Pudding: It's Feeding Time

 Mid-April, Sue surprised me (and possibly the airport security) by flying from Toronto with a Xmas pudding neatly sealed in plastic. She took a mysterious and mischievous air and said: "Keep this in your freezer until such a time when you will get instructions by email." A couple of days ago, the instructions arrived: it is feeding time.

This morning as snow flakes where dancing outside the kitchen window I took the pudding out of the plastic.  Liberated, it generated an unmistakable sweet aroma which floated in the kitchen. Next I got Ann's flask, oh! yes this is a friends' affair, everyone is participating. Poked some holes in the pudding and started pouring cognac, wrapped it is in its cloth, it is now ready for its next feed next week.........

If you are not familiar with Xmas pud, traditionally it is made 4 to 5 weeks before Christmas. This pudding contains very little flour, lots and lots of rich dried fruits and spices. It is common practice to include a coin or a charm in the pudding during it's making. A couple of weeks before, it needs to be fed with cognac or rum and left its cloth until the day when it is steamed for 3 to 4 hours, it should darken deeply, served with cream and I was told yesterday that any leftovers could be fried the next day.

In Season: Chestnut and Chocolate Mousse Cake

There is definitely more to chestnuts than stuffing however one of the problem is the preparation of the nuts, so fiddly, just impossible. This is why I was delighted when the Merchant Gourmet PR approached me and asked if I could come up with a Christmas chestnuts recipe. They offered to send me one of their Chestnut product. Whole Chestnuts are roasted, peeled and vacuum pack so ready to use and when you think about it, this is a little marvel.

I agreed to enter their Blogger Chestnut Challenge which will be judged by chef Alex MacKay and I have got my big brown eyes on the prize: a hamper.

Choosing the recipe was not a problem. Every Christmas, my friend Pat make this perfect Chestnut and Chocolate Mousse Cake. It is light, moist and just the kind of thing you can't help eating even after a 10 courses, so delicious it is.

It is as easy as  one, two, three therefore takes the stress out of the cook on a busy day.

Ingredients  

• 200g (7 oz) dark chocolate
• 200g (7 oz) unsalted butter
• 200g (7 oz) peeled cooked chestnuts
• 200ml (7 fl oz) milk
• 4 eggs
• 150g (3.5 oz) caster sugar

 Method

Preheat the oven to 170°c/Gas Mark 3 and grease and line a 23cm-diameter springform cake tin.

1. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a pan over a very gentle heat. In another pan, heat the chestnuts with the milk until just boiling, then mash thoroughly with a potato masher (or process to a rough purée in a machine).

 

2. Put the egg yolks in a bowl and mix with the caster sugar. Stir in the chocolate mixture and the chestnut purée until you have a smooth, blended batter. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold them carefully into the batter. 

3. Transfer the mixture to the greased, lined tin and bake for 25–30 minutes, or until the cake is just set but still has a slight wobble.

Serve hot or cold with or without double cream

Swedeaphobia Cure

People talk about their favorite food but you ever heard somebody say "I could live on swedes only"....likely not. And if someone came up with this line ever, you would possibly turn on your heels as fast as you could and leave that quidam standing there without further ado.

I never bothered with that ugly root until I found a traditional Finnish recipe in The Able & Cole Cookbook and that day, I felt really adventurous, so I went for it. It is described in the cookbook as creamy, slightly spicy and delicious, promise it is exactly that. It might not make you one of the weirdos wanting to live on swedes but it will brilliant dish to add to the house menu. The dish keeps in the fridge so it can be made in advance and only 30 minutes to reheat. 

 Swedeaphobia Cure

Ingredients

◦1 big swede
◦1 mug of dried breadcrumbs
◦1½ mugs of cream (or a mixture of cream and milk)
◦45ml (3 tbsp) golden syrup, maple syrup or honey
◦½ tsp white pepper
◦1 tsp ground ginger
◦½ tsp grated nutmeg
◦Salt and freshly ground black pepper
◦2-3 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan 160°C/356°F/gas 4).

2. Cut the swede into large chunks and boil in lightly salted water until just tender, about 15 minutes. Pour half the breadcrumbs into the cream and set aside. When the swede is ready, drain it, reserving the water, and mash it roughly with a fork or potato masher. Add about half a mug of the cooking water to get a slightly smoother texture. Now add all the ingredients except the potatoes and remaining breadcrumbs to the mashed swede and mix well, seasoning with salt to taste.

3. Grease a large baking dish and line the bottom and sides with the sliced potato. Gently add the swede mixture to the baking dish, taking care to spread it evenly. Sprinkle the remaining breadcrumbs over the top and bake for 1 – 1½ hours, until the potatoes are tender and the breadcrumb topping is golden brown.

Guess where I was ?

After 30 years travelling, I still look at places in awe and amazement, I love the feeling of discovery, meeting new people, elliciting their stories. But I have to say that the element of surprise is thin on the ground.

Last week, he and I took a week away. A week is such a short time so he looked for a place where there is sun, wine, swimming and came up with Tenerife. Wooow far flung from the Yemen or Mongolia but why not? Afterall it is one of the most popular tourist destination; there bound be something in it. So we flew to Tenerife South and immediately took a couple of buses to the middle of nowhere.

Yes, the middle of nowhere exists on Tenerife and the very next day we experienced the most fantastic 3 hours trek from the perched village of Masca through stunning scenery down a gorge to a small bay on the coast reputed to have been a Pirate hideaway, only accesible by boat onto another bus back to the middle of nowhere and the most gorgeous restaurant experience, I have had in a long time.

To cut it short. The local wine is very palatable, the fish croquettes were superb, the turned over pizza looked great but what stroke me was the dish without a name, the house speciality which I recreated for you, it is just a delight, it is so good, amazing.

Description: A filo tartelette lined with crushed sweet pepper & palm honey at the bottom, topped with beef meat and a bechamel.

Ingredients

You will need individual ramekins or any small dish, tart mould whatever you can find

sheets of filo pastry cut and stacked to fill the ramequins

Sweet peppers

palm honey but since we don't have that treacle or honey will do

200 grs of mince meat

1 chopped onion

make a bechamel with butter, flour and milk

Method

• Cut your peppers in stripes and sweat them in a table spoon of oil, when they are soft, blend them and add a good teaspoon of honey
• Cut your filo and line the ramequins or tartelettes moulds. Spread the pepper mixture onto the filo.
• Do not wash your pan, you are going to cook the onion until soft and the mince until brown when this is done top the pepper mixture.
• Make a bechamel and top the lot with it
• Now 20 minutes in an oven mark 180 and enjoy

And the next day we left for La Gomera, an even smaller island to experience more food, sun, sea.