1 Shot of tequila
6 Dashes Worcestershire sauce
4 Dashes Tobasco sauce
1tsp Grated horseradish root (creamed horseradish is fine if you don't
have any)
A pinch of ground black pepper
A pinch of celery salt
A small pinch of cayenne pepper
A good squeeze of lime juice
200ml Tomato juice
Ice cubes
Celery sticks, to serve
Pop 3 ice cubes into the bottom of cocktail shaker, then add the
remaining ingredients. Shake well, pour into an appropriate receptacle
and serve with a celery stick.
Thursday 30 December 2010
Bloody Maria
Monday 20 December 2010
Boozy sloe gin mincemeat
Monday 13 December 2010
Cranberry clafoutis
blackberries and plums. In this instance I offset the sharpness of
the Cranberries by macerating them in a little warm honey first.
400g Fresh cranberries
1 tbsp Honey
75g Plain flour
100g Golden caster sugar
75g Ground almonds
1 tsp Ground cinnamon
2 Eggs
150ml Whole milk
100ml Single cream
Heat the oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Warm the honey in a small
saucepan, take off the heat and stir in the cranberries. Sieve the flour
into a mixing bowl, then stir in the sugar, almonds and cinnamon.
Whisk the eggs, milk and cream together in a seperate bowl, make a
well in the centre of the dry ingredients and slowly whisk in the liquid.
Mix well, until the batter is smooth and lump free.
Butter a shallow dish, add a spoonful of sugar and tap at an angle,
rotating slowly to coat the bottom and sides of the dish. Spoon in the
honeyed cranberries, then pour in the batter. Bake for 25 minutes,
after which the clafoutis should be risen and golden. A skewer should
come out clean when poked into dish.
Wednesday 8 December 2010
Monday 6 December 2010
Wild mushroom tarts
Makes 4
300g Wild mushrooms
375g Pack puff pastry
1 Garlic clove, finely chopped
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp Creme fraiche
20g Parmesan, finely grated
A large knob of butter
1 Egg, beaten
A few sprigs of fresh lemon thyme
Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Sprinke a little flour onto a work
surface and roll the pastry out to about 1/2cm thick. Use a small
saucer to cut out 4 pastry discs; transfer onto a lined baking sheet
and use the blunt edge of a knife to score a border on each (inset of
about 1cm).
Melt a knob butter in a hot pan, stir in the garlic, then add the
mushrooms. Cook for about 5 minutes, then take off the heat.
Mix the mustard, creme fraiche and Parmesan together in a bowl. Spread
a thin layer of the mixture into the centre of each tart, taking care
not to spoon over the border line. Divide the mushrooms between the
four tarts, brush the pastry borders with beaten egg and bake for 20
minutes. Season, sprinkle with some fresh thyme leaves and serve.
Monday 29 November 2010
Spicy pumpkin soup
A medium sized pumpkin, deseeded, peeled and roughly chopped
1 Tbsp Sesame oil
A thumb-sized piece of root ginger, finely chopped
1 Red chilli, chopped
1 Lemongrass, chopped
1 Large onion
1 1/2 pints Vegetable stock
1 Tbsp mango chutney
Salt and pepper
Heat the sesame oil in a pan before adding the ginger, lemongrass and
chilli. After a few minutes, stir in the onion, softening slightly
before adding the pumpkin. Pour in the stock and simmer gently for 10
minutes or so; after which the pumpkin should squish easily. Transfer
everything into a blender and blitz to a smooth consistency; pour back
into the pan and season. Spoon in the mango chutney and leave to
bubble on a low heat for a few minutes. Serve with chopped chilli,
ginger matchsticks and fresh coriander.
Tuesday 23 November 2010
Pink peppercorn pfeffernusse
For the second time in a week I chanced upon the wolf man on the way home. He seems to just appear on the horizon; long silvery hair, lupine scowl and (seriously) a wolf-embroidered fleece hanging off his bony shoulders. If that wasn't enough, he has TWO ACTUAL WOLVES tethered to his hands, albeit by unnervingly flimsy leashes. It's startling to witness; but has little to do with festive baking. I digress.
It’s Sinterklaas eve on 5th December. Traditionally, children in Germany, Holland and Belgium leave shoes by the fireplace before bedtime; come the morning it’s hoped that Saint Nicholas will have filled them with treats – Pfeffernusse being a favourite. It feels a bit keen to be making Christmas biscuits at the end of November, but these really benefit from being left in a tin for a couple of weeks so that the spice flavours develop.
Pink peppercorn pfeffernusse
Makes 20
For the biscuits
2 Eggs
230g Light muscovado sugar
250g Plain flour
Zest and juice of 2 satsumas
1tsp Ground cinnamon
1/2tsp Ground mace
1/2tsp Ground cloves
1/3 Freshly grated tonka bean
1tsp Finely chopped pink peppercorns
1tsp Freshly ground black pepper
30g Ground almonds
A pinch of salt
For the sugar coating
2 Egg whites
250g Icing sugar
Monday 15 November 2010
Wild walnut, Stilton and honey foccacia
500g Bread flour
1 ½ tsp Salt
½ tsp dried yeast
2 tbsp Olive oil
325ml Warm water
A handful of chopped walnuts
A chunk of Stilton, crumbled
2 tbsp Honey
Sea salt
Add the yeast to the water, leaving for a few minutes while you mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Stir the water and olive oil into the flour, using your hands to shape into a ball. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, pop back into the bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Leave in a warm spot for an hour or so, after which (hopefully) the dough will have doubled in size. Carefully stretch out the dough into an oiled baking tray; get the damp tea towel back on the scene and put back in the warmth for a further 30 minutes.
Use your fingertips to gently make some dents all over the surface of the dough, brush with olive oil and pop into a preheated oven (180C/160C fan/gas 4) for 15 minutes. Sprinkle the crumbled Stilton and walnuts over the foccacia, then give it another 5-10 minutes in the oven. Drizzle with honey and a light sprinkle of sea salt.
Friday 12 November 2010
Tuesday 9 November 2010
Monday 1 November 2010
Barney's pigeon & hedgerow salad
Nettle salsa verde
2 Pickled gherkins
1 Tablespoon capers
3 Cloves garlic, crushed
4 Anchovies
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
6 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper
Finely chop the herbs, nettles, gherkins, capers and anchovies. Stir in remaining ingredients and season to taste.
Thursday 21 October 2010
Baby courgette and lime linguine
Serves 2
Get the linguine into a pan of boiling water. Use a pastry brush to oil a griddle
pan before placing on the heat. Slice the courgettes on a slant and sear on both sides
for about 5 minutes, turning once (the courgette slices should be scorched with
griddle lines). Put to one side on a sheet of kitchen roll. In a seperate pan,
soften the garlic and chilli, before stirring in the drained linguine,
griddled courgettes, a drizzle of olive oil and the juice of one lime.
Season well. Serve with basil leaves, a generous grating of Parmesan and
lime wedges on the side.
Monday 18 October 2010
Monday 11 October 2010
Spicy toffee nut pears
Thursday 7 October 2010
Monday 4 October 2010
Pumpkin pie
150g sultanas
400g light muscovado sugar
Zest 1 large orange
300ml orange juice
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp Allspice
1/2tsp Nutmeg
1 bay leaf
A large knob of butter
A good slosh of brandy
Monday 27 September 2010
Rose hip and blackberry fizz
For the rose hip syrup
1kg Rosehips
1kg Sugar
3ltrs Water
For the cocktail
Rosehip syrup
Blackberries
Champagne
Drop a blackberry into the bottom of a champagne flute, cover with rose hip syrup and top up with champagne. Slanche!
Monday 20 September 2010
Discovery mustard potatoes
Boil the potatoes under a watchful eye - until a sharp knife just about slips through a cube. While you drain the potatoes, have a glug of olive oil heating in a frying pan. Pop the potatoes into the pan; toss gently every few minutes, adding the onion and apples about 10 minutes in. Stir in mustard just before serving. Great with pork chops - not forgetting a glass of crisp cider.
Monday 13 September 2010
Feral fruit chutney
Soften onion in a pan while you remove the fruit stones and chop the (peeled) apples. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a quick bubble. Boil for 30-45 minutes until reduced and thick, before spooning into sterilised jars.
Wednesday 8 September 2010
Chocolate, hazelnut and hogweed seed tarts
200g Dark chocolate
50g Golden caster sugar
3 Eggs
3tbsp Single cream
1/2tsp Ground hogweed seeds
75g Chopped hazelnuts (wild if the squirrels haven't thieved them first; which is likely)
Heat the oven to 180C. Line 4 tart tins with pastry and blind bake for 10-15 minutes (they need to be slightly golden). Melt the chocolate before mixing in the cream and ground hogweed seeds. Whisk eggs and sugar until thick and creamy. Carefully fold in the chocolate mixture and about ¾ of the hazelnuts. Spoon into tart cases, sprinkle remaining nuts on top and bake for 10 minutes.
Tuesday 31 August 2010
Monday 23 August 2010
Monday 26 July 2010
Foraging
One of the most enjoyable things about foraging is the way in which it compels a greater awareness of one’s surroundings – the need to slow down, pause and look. My walk (run) to the station each morning plots a dishevelled and hastily coordinated line towards town – it’s only as the dust starts to settle in the evening and I make my way home that I spot what I’ve missed. Lime, sweet chestnut, ash, elder, common mallow, dandelion – last week I found clumps of wild fennel just a couple of hundred yards from our front door. Bit of a poor show that they’re marooned in a central reservation on the A331.
It goes without saying that a major aspect of foraging is identifying not just what to eat, but what to avoid. It’ll be a long while until I explore certain plants in the umbellifer family; wild chervil’s uncanny resemblance to a dangerous cousin is a little too close for comfort. There’d be few complaints from the family if I stirred a handful of finely chopped hemlock into a herby risotto, mostly due to the fact that we’d have expired at various points around the dining room. That said, spotting poisonous plants can provide clues to finding edible ones; foxgloves like soil with a higher PH, acidity loving sustenance may well be nearby.
Robin Harford runs a number of wild food courses in and around Sidmouth, East Devon (www.foragingcourses.com) – a great start if you’re keen on foraging. It was a revelation to discover that dried hogweed seeds have a lightly citrus, cardamom flavour; similarly I had no idea that German uniforms were woven from nettle fibre during World War 1. Nettles are a fantastically versatile plant, higher in vitamin C than oranges and packed full of protein. Why we use them so infrequently is something of a mystery.
Reedmace (bullrushes, as I erroneously knew them as a youth) is in flower about this time of year; slender spikes poking out of riverbanks and ponds with a fuzz of cottony pollen on top. When flour was rationed during the forties reedmace was regularly used as a substitute in bread making (roughly 20% pollen, 80% flour), apparently the roots are tasty too (not entirely dissimilar to hearts of palm). I could be onto a winner with the ‘hedgerow pizza’ – reedmace dough base, steamed nettle and ricotta topping with a scattering of mallow flowers at the end to add a bit of colour. Might work on an alternative title for the ‘Chocolate and hogweed torte’ though.
Posted on bbcgoodfood.com 26th July 2010