Bath buns

Right - these are top notch.
I followed the Richard Bertinet recipe - and it took me overnight, and 6+ hours in the making. But this one is worth it.
The cakes are very very light, plain - in the best way - because the bread is just gorgeous. Just a sweet bun.

 

First you make a 'ferment' which i had to leave overnight, as i didn't have time to finish the process for the buns yesterday evening. I wasn't sure it would still work, so only made a small batch of buns - but it worked well. I made a judgement on the structure of the ferment which looked very well bubbled - but it wasn't frothy as it was at its height of fermenting. 

So this morning I started making the dough with the ferment, milk, sugar, yeast, flour. Worked the dough from very very sticky to very elastic. This took about 20 minutes as I had quite a lot of ferment (only half of what i'd made as I wasn't sure it was going to work and didn't want to waste even more flour). 

Working the dough was very enjoyable, watching the dough change very gradually and getting into a good rhythm. 

Then it was the proving cycle. One hour, then refold and another hour. Then section and make buns and prove for 2.5 hours. 

Glaze the buns with milk and sugar glaze. 

Then bake for just 20 mins!

Glaze again for a good sticky bun. 

Then eat in 5 minutes because they're so good. 

This is one of the best things i've ever made. Very happy with these - although you do have to mimic being a proper baker for a day - its a full on job.

Pear and Honey tart

This was too fiddly for the taste pay-off.
Make pastry, chill it.
Roll out, lay over tart pan.
Bake for 10 minutes with dried beans to stop it puffing up.
Bake for 5 minutes without beans.
Peel, core and quarter and cook pears, puree them.
Peel, core and slice and cook pear slices to brown them.
Whisk up cream, eggs for the custard.
Layer puree onto baked pastry.
Layer pear slices onto baked pastry.
ERK - except don't because by the time you've got pastry and pear puree in the tart pan, there's not going to be room for the sliced pears and the custard. So I decide to cook them in a separate dish. Then have to turn it all upside down in various stages to get it all together again.
And after all that - the honey isn't strong enough and the pear puree is too wussy for my tastes. And the pears started so beautifully.

Beetroot pasta with Borlotti Beans, Pancetta and Rosemary

Made beetroot pasta just because it looked good in the Jamie Oliver book. He suggested substituting beetroot puree for one egg. Overall I put a little bit too much beetroot in and it was a relatively soft dough, but still workable.

I then used up some good things in the fridge: pancetta, borlotti beans, bacon, paris brown mushrooms - to go with it.

The pictures don't make it look very inviting! But it was very tasty - and very autumnal.

I cooked the beans with a fat clove of garlic first, which gave them good flavour. Extra flavour came from rosemary which I put into the pancetta/bacon/mushroom. And plenty seasoning.
Served with grated Pecorino.

Sourdough starter mkII RIP

I've killed another batch of sourdough starter. I think I now realise where I'm going wrong - lack of oxygen. The yeasts need oxygen, water, food to stay alive. By keeping the starter super-sealed, I've been starving them of oxygen.
The starter is always good for the first 2 days then gets flat and dormant (er, dead). I think it must be the lack of air. There's lots of conflicting advice on how to get starters going - do use other ingredients: potato, cabbage, grape seeds - don't use other ingredients. Keep starter covered. Keep starter open. Remove half starter as you feed it new flour/water. Don't remove any starter.
There's only one constant recommendation "get some starter from someone else".
That's not an option right now, so its time for Starter Marque 3.

Hugh Fearnley's advice on sourdough sounds good - I'm going to run with that and a melange of other things I've read and experienced.

Its worth the effort tho', and I like that some things require time, attention, mistakes, and repetition before it all comes good. It'll come good one day.

Two-cheese burger and chips

Blue cheese mixed into the burger, then Davidstow cheddar on top. Woop! Its very dairy. Its very good.
Burgers cooked on the griddle - nicely striped.
Good greens from those nice 'living salads' boxes. I can't decide if they're unacceptably wasteful (all that compost being chucked out) - but the salad is really lovely - soft and crisply fresh at the same time. Good flavour. Room temperature - none of this cold crunchy tasteless watery nonsense. A proper slicing tomato and good fat chips. Sometimes you just want burger and chips.

Venison pie

This was partly a 'clear up the left-overs' pie - but with some choice venison from the game man at the market.
We used up the gravy from the partridges the other week, some small carrots we put in there whole, some shallots (often spelled shorlots at college) left over from the thai curry paste, paris brown mushrooms that we have a surfeit of as they looked great at the market, and remnant puff pastry from the tarte tatin. We had to crack open some red wine, which went down very well with it. Also used up half a celeriac I had lying about, which I had mashed up. Matt's a bit over celeriac mash and has retreated to plain potato. Unfortunately for him - its still my favourite - lifting the gag-worthy heaviness of just potato and adding that superb sweet and sour aniseed flavour. Absolutely cracking.

Inevitable pumpkin soup

With half a pumpkin to use up, soup was inevitable.
Roasted with pumpkin with chilli and olive oil, then added to a basic soup of onion, garlic and veg stock. Cooked for a while then blitzed.
Added double cream at the end in a suitably halloween spider fashion. Served with sourdough toast. Delicious and very filling. Those puree soups really keep you filled up.

Orange made up cake.

I made this up. I wanted an orange cake - warm, fragrant, rich. Made some sponge, with Sauternes, canditi, orange zest, vanilla.
Then thought I'd use up the oranges - filleted them, kept the juice, made some caramel, poured it over, then placed half the cake over. Only had apricot jam in the house, so put that in the middle. Then tipped the whole thing up the right way.
it looks beautiful! So in the end we've got - perfumed sauternes orangey vanilla-ey cake, sharp fresh oranges surrounded in crunchy caramel on top. Some of the orange juice has seeped into the cake which works well - but the apricot jam is too sweet! we needed marmalade - or even better some cheesecakey type filling, something smooth to carry some orange flavour.
I think this has a halloween feel - crunchy sweeties of the caramel and the orange colour is pretty autumnal.

Pumpkin and aubergine green curry

Colour issues again with the pumpkin - which seemed to get all grey :S Also I got scared by how much my fingers stung from cutting the chillies, so went wussy with the spice paste - mistake. this was barely a curry! Got to have some guts :) and using coconut block reconstituted with water to make 'milk' was rubbish - weird consistency that kept seperating. Well - this is all the bad stuff - in the end - it was still pretty tasty and rescued me from extreme tired after double restaurant shift.

Omelette - paris brown mushrooms, ewe's cheese

Matt makes a great omelette. Here's a guest entry from him.

The fresh ewe's cheese is really exceptionally good from The Elm's Organic Dairy, Friar's Oven Farm, West Compton, Somerset. Made with unpasterised organic ewe's milk, it gives an omelette a fresh sharp taste, but with gorgeous creamy texture. Delicious when hot. The mushrooms are also farmer's market - delicious round flavoured paris brown mushrooms. Eggs obviously organic, large, and a bargain at farmer's market £2.50 a dozen! Darn fine meal.

Pumpkin Tortelli

Made the pasta with new recipe which only used 200g flour and 2 eggs - and was enough for 4 people.

 Pumpkin was roasted in the oven, then pureed. Added breadcrumbs and loads of parmesan.
Pasta was made and rested only for 15 minutes, then pushed through the pasta maker, to a thinner setting than usual, so that when doubled over, the tortelli wouldn't be too stodgy. It worked well - consistency was good.
Pumpkin was a bit disappointing as it went a pale yellow colour - not like butternut squash which keeps its brilliant orange.

We finished the dish with classic 'sauce' - butter and sage, more parmesan, splash of olive oil and lots of black pepper.
A light and satisfying meal. Sage butter makes anything good ;)

Tortelli took some time to roll out, cut out and assemble,  and i kept thinking i should get annoyed with it taking so long - but immediately realised that actually its just really fun. Especially when you've got someone to chat to in the kitchen. I could spend hours making this stuff. And they stack up so nicely when done. Brilliant.

Raspberries and cream victoria sponge

Winner!! The sponge was light light light and with a smidge of lemon and vanilla - had some life to it. Then, my sister's fantastic redcurrant and raspberry jam, fresh raspberries and whipped double cream. Deserves the 3 picture treatment. We stuffed ourselves :)

Celery and apple soup

As someone who doesn't really like celery, this soup is a total winner. It is very fresh and light - and something very good happens when these two are together. Apple takes the edge of the celery and celery lifts the sweetness of the apple. Perfect. Celery and apple soup recipe from Shropshire's Organics.

Mackerel and Sea Beet

 Sea beet was new to me. We found some that had been foraged for in the wild - being sold at the Farmer's Market. It tasted lovely - quite thick leaves which did have some similarity to seaweed when cooked. Tasted like greens, but not earthy greens. Very nice, would definitely have again.
The mackerel was delicious - and i'm not usually a fan - but I'd seen a recipe that inspired me, which i then couldn't recall, but by then the fish was bought. Again from the Farmer's market, it was deliciously fresh and delicately flavoured, not the big fat meaty oily hit i was half-expecting. Great. Just roasted with lemon, salt, parsley, scant olive oil.

Pumpkin

What am i going to do with you?

Sourdough starter mkII

We're off again. This time it doesn't look like rubble, is the proper measurements (not half portion), isn't grey, is a smooth batter as recommended in the recipe. Back in a warm dark place for 2 days.

Partridge Chartreuse

This was more successful.
Layers of partridge, braised cabbage, bacon, carrots - wrapped in savoy cabbage leaves.
The dish took 3 hours to make:
brown the partridges
roast the birds for 8 minutes, rest for 15
blanch and refresh outer cabbage leaves - pat dry
cut cabbage hearts into 4
brown bacon, brown cabbage hearts in roasting tray on hob
place whole carrots in roasting tray, half fill with water
roast for 1 hour
take breasts and legs off the partridges
brown the carcasses in a saucepan
add mirepoix celery, carrots, onion - brown them too
add thyme, bay.
add water, cook for an hour.

then assemble chartreuse:
butter deep sided roasting dish
lay out a good looking cabbage leaf on the bottom
line the dish with cabbage leaves
take the stalks from the cabbage hearts, and spread the leaves in the dish
layer with partridge breasts
layer with cabbage hearts, thickly sliced bacon
layer partridge legs, thickly sliced carrots
final cabbage heart layer - and top off with cabbage leaf.
wrap it all up.
Roast for 30 minutes.

Gravy - strain the vegetables and carcasses from the liquid, reduce the liquid. Add scant cornflour if nec to thicken.

Turn out the chartreuse onto a serving dish - it should be presented in one tidy piece.

I'd roasted some potatoes to go with it - which sopped up the gravy a treat.

In the end - i needed more bacon - not the pancetta I had. And actually - a smaller cabbage. there was depth of flavour from the way it had all been cooked, but overall just too much cabbage. Needed more partridge and bacon.

Bread brick

Need to 'fess up here to a disaster. The lovingly cultivated sourdough = bread brick. No redeeming features.
I think it went wrong by refridgerating it too soon. I thought fridging the sourdough starter (before it had gone through the whole starter process) would be ok as it would just slow it down. Err-ERRR. Wrong answer. All the fluff went out of it, and the smell changed from a warm yeast to something much more mineral-y. Not the delicious sourness I was after.
Time to start the starter again.

Chickpea and Swiss Chard

Direct crib from River Cafe - this is really delicious thanks to the slow cooking of the onions and carrots, plentiful white wine, and very tasty chard. I always use dried chick peas - as the consistency is a million times nicer than tinned.

Parsley, lemon juice and chilli lift the dish, whilst the veg and tomato sauce (made from slow cooking tomatoes) give depth. The chick peas, chard and olive oil tastily fill out the middle tones. Great dish.

tarte tatin

This is another dish I've always wanted to do well. I was inspired by Rowley Leigh's recipe - which uses Cox apples, cored with a teaspoon, and cooked in a frying pan with lots of butter and sugar. Very pleased with the results - altho' i need a bigger plate which doesn't have sharply raised sides.

 Tasted really good. Apples weren't too sweet and had enough acidity, despite the sugar and butter :) Meant the dish was really well balanced. Also the coxs keep their shape, so you get pillowy texture but not overcooked or mushy apples.

Poached egg, sourdough, rocket, roasted tomato

Breakfast to keep you going all the way through a 5 hour restaurant shift. Poached eggs on sourdough, rocket with roasted tomatoes with just a little balsamic dressing.

Sourdough starter day 3

Looks brilliant!! Smells good too. Its now like a batter and full of fermentation and CO2. Very exciting. Fed it this afternoon with some more water and flour. And its back into its warm dark place for another 2 days.

Bertinet sourdough

This is the one to beat. Sweet, sticky, chewy, well aerated, good crumb. Just brilliant. Bertinet shop only open Saturday mornings, so a very good reason to get up early on the weekend.
Bertinet Kitchen website

tea towel chicken

Thanks to the boys in the restaurant for teaching me so much about cooking.

Roasted plum cake (remnants)

What's left of the roasted plum cake.

Linguine with pancetta and broad beans

Very simple dish. Very good dish. Pancetta excellently cured from Bristol deli, via the farmer's market. Broan beans are late for the season, but still tasty. Bit of parmesan. Done.

Lamb loin chops, bulgar wheat salad, roast plum and almond cake

At home:

Lamb loin chops. Seasoned with salt, pepper, olive oil. That's it. Moderate grill to get the fat nicely cooked, and pink but not raw in the middle. Amazingly tasty.

Bulgar wheat salad: bulgar wheat is so fragrant i don't understand why anyone uses couscous for this kind of thing. Add -
 - copious amounts chopped parsley
 - spinach
 - rocket
 - tomatoes
 - avocados
 - lemon juice
 - plenty seasoning

Serve with juicy salty lamb.

Cake:
Got some English green-fleshed plums. Tart and fragrant. Nicely in season.
Roast plums with a little butter, brown sugar.
Mix up sponge with mostly ground almond in place of flour.
Add cooled roasted plums. Bake.
Sumptuous. Fruit still retains some acidity alongside smooth cake texture and sweetness, accentuated by gentle crust on top.

Happy with that for a Thursday night.

White chocolate mousse

In college:

18 portions - white chocolate mousse, tuille biscuit.

Getting better at not burning the tuille biscuit. Mousse still needs attention not to a) turn into scrambled egg, b) gelatine lump mess.

Sourdough starter

Right. We're cooking up the yeasts now. This is the starter day 1. I made it yesterday afternoon. Plan is to leave it in the dark for 2 days. Stir it. Leave for another day. Then feed it some more water and leave for another 2 days. It'll be ready Tuesday night.
Slightly concerned it looks too solid. We'll see how it looks later on.

wild mushrooms, cupcakes, papardelle, pannacotta

Sunday 03 Oct
At home:
Wild mushrooms, ham ends, hand-made linguine
Very exciting mushrooms - from farmers' market. Shiitake, King Oyster, Pied Blue. Absolutely delicious. Also picked up the hand-made linguine which is lovely. Would like an attachment to my pasta maker to make linguine.
The ham ends are a bargain. 45p from waitrose of thick lumps of ham. Great value.

Panacotta.
Double cream, lemon, vanilla, gelatine. Then, more double cream with icing sugar.
Still cooling down. Will see if it sets. Not sure - looks pretty liquid. And tastes very sweet. Was supposed to include grappa, maybe that would have cut the sweetness. Raspberries will have to do.

 update: 8th Oct - pannacotta set very well, and the texture was brilliant. Deeply cushiony creamy, with enough bounce, but not like jelly. Great!

Papardelle pasta.
No semolina flour, so only tipo 00. Went cautious with the flour as the eggs were small. Resulted in soft dough, needed plenty of flour when putting through the pasta maker to stop it sticking together. Also more difficult to cut when soft. All done, 4 portions, ready for tomorrow.


Saturday 02 Oct.
At work:
Prep tomatoes, onions for salads. Prep carrots, fine green beans for mains.
- Tuna fish cake, scallop, pea & chilli puree
- Leek and potato soup
- Crostini - goats cheese, caramelised onions and cannelini bean & red pepper pate
- Waldorf salad - salad, apple, celery, walnuts. Yoghurt dressing
- Chicken salad - waldorf plus roast chicken breast. Yoghurt dressing
- Spring roll with salad
- Duck pate with warm crusty bread
- Grilled peach salad, with feta and mint

Marzipan, apricot and almond cake.
Roll out marzipan onto 20cm cake tin. Chop up apricots, spread over marzipan. Make cake mix - sugar, butter, flour, baking powder, eggs, almonds, almond essence. Spread over top of apricots - bake in low oven for 1hr.


At home:
Delicious simple bolognese. Onion, garlic, 10% fat mince, tomato puree, tomatoes. cooked long and low. Beautiful and simple.

Roast pork shoulder with sage, onion, apple.
Cut onion, place on roasting tray with sage. Place shoulder joint on top. Roast for 2 hours. Keep the onions and sage under the meat to stop them over-cooking/burning.
Cut up apple and place in roasting tray with 40 ish minutes to go.

Bertinet sourdough bread.
Ridiculously good. Chewy, tasty, sweet. Beautiful bread. Benchmark.


Friday 01 Oct

In College:
White chocolate and orange cupcakes (x48)
With buttercream & white chocolate icing.
With white chocolate squares.

Cupcakes = 3x sponge mix (weigh 3 eggs, add same weight sugar, flour, butter). Add 150g white chocolate chips. Zest 2 oranges, add to mix. Pipe into cupcake paper cases in muffin trays.

Buttercream = 1kg icing sugar, 600g butter. whip up butter in electric mixer, gradually add icing sugar, covering machine with tea towel to keep the powder down.
melt chocolate (under the hotplate) add half to buttercream. mix.

pipe icing onto cupcakes.

Spread remaining white chocolate onto silicon paper. Shape into a rectangle. Put on tray in the freezer.

Score across in 1.5" lines, to make squares. Take squares off with small palette - avoid touching with fingers. Place on cupcakes.
Get leftover ganache - pipe into small paper bag, pipe small dark chocolate spot at base of white chocolate square.