Jane Austin, Good Friday & The Chelsea Bun!

One of my lasting childhood memories was the tradition of home baked Chelsea Buns at Easter, so guess its my turn to pass onto the next generation and have a go myself.

Doing some research, it seems in Jane Austin's time, the Chelsea Bun was a favourite treat and if you were lucky enough to live in London, 'The Bun House' was the place to go as they were apparently invented at this fine establishment, with crowds of 1000's milling outside waiting to purchase some.

Looking for a suitable recipe I turned to The Great British Book of Baking. There are some lovely recipes in this book and particularly one for Chelsea Buns. So where is my Kenwood Chef?

The Chelsea Bun is a simple rolled dough, risen with yeast and filled with dried fruit and spices. Tradition seems to suggest early versions used Lemon Peel, cinnamon and spices to provide a nice sweet spicy flavour. Brushed with cold water and sugar, a sticky glaze covers the top.

I allowed an hour for rising, parking the bowl by our open fire to provide some needed warmth, its rather cold for this time of year! Thinking of the lemon peel, I also decided to soak the dried fruit in some lemon juice as an experiment, and added a decent quantity of mixed spice too.

On the cooling rack!

The dough is left to rise once rolled, and layered with the fruit and sugar, after brushing with melted butter to act as a glue. Cut into strips and placed into a suitable baking tray for a second rise and then into the oven for baking.

About 5 minutes before the end, brush with a mixture of honey, castor sugar and milk, i decided to replace the milk with lemon juice to add a bit of zing.

They are truly delicious and worth the effort, and you know what has gone into making them, they look home made and no artificial's in this recipe.

Happy Easter everyone......

The Barber of Seville

We've just come back from a week in Cyprus, 20 degrees and a quite a lot of sun was just what the doctor ordered. A week's indulgence in a family orientated all-inclusive holiday was a fantastic experience, re-charging the batteries and vitamin banks on the freshest tomatoes, peppers, Feta cheese, Swordfish and the usual local delights made you feel really good. I'm proud to say I only had 1 full english breakfast during the week.

Driving around in our hire car was a truly fantastic experience, with the windows open, you could take in the aroma of fresh wild herbs, oranges, lemons and the wonderful smells of smouldering charcoal, used to cook Souvlaki and Sheftalia, a Cypriot skinless sausage.

So back to the UK, and this weeks organic veg box. Being inspired by the fruit trees in Cyprus, and seeing an offer for a "Seville Orange Marmalade" kit I decided to order one, having never made a preserve before and loving the bitter/sweet tang of  this particular variety it was a 'no brainer'.

The Peel of 1.5kg's Seville Oranges!

Oranges & 2 Lemons

Almost everything was to hand, except muslin, Google came in and after a few minutes looking at various options, a well known supermarkets baby section provided the desired result, cheaper than a cooking shop and on the shelf!

Following the instructions was dead easy, the smell of Orange filled the house during the 2 hours of simmering needed to soften and cook the peel.

After the simmer

    

2 Hours of Simmering with all the bits!

Once you have completed the simmering process you need to rapidly boil the mixture to get the pectin to work and set the marmalade.  As we are 'au natural', and using the pectin in the fruit to set the marmalade, we need to check every 15 minutes on a cold plate to see if a skin develops. depending on the fruit, this can take some time. When the setting point is reached, turn the gas off and let stand for 15 minutes removing any scum that may rise the the surface.

Rapid boil to get to a setting point.

Homemade ORGANIC marmalade.

To sterilise the jars, I put them in a cold oven and set the heat to 130 degrees. After 20 mins, I turned the oven off. The lids can be boiled in hot water for a few minutes and then dried, or in my case following the instructions on the Riverford website, once the jars were filled, put on the lids and inverted the jars for 5 minutes. The hot sugary jam does the job for you!

So there we go, a house filled with the aroma's of orchards and 7 jars of proper organic seville orange marmalade, no artificial colours, flavourings or preservatives, go on have a go!

I am Not Horsing Around!

Se rappellent de la France

With so many stories of horse meat in the press this week, and the weather turning cold again it seemed a good idea to cook something hearty. That mixed with unexpected news, time in the kitchen to escape things was just what the doctor ordered. Some excellent beef from Casey's Farm Shop (guaranteed to really be beef!), has been marinating for over 24 hours in red wine, cognac, juniper berries and a bay leaf.

This dish is featured in Ripailles, an excellent book written by french chef Stéphane Reynaud.

I love this tome, traditional french food, intertwined with whimsical content, its stretches to 480 pages and really leads you into the french passion for food. This classic Boeuf Bourguignon used veal stock, luckily I had some in the freezer, but your could always use beef stock instead.

Le Boeuf Bourguignon sorted, what to accompany it. 

At the back of Rick Steins French Odyssey, there are over 10 different ways to cook the humble spud. One of my favourites involves using a Persillade, a mix of in this case garlic, parsley and truffle oil.  When added to sliced potatoes cooked in duck fat you have "Pomme Sarladaise" a truly scrumptious and tasty potato dish that's going alongside Le Boeuf Bourguignon to add some crunchy texture and even more flavour.

To finish things off, green beans with a tomato Concasse and black pepper, tossed in a little butter.

So that's it, Le Boeuf Bourguignon, Pomme Sarladaise et Hericot Vert, Concassé de tomatoes jeté dans le beurre.

C'est tout, délicieux.

Plenty!

Winter is the time for wholesome stews, curries and stomach lining food.  A recent food hero of mine is Yotam Ottolenghi, his ability to mix unusual ingredients a get a fantastic outcome is truly inspiring. Originally from Israel, he has teamed up with Palestinian Sami Tamimi and opened several eateries in London, as well as writing some excellent cookery books.

When I think of a stew, its usually Beef with Dumplings, a French Daube (preferable Boar if i can get it), or a Belgian Carbonnade. So this Yotam inspired stew really mixes it up with Butternut Squash, utterly delicious. The recipe is here. I am not keen on chick peas so replaced them with green beans for some added texture.

Butternut Squash Stew

It's really easy to make, and uses mostly store cupboard ingredients, the interesting thing is the use of Madras Curry Powder to add punch!

So what to serve with this tasty dish..................?

Apple and Celeriac Salad with Quinoa,  red onion (soused in white wine vinegar sugar and salt, and rapeseed oil added to make a dressing after its steeped for at least 30 minutes). The addition of coriander and poppy seeds finishes things off nicely. You can find the recipe here.

Apple & Celeriac Salad

I first tried this about a month ago, but apparently according to the family, this time it was better. I used a Mandolin to cut the apple and celeriac this time round, so it was finer, guess that did it. 

The two dishes served together really have a feel good factor, you feel really 'healthy' after eating these two, and if like us you are getting over a winter cold really just hits the mark.

Enjoy....

Venetians Delights

A Culinary Journey To The Back Streets Of Venice 

This week has been busy at work, so friday night was just the time to chill in the kitchen and travel to the culinary world of Venice, thanks to Russell Normans fantastic book, Polpo. Based on trips to back street restaurants around Venice, Russell now has several eateries in London, under the Polpo name and has received great reviews.

Cichéti is to Venetian's as Tapas is to the Spanish

Mozzarella Bocconcini are a crisp cichéti based on mozzarella.  In my case Laverstoke Organic Mozzarella Balls that are produced by Jody Scheckter the ex formula one driver and were in our organic veg box order last week.  You can find them here at Laverstoke Park

Once rolled in Tipo00 flour (the extra fine pizza and pasta flour you can find in most supermarkets), then beaten egg and finally Panko crumbs, they are quickly fried and quite delicious. The flour is seasoned with pepper, a little salt and oregano. You should drain them briefly on kitchen roll!

Mozzarella Bocconcini

I have to admit I struggle with Pizza, unless served at a decent italian restaurant I generally feel disappointed with what's on offer so this was the chance to have a go myself, something i've not before. 

Just before christmas I was donated a Kenwood Chef, complete with dough hook, so here was the chance to se what it could do, it was getting a bit late and didn't have the time (or energy!) to do the kneading by hand!

So Tipo00 flour, yeast, salt, olive oil and 7 minutes in the mixer and hey presto, DONE!  

Venetians' do Pizza differently, and I have been thinking about trying a particular variant, Pizzetta Bianca. There is no tomato sauce involved, just red onion, mozzarella and parmesan, fresh thyme, fresh black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.

Pizzetta Bianca

It was light, crispy and truly delicious. You can tell my rolling skills need some work, but it was homemade!

So, if you want to try real Venetian food, but don't have a trip to Venice booked, go and buy Polpo, it was Waterstones book of the year 2012 and takes pride of place on my cookery bookshelf. 

Bananas, my way!

Bananas, my way!

Wondering what to do for dessert, and with a bulk pack of rice flour pancakes, I took some banana's cut them into rounds about 8mm thick (the thickness of the banana depends on the pancakes as they can come in different sizes!). Wrapped them in into little parcels and deep fried for about 5 minutes at 180 deg.  Dusted with icing sugar and served with Mascapone cheese they were scrummy!

Cha Gio with Nuoc Cham

Out of Rick Steins Far Eastern Odyssey, luckily we have an asian supermarket within 30 minutes drive where you can buy Banh Trang, the Vietnamese Rice Flour Pancakes. This dish is really easy to make and tastes fantastic.

On the journey to creating this, I had to pop into a well known super store (horses etc.).  If you look on the lower shelves and in the 'specialist' sections you can find some bargins.  Jaggery (Palm Sugar), Rice Vinegar and Nam Pla (fish sauce).  The shop branded versions were 2-3 times the price!