Christmas

Christmas this year was deliberately pared down from last year, but still provided a feast.
We had homemade bagels, topped with scrambled egg and smoked salmon for breakfast. Followed up many hours later by roast goose, aran victory roast potatoes, braised red cabbage, cranberry relish and steamed carrots. Plenty.


The goose arrived from our local butcher beautifully presented in a big white box:

I stuffed the goose with sausagement & sage in the neck, and bramley apple and prune in the cavity.
Christmas feast accomplished!!

Game ragu

Rabbit, venison, mallard - cooked with celery, carrot, onions, bay, thyme, white wine, vegetable bouillon. We slow braised it in the oven, then cooked papardelle and added to the light stew. It was unbelievably good! Very simple, but the flavours were just perfect. Jamie at Home to thank for this one.
Similar in its way to the Chick Pea and Cavolo Nero recipe from River Cafe: same mirepoix base and white wine flavouring. It just works so well.

Christmas cake

I was won over by the ingredients in this recipe (from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries) and decided to make my first ever Christmas cake :)
I cut up figs, apricots, cherries, prunes and added currants, sultanas, raisins, hazelnuts and ground almonds. Full of fruits and nuts. And brandy.
It cooked forever in the oven, and has been wonderful all Christmas, moist, tasty.

Orange shortbread christmas biscuits

Tried and tested recipe from Gordon Ramsey - where you whip the yolks and sugar, and whip in the butter. It also uses strong bread flour instead of plain, and they are wonderfully fragrant and light. I adapt the Cumin shortbread recipe in 'Desserts'.

Chocolate orange christmas biscuits

My friend made German Christmas biscuits and sent them to us in the post! They survived and were truly delicious. Inspired, I started looking up recipes online.
Not as good as working directly from the source - but worth a go.
I found this recipe for chocolate orange biscuits, made with grated chocolate which gives a lovely flavour and texture.

Panettone

I love panettone - but didn't want to spend over a tenner on one - it seemed pretty straightforward to make, so surely worth a go. Last year I tried a recipe I found on the web, but it wasn't great: bit too dry, not the right balance of fruit and sugar. So when I saw a recipe in the River Cafe's Classic Italian Cookbook - bingo. If Mrs' Rogers and Gray have approved it - I'm in.
They didn't disappoint - it was sensible and delightful all at the same time. Plenty of proving time, plenty of eggs, plenty of fruit, not too much sugar.
I like it best (almost) when its proving - it looks glossy, light and rich.
When baked - my slightly-too-hot-oven nearly got the better of it - but i rescued it in time, and it was really good when cooled.
Being a bread it needs to settle and cool before eating - unlike cake :)
I'll stick with this recipe from now on.

Vacherin, Tomato Chutney, Port

We splashed out on some Vacherin, and it was worth every penny. We picked it up at Waddesdon Manor, where they have a good selection of Rothschild wines and some cheeses to accompany them.
Our friends gave us some green tomato chutney, brilliantly fruity and sharp, and we dug out some port :) Altogether a rare and indulgent supper. Roll on Christmas. 

Bagels

Another Bertinet recipe - and a winner.
I made these bagels almost a year ago (! ) and was more successful this time round (see previous bagel attempt).
Instead of dipping the bagels into seeds when they just came out of the boiling water, i scattered the seeds on top of the bagels - this gave better coverage.
Also my oven seemed to be hotter this time round and the bagels came out lovely and golden.
I struggled to keep the hole in the middle - despite feeding a rolling pin through the dough balls as instructed - so that when cut some looked like rolls :) not very bagel-like. But the texture was good and chewy, with a nice crispness on the outside. Good result.

Brioche

Lovely brioche loaf made from a Bertinet recipe. My oven is running quite hot at the moment, which means it was a little overdone. The hot spot in the bottom right corner is getting more vociferous.
Brioche was good - tho' it really found its forte in a bread and butter pudding I put together with some marmalade. For the custard I improvised with three eggs, a pint of whole milk and some cream. Was delicious!

Looking back

Since working in a proper kitchen,I have become like all other chefs i know, and rarely cook at home. There is not enough time off to gather ingredients, use ingredients effeciently, and literally have time to cook things.
On double shift days I rarely eat, and there's usually at least 3 of those a week.
"That's catering."

I look back through my blog and see so many things I've made, so much energy and enthusiasm. That energy is moving out of home cooking and into professional kitchens. Its a big shift. And I miss the variety, creativity and freedom of home cooking. It is such a joy to create.

Roast chicken with garlic, parsley yoghurt and toasted almonds

Woke up this morning and wanted yoghurt. Fresh, soothing. Realised that combined with some herbs and roast chicken would be great.
Found chicken, roasted it very simply with oil, seasoning, lemon. Made yoghurt with chopped parsley and garlic. Toasted almonds. Grabbed some salad leaves and voila.
wSuperb summer dish. Fresh, light, satisfying. Must be generously seasoned with crunchy salt.

Ciabatta

This is a bread I've been wanting to try for a long time but hadn't had time to schedule in making the ferment (or 'biga') before making the bread, and I wanted to do it using bricks in the oven, to give good lift on such a wet dough.

But I had a couple of days where this was going to  be possible, and so set off for homebase and bagged some paving bricks (flat on top) for 79p each, and then lined the oven floor with them.

Unfortunately they were millimetres out from being able to cover the oven floor - which then led to some interesting mis-shapings as I tried to get the bread in to a small area. And some bread slightly fell over the edges of the bricks, giving some interesting 'hooks' :)
So comedy ciabatta. Which tasted great :)

Vanilla ice-cream, Tarte tatin

Vanilla ice-cream was made using the Roux Brother's Patisserie book - I thought it was slightly sweet before icing it down, but afterwards, it was very good. Although I still think I'd take a bit of the sugar out.
Tarte tatin was good - tho' not great. I need to make my puff pastry thinner and lighter - I didn't judge it well enough.
It was meant to go with the blood orange prosecco, roast chicken, hoummus and pitta breads yesterday - but I was ordered not to cook any more. The guests were happy - and we tucked into lemon drizzle cake with tea instead ;)

Hoummus, Pitta, Roast Chicken, Green Salad

After the Blood Orange Prosecco aperitif - for dinner with our guest we had homemade hoummus, pitta bread, and roast chicken - with a green salad. It was lovely. Homely, tasty, moreish - an easy informal meal which was just what we felt like eating.

Blood orange prosecco

 The shop round the corner had blood oranges. Having had blood orange processo at River Cafe some weeks ago - I immediately wanted to copy.
And with a guest for dinner, perfect.
I juiced 8 oranges for 1 bottle of prosecco - and it was absolutely delicious.
The taste of blood oranges is hard to describe - its less acidic than normal oranges and feels more fragrant as a result.

Pitta breads

I didn't really know what made pitta breads, pitta breads - not rolls. So I found a recipe in Madhur Jaffrey. And to be fair, they were quite bread-y - but cooking them on a hot skillet in the oven gives them so much lift - they hollow out more than rolls.
The dough is pretty normal - usual hydration, yeast, salt - with some olive oil added.
I loved cooking these on the skillet - they puffed up within seconds and were only cooked for a couple of minutes each :) then they were grilled to give them colour. They were soft and the definition of 'pillowy' :) Great fun.

Lemon drizzle: iced

I watched Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets and he did this lovely thing with Lemon Drizzle loaf: brushed it with apricot glaze and water icing once cooked and cooled.

So we have a delicious light light 3 egg sponge with zest of three lemons, baked in the oven at 180C for about 50 minutes. Then make sugar and lemon juice glaze, and pour it over the cake whilst hot. Allow to cool. Make apricot glaze (heat apricot jam, let down with a little water. Strain, ready to use). Brush cake with apricot. Make water icing - add a little lemon juice to icing sugar. Brush cake with icing - all over.
The apricot glaze keeps the cake very moist and allows the icing to set softly. Its beautiful!!

Anchovy tomato rosemary penne

This is indeed a repeat post - this dish is just so good that I can't stop making it.
The mixture of anchovy rosemary garlic, with rich tomato and then loads of parmesan and a dash of cream...!

Its just perfect: deeply savoury and interesting and comforting.

Farmer's market produce!

Matt heroically went to the Farmer's Market while I went to work. This is his haul :)
Shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, purple sprouting, leeks, shallots, tomatoes (that actually taste!!!), figs (from shop. not market).

I go on about it all the time - but - the market is fantastic:
1) you can buy in quantities that you need - not prepacked amounts - so there is much less waste.
2) You don't need so much packaging, full stop.
3) The produce is interesting, varied and tastes great.
4) And most of all - it allows for spontaneity, the most magic of feelings that means you can decide what you want to cook from what's there and what's good.

Its inspiring. You don't get that from Sainsburys.

Heston's steak, parmesan, rocket

One night, two pints down, in Waitrose - it seemed a good idea to do the Heston recipe suggestion: Steak with rocket and parmesan. It was dressed with meat juices and lemon and olive oil.
We infused the olive oil with the lemon as instructed - and it was really really strong. But - all in all - a great combination - its another variant on my hot salad fixation.

Sardine, fennel, linguine

River Cafe recipe that uses fennel, parsely, garlic with the sardines. These sardines cost merely 80p. They were fat Cornish sardines, and tasted lovely.
The recipe cooks the finely sliced fennel with the pasta, which is good - but would be great if you griddled it alongside the rest of the dish and served it all at once.

I found gutting and filleting the sardines a cinch, and would definitely get them again, they are juicy, tasty and very satisfying to eat.

Rhubarb choux

I'd seen Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets Show about pastries, and saw him make beautiful croquembouche and eclairs. Then two of my colleagues were making choux this week, and I wanted to have a go.
I wanted to make chocolate eclairs and set out to do so. But along the way got sidetracked with some rhubarb that needed to be cooked off, and thought about mixing the two things.
So I ended up with choux fingers, rhubarb cooked in sauternes, vanilla, orange, and made up some creme patissiere (Roux brothers on Patisserie recipe).
This evening I assembled it all. I had to cut the fingers in half to get the creme patissiere in, as I refused to cut my piping bag - i have the good one at home, and a smaller cheaper one in college, and I didn't want to hack about with the good one! So instead I cut open the choux, piped in the cream, laid the rhubarb on top, then sandwiched them back up and dusted with icing sugar.
They are really very nice to eat. Very very light, and some sharpness of rhubarb against the creme and pastry. Delicious.
Need to work on making them look a darn sight neater tho'.

Brown bread

Not to be outdone by the other day's dense brown bread, I set about trying again.
I mixed 300g wholemeal with 200g white flour. Left it to prove twice before shaping for baking. Then let it double in size on the baking tray, sprinkled with rye flour. Then slashed the top, and baked at 230C (realistically the hottest my oven can ever get) for 10 minutes then turned down the heat to 200C for another 30 mins.
I'm not getting the oven spring I'm after. Really want to get some stones for the oven to see if this helps. I sprayed the oven well as it went in, and after the 10 mins at a higher temperature. Haven't cut into it yet, so not sure of inside texture! Pretty sure its quite open crumb - will update.

Anchovy tomato rosemary penne

This was from River Cafe - and its a total star.
First add butter and olive oil to a pan, heat through then add sliced garlic.
Brown garlic, then add salted anchovies (washed and dried), and chopped rosemary. Mash it all into a paste.
Add tinned tomatoes. Cook down until you've got a good sauce consistency (40 mins).
Then add double cream and grated parmesan.
Boil up the penne in salted water - drain and add to the sauce. Serve with more parmesan.
It was just beautiful. The balance of flavours was gorgeous and it had huge umami ;) This will become a Wickeever kitchen classic.

Weekend treats from Wild Food Larder

We got crepinette - with venison, pork, wild garlic leaves, ewes milk cheese and toulouse sausages from Wild Food Larder stall in Bath Farmer's Market.
The crepinette were really really amazingly delicious. A fantastic treat.

Lamb stew, brown bread, cabbage

The lamb stew was made from this lamb stew recipe in the Guardian.
I tried to make it with veal stock. Which is a stupid thing to do on several fronts: a) this is LAMB stew b) I've never made veal stock.
I roasted the veal bones, before adding them to a pan with vegetables (celery, carrot, onion) and herbs (bay, thyme).
It smelled like hooves.
I refused to add tomato paste, or to roast the vegetables first before adding to the stock pot. This was all foolish.
I let it boil, then simmered for 3 hours.
It wasn't long enough. It still tasted of hooves.

So next time I will add tomato paste, roast vegetables, and simmer for at least 8 hours.

Also the lamb cut wasn't good (Sainsbury's not Waitrose). I won't stray again for meat - its just not worth the lower quality.

I also made the brown bread. From 100% wholemeal flour. That wasn't a brilliant idea either. It was very dense. Admittedly it is tasty - but the texture is too dense. A good experiment, but several things to learn: don't use 100% wholemeal flour, let it prove twice before shaping.

Dab, trout, hot salad

After seeing the Fish programmes on Channel 4, when I spotted Dab on sale in Sainsbury's, I bought one to try. It was very cheap, £1.11 for a fish.
I roasted it whole, along with some trout, in a little white wine, butter, lemon, bay leaf, s+p.
When I started to remove the flesh from the bone, there was a large section which was hard, and odd. I think its the roe. I skipped it, which meant there was very little eating to be had from the fish - you'd need lots of them. The white flesh was delicate and nice tho'.
I served it with Batavia lettuce, hot potatoes in lemon juice, zest, red wine vinegar, s+p - and the roasting juices. Tasty.

Roast wood pigeon

We picked up the wood pigeon from the farmer's market - for only £1.90 each, which is a bit of a bargain. They are beautiful!
I roasted them with a juniper berry, thyme leaf, salt/pepper, butter inside, and bacon over the top.
They took much longer than I thought - about 30 mins - and I don't think I did them very well! But they were still lovely - just need some more practise to get them lovely and tender.

Salty peanut caramel macarons, chocolate macarons, chestnut macarons

MACARONS!

Thanks to Ottolenghi for a terrific macaron recipe that creates the right texture - smooth on top, little bubbles at the base - the salty peanut caramel and chocolate is their recipe too. The chestnut is from www.foodbeam.com, minus the flour (an accident due to tiredness, which turned out ok in the end. cough).

The caramel is dulce de leche - that I made from sweetened condensed milk - using a saucepan to heat it up and turn it into a thick caramel. However, I went much to far and dried it out (only realised later when it cooled and started to set rock hard). I recovered this by adding more milk :) and heating it, and blitzing it.  Worked fine, was but was unnecessary.  Really interesting to work with a new substance tho'.

I sandwiched the chocolate macarons with ganache (as the recipe states), the chestnut ones with dulce de leche. The salty peanut ones - had peanuts and salt added to the dulce de leche caramel, surprisingly.

I think they need a bit more height, and the chestnut recipe needs tweaking. And I need to pay more attention when cooking them! I was knackered and managed to put icing sugar and caster sugar into the blender, for no constructive purpose. Sometimes you should just stop cooking. But I didn't, and these are pretty tasty :)

Hot cross buns, treacle tart, chestnut macaroons

This is another replay of the tart and buns that I've made before - but they were good, and its good to practise, to try and get consistent. Oh - and I put in three times the amount of fruit in the buns - and they were much better. Also, the crosses were leftover pastry from the tart, so not too conventional there.

The chestnut macaroons were from a lovely lovely blog: www.foodbeam.com - I searched for daquoise  and ended up on the site. Its exquisite, and certainly gives me something to aim for!!
The recipe is posted here: macaron a la chataigne (scroll down or search the page, its buried in there).
Unfortunately, I was too wussy about the whisking, and didn't go far enough, so I ended up with a cakey biscuit. Very whoopie pie ;) But not what I wanted. Resolved to try again another day - the idea of chestnuts in macarons is very very appealing.

Dolcelatte, bacon, wild garlic leaves pasta

This was a variation of the Dolcelatte, bacon and spinach pasta made a while ago - we picked up some wild garlic leaves from Andrew Sartain at Bath Farmer's market, and used them in the dish which had surprised us before by being excetionally tasty.
The wild garlic leaves gave a subtle and deeply delicious garlic flavour, really really good. Read more on how Andrew Sartain uses them at his blog: Wild Food Larder.

Orange shortbread

I've done them before - but they're so good :) we need more.