Blood orange, cardamom & rose cake

For the cake:
225g Butter, at room temperature
225g Caster sugar
4 Eggs
225g Self-raising flour
5 Blood oranges, peel and pith trimmed away then cut into thick slices
Finely chopped zest and juice of 1 large orange
½Tsp Freshly ground cardamom seeds

For the drizzle:
75g Caster sugar
Juice of 1 large orange
1Tbsp Honey
1Tsp Dried rose petals

1 Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Beat the butter caster sugar together until pale and creamy, then gradually whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Sift in the flour, add the orange zest, juice and cardamom then mix until well combined.
2 Grease and line a round, 23cm cake tin. Arrange the blood orange slices across the bottom of the tin – cut a few in half to fill any large spaces but don’t worry if there are a few gaps. Spoon over the cake mix, level with the back of a spoon then bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out cleanly.
3 Heat the orange juice, sugar and honey together in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved. Turn the cake out onto a plate and drizzle with orange syrup – finish with a sprinkle of dried rose petals.

Sloe Whisky



 

 

I'm a big fan of Sloe gin, but the pursuit of different ways of using my wild gatherings is an addictive and enjoyable one. A fruit-whisky-sugar combination works fabulously well in the Scottish classic Cranachan; I see no reason why this should be any least successful. High hopes rest on getting a bit of game involved with the soon-to-be ruby mixture during the cold winter months of the new year, not to mention a cocktail or two.

 

40cl Whisky (it's best not to use anything to fancy/expensive, in a similar fashion to Sloe Gin making)

125g Granulated sugar

Roughly two large handfuls of Sloes

Half a cinnamon stick

A couple of cloves

 

Pour the sugar into a bottle with the Whisky, add the spices and then fill to the rim with sloes. Gently agitate the bottle daily for the first 7 days and weekly thereafter to help everything blend together. It'll taste good after about three months, but patience is rewarded.

Gypsy tarts

This is one of my Dad's favourite desserts - an old Kentish classic. It's very sweet; the sharpness of a few fresh rasberries scattered on top and/or a few splinters of bitter dark chocolate offsets the sweetness nicely. Traditionally short crust pastry is used, but I used brik in this instance for a bit of brittle, papery crunch.

MAKES 6

Brik or filo pastry

1 400ml tin of evaporated milk

300g Dark muscovado sugar

Melted dark chocolate and/or raspberries, to serve.

1 Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Whisk the evaporated milk and sugar together for about 10 minutes until thick and creamy.

2 Use a saucer to cut out 6 circles of pastry, then line 6 brioches tins. Carefully spoon the mixture into the tins; the pastry probably won’t sit snuggly in the tins beforehand, but the weight of the mixture will help hold it down and push the pastry into the brioche tin grooves.

3 Bake for 10 minutes, checking regularly in case the edges of the pastry burn. Serves with fresh raspberries and splinters of dark chocolate. 

Hot porridge with warm rhubarb compote and toasted almonds

I'm not sure if you've heard, but it snowed last night. This seems to have fallen under the radar on many social networking sites, so I do hope that you'll thank me for the heads up. What better way to prepare for a log gathering session than a piping hot bowl of porridge for breakfast?

Simply soften a 2 chopped sticks of rhubarb in a pan with a good squeeze of honey, one tablespoon of sugar and a small splash of water (so that the rhubarb doesn't catch). Don't let it break down too much - you want a bit of rhubarb shape left. Spoon over a bowl of hot porridge with an extra drizzle of honey and toasted almonds - a dusting of ground cinnamon works a treat too. Serves 2.

French onion soup

Why has it been so long since I've made this oniony wonder? The inclination to throw everything into the soup pot at this time of year is a strong one; especially when there's a wealth of wintry root veg in season. Lest we forget that often, simplicity is best.

A small knob of butter
5 Large brown onions, thinly sliced
2 Bay leaves
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
2 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
A splash of dry sherry
500ml Beef or vegetable stock
2Tsp mustard powder
Salt and pepper
1 ciabatta loaf, sliced
Finely grated gruyere cheese

1 Melt the butter in a pan, before adding the thyme, garlic and bay. Stir gently for a few minutes, then add the onions. Soften gently on a medium heat for about 10 minutes.
2 Stir the mustard powder into the onions, add the sherry and then pour in the stock (I used vegetable stock in this instance - prefer beef though). Simmer on a relatively fast bubble for about 20 minutes.
3 Toast the ciabatta slices, then top with grated Gruyere. When ready to serve, spoon a portion of soup into a bowl, float a ciabatta on top and then grate in a bit more cheese for good measure. Pop under the grill for a few minutes, then serve.

Kale

Shot for BBC Good Food Magazine, Feb '12 issue

Prop styling: Jo Harris

Paperflower

Jewelled dukkah crusted lamb shoulder

The ‘Danny Glover Quote Lexicon’ is far from being a tome, “I’m getting to old for this shit” being the only Glovernugget that I ever regularly paraphrase. “I just wanna fix mah boat and put mah kids through school Riggs” (something like that) doesn’t really bristle with many social applications. I’m embarrassed to say that three consecutive nights of festive revelry last week has left me gaunt, dishevelled and malnourished, like a poor Dickensian street urchin. This was compounded on Friday morning when we ran out of milk and honey for porridge, and I was forced to contemplate a bowl of thin oatmeal gruel for breakfast. It is my hope that this hearty roast went a little way towards righting the balance.

I first tried dukkah a couple of years ago. In that instance it played part of a Maria Elia recipe; juicy watermelon wedges plunged into a bowl of dukkah as a canape - very much a ‘YES’ moment. Traditionally hazelnuts are used in this Egyptian dip, but this morning I raided the Christmas nut bowl in a gesture of ‘Renegade spice assemblage’.

For a small jar of dukkah

2Tbsp Sesame seeds

2Tbsp Chopped mixed nuts (I used a blend of hazel, almond, walnut & brazil nuts)

1Tbsp Cumin seeds

1Tbsp Coriander seeds

1Tsp black peppercorns

1Tsp Sea salt

1/2Tsp Ground cinnamon

1/2Tsp dried mint

Toast the sesame seeds, nuts, cumin seeds and coriander seeds in heavy pan until they’ve toasted lightly. Allow to cool, then tip into a coffee grinder with the peppercorns, salt, cinnamon and mint. Blitz until fine.

Jewelled dukkah crusted lamb shoulder

(I used) 0.75kg Rolled lamb shoulder (cooking times will vary depending on the size of your meat)

2Tbsp Olive oil

6Tbsp Dukkah

1 Pomegranate

Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Rub the lamb with olive oil, then place in an ovenproof dish. Gently sprinkle the dukkah over the meat (you may have to fill in gaps here and there with your fingers), then roast for just under an hour until the lamb is blushing. To serve, scatter pomegranate seeds over the meat (a good squeeze of juice over the top is a good thing too).

Haw

Gluten-free stollen

Shot for BBC Good Food magazine, December '11 issue

Recipe: Hannah Miles

Prop styling: Tony Hutchinson

Food Styling: Cassie Best

Rabbit, mushroom and ramson bulb pate

The Ramsons are so abundant along this riverbank during the spring; digging up a small handful of bulbs in the winter months won’t upset the balance in the slightest. A summer spent swelling gently in the soil leaves them plump and juicy - that garlic flavour is distinct as ever. If you'd prefer your pate to be really gamey just use rabbit; I like to tone down the strong flavour a touch though, so go 50/50 with chicken livers.

200g Rabbit livers

200g Chicken livers

100g Chestnut mushrooms, roughly torn

100g butter

3 bacon rashers, chopped

4 Large ramson bulbs

Fresh thyme leaves

Bay leaves

A splash of sherry

Salt and pepper

Fry the bacon in an oiled pan until crispy, then add the mushrooms to soften. Stir in the livers, brown for a few minutes (try not to cook them all the way through) then add the thyme, bay, chopped garlic and butter. Season, get a splash of sherry on the scene and stir through until the butter has melted. Spoon into a food processor, give it a brief blitz (I don’t like it too smooth), then spoon into ramekins. Create a seal with some clarified butter and a couple of bay leaves.

Boozy sloe gin mincemeat

600g Mixed dried fruit (I used roughly equal parts raisins, currants and sultanas)

200g Unsalted butter

200g Light muscovado sugar

1 Large bramley apple peeled, cored and grated

Zest and juice of one large orange

1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon

A good grating of fresh nutmeg

150ml Sloe gin

Slowly melt the butter in a large pan; take off the heat and stir in the sugar and cinnamon. Mix the dried fruit, grated apple, orange zest, orange juice and sloe gin together in a separate bowl (it's good to do this the night before if you get a chance). Stir the butter into the fruit, mix together well and spoon into sterilised jars. Fashion into untold mince pies.

Cache