Alternative Christmas dinner: Camembert en croute, Christmas pizza and cranberry clafoutis

I love being with my family at Christmas and we all enjoy Christmas dinner. It's the same meal every year, but we look forward to it because it's the ultimate roast with bells on and it never gets boring.

The only down-side for me is that I don't get to do any of the cooking. To combat this if ever I have people round for dinner during the festive period I like to do an alternative Christmas dinner. All the required tastes and components just in a non-traditional manner. This was exactly the motivation for this evening's meal:

Camembert en croute

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Christmas pizza

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Cranberry clafoutis

Camembert en croute

Fresh out of the oven this really looked quite unassuming.

However, a pair of swift incisions revealed its glory.

This was delicious and worked out far better than I had anticipated. The Camembert had been reduced to a molten flow, the tart but sweet cranberry sauce was a beautiful contrast and provided a real depth. The pastry was crisp giving a real texture contrast. I had planned to use puff pastry but filo was definitely a superior choice. I think it was far lighter than puff and even more crisp.

It was a parcel of delight that kept on giving. Quite frankly, adding a green salad to this would have satisfied me for dinner.

It's not an elegant thing to eat though...

Christmas pizza

I couldn't have been more pleased with this. Out of the oven the aroma was more then reminiscent of Christmas dinner and every bite offered something slightly different. The toppings were roast turkey, smoked bacon lardons, onion stuffing, sausage meat, cranberries and chestnuts. It was everything you could want from a pizza and Christmas dinner!

The genius stroke was using a cauliflower cheese sauce instead of a tomato sauce. This was so good because not only did it allow cauliflower cheese to be included on the pizza but it also meant that the toppings weren't battling a tomato sauce (clearly there's no tomatoes involved in Christmas dinner). The scant few cranberries provided an unusual but welcome occasional sour burst.

Cranberry clafoutis

The remaining cranberry sauce was supplemented with a dash of raspberry gin and provided the base for the dessert. The raspberry goes remarkably well with cranberry adding a light berry freshness. The tart fruit encased in a just sweet-enough smooth set custard with a hint of almond to finish. This was rich and yet light. A great way to finish things off.

All in all, I was quite happy with this meal. Festive flavours delivered in a more than satisfying manner.

On to the recipes.

Cranberry sauce

Ingredients:

150g cranberries

75g caster sugar

Zest of half one satsuma/tangerine/clementine

Juice of one satsuma/tangerine/clementine

2tsbp port

Method:

1.Put everything in a pan and heat gently until thick and "jammy". This should take about 5-10mins.
2. Decant into a bowl and leave to cool

Camembert en croute

Ingredients:

Whole Camembert
7 sheets of filo pastry
2oz butter, melted
Cranberry sauce (see above)

Method:

1. Layer four sheets of filo each slathered copiously with butter.
2. Place the Camembert in the middle of the pastry and top with cranberry sauce.
3. Bring the corners of the pastry up and over the cheese to wrap it snugly.
4. Layer up another three sheets of filo and place the cheese in the middle with the join bottom-most. Wrap the cheese, as before.
5. Turn the parcel over (this should put the cheese with the cranberry sauce back on top). and place on a baking sheet.
6. Bake at 180°C for 10-20mins until the pastry is golden.

Christmas pizza

Ingredients:
For the base:
225g strong white flour
1 sachet of easy-use yeast
1/2tsp salt
1tbsp olive oil
~125ml water

For the cauliflower cheese sauce:
Half a cauliflower, broken in to small florets
250ml white sauce
100g mature cheddar, grated
1dsp Dijon mustard
For the toppings use whatever represents your Christmas dinner and in whatever quantities you see fit. I used:
~150g roast turkey
80g onion stuffing, moulded into thin discs
2 sausages, skinned and broken into chunks
20g smoked bacon lardons
50g cranberries
5-8 chestnuts, broken into pieces

Method:
1. Make the base first. Stir the yeast in to the water. Sift the flour into a bowl and add the salt.
2. Add the olive oil to the flour and gradually add the water to make a soft dough. Use less or more water, as required.
3. Knead for 10mins and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size.
4. To make the cauliflower cheese sauce, steam the cauliflower until just soft ~10-20min.
5. Warm the white sauce and add the cheese and cauliflower. Blitz with a hand-blender and season to taste.
6. Once the dough has risen, knock it back and then stretch out on a baking sheet to make the pizza base.
7. Liberally cover the base with the cauliflower cheese sauce and adorn with your chosen toppings.
8. Drizzle over a little olive oil and bake at 220°C for 20mins

Cranberry clafoutis

Ingredients:
100g cranberries
10g caster sugar
~150g cranberry sauce
20ml raspberry-based spirit, if liked
95g plain flour
30g ground almonds
50g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
300ml milk

Method:
1. Mix the sugar and cranberries and leave to macerate (~30min).
2. Mix the raspberry liqueur and the cranberry sauce, if using
3. Mix the flour and almonds in a bowl and add the sugar. Whisk together with the milk and eggs to make a smooth batter
4. Butter a 8" pie dish and spread the cranberry sauce over the base and scatter with the cranberries. Pour over the batter.
5. Bake at 180°C for 30mins until just set.
6. Allow to cool slightly and dust with icing sugar before serving.

Baked Alaska

The old work gang of Hammers came over tonight, for what turned out to be, a very civilised Friday evening. 

It was styled as the first part of a Come Dine With Me quadrilogy. I'd planned a pretty good seasonal three courses:

Jerusalem artichoke soup

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Roast chicken with all the trimmings

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Baked Alaska

It all went rather well. The soup bought a hush to the dining room for the first time since everyone arrived. A good sign.

The roast chicken was also well received. Quite an accomplishment for a Friday night post-work affair, I thought given that not only was a chicken roasted it was accompanied by roast potatoes (obviously), lemon carrots, purple-sprouting broccoli and celeriac purée. I even managed to make a decent gravy from the roasting juices, which is a first for me.

However, clearly the most interesting part of the evening (well for me anyway) was the dessert of baked Alaska. Given the fact that the whole gang seemed to have given up the ghost and decanted to the sofa to adjust their waist bands and digest, I wasn't entirely sure I was going to get the chance to make it. It would have been a tad frustrating having been up the night before making the sponge base, roasting the rhubarb and defrosting egg whites. Thankfully sense, or was it just plain greed, prevailed.

This is a pud of contrasts. The light ginger sponge as the base, which had a delicate warmth, worked well with the fruity rhubarb. The sweet meringue was offset by the tartness of rhubarb. The combination of temperatures and textures worked remarkably well.

I was going to make a separate orange sauce to accompany it but held-off as it seemed that that might just push everyone over the edge.

I'm not sure there's much of a recipe to give for the Baked Alaska, it's more of an assembly job, unless you're making all the individual components. What I did was make an 8" Victoria sponge (using the usual 2444 mix) with a teaspoon of ground ginger. I used my usual recipe to roast about a pound of forced rhubarb.

Just before assembly I made the meringue. Four egg white were whisked until stiff then 7oz of caster sugar gradually added until the meringue was glossy and stiff. To assemble, the cake base was first put on a roasting tray. The juices from the rhubarb were brushed over the cake then the rhubarb spread all over in a single layer. Next softened vanilla ice-cream was piled on. (You should really put it back in the freezer for 10 minutes or so before doing anything else.). The the meringue was slathered over everything making sure that there were no gaps. The pud was then baked for 10mins at 200°C until brown. (I used a blow torch to add some extra depth of colour).

You have to serve this pretty quickly. It also needs easting all in one go, so make sure you've got plenty of people around who are still hungry! (Mind you I did toy with making individual ones, which may have been more elegant and slightly less extravagant.)

PS. This is what my dinner the following night, made with the left-overs, looked like. It was just as tasty especially with the potatoes and chicken  fried in goose fat...

Things you buy, not make.

What do these items on the right have in common?

Well, they are things you buy rather than make. Apparently.

This came up during a pre-Christmas Sunday pub lunch, where the topic of conversation turned to crumpets. I'm not sure why (maybe because I'd made some that morning). This lead to a conversation about things that you buy not make and consequently a culinary challenge.

Tonight saw me prove that you really can make everything. Putting a menu together really was quite difficult. Just how do you feature the teatime treat of crumpets into a dinner menu? My only option was a multi-course tasting menu, so (as you may have guessed from the picture) we ended up having:

Vegetable crisps and red pepper houmous

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Crumpets

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Baked beans on toast

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Fish fingers

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Scotch Eggs

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Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

Vegetable crisps and red pepper houmous

I've wanted to make vegetable crisps for ages and was very pleased that these turned out really well. I made a variety of root vegetables and seasonings: carrot and cinnamon (depth of flavour), parsnip and cumin (spicy and sweet), sweet potato and smoked paprika (smoky and sweet). Using both a mandolin and a peeler to make different crisps gave an interesting mix of textures. Unfortunately the strength of the red pepper houmous was too much for the crisps (especially the more delicate "peeler" crisps; it over-powered rather than supported.

Baked beans on toast

I got the recipe for these beans from Tom Kerridge and his recent "Proper Pub Food" programme/book. They are quite acidic which tends to over-power the other flavours. I think if I made them again I would reduce the amount of red wine vinegar. I also made the bread (obviously!), which, given it was the first loaf I'd made for quite some time, turned out very well.

Fish fingers

I dissected a cod loin to make the fish fingers. I was going to carefully craft "proper" finger shapes but we came to an agreed position that that would actually be a waste of fish, so we had fish "snowmen". Obviously I made the tartare sauce as well.

Scotch eggs

The main event. I had a practice run a few days before and was quietly confident that these would be a success. They were. The lightly spiced pork, enveloped in a crispy breadcrumb layer with a still runny yolk hiding beneath it all. It was a deeply savoury treat but at the same time delicate. Having it hot really does make a difference in turning it into something of a gastronomic treat far beyond a cold snack. Paul's Plum Sauce (a Christmas present) was a very well-balanced fruity and tangy accompaniment.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

I'd originally been set a challenge of making Revels, but time was against me and I didn't really know how to make revels into a proper dessert. Given the A and K's delight in peanut butter, I went for a super-sized Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. It was a chocolate pastry case with a peanut butter cream filling topped with ganache. The level of conversation declined quite considerably when I put this on the table, so I think it went down well. 

My version was more "grown-up" than the American confection. It wasn't quite so sweet, with the the bitter topping a good foil to the silky rich filling (opposed to the chalky Reese's interior). There combination of textures was also rather moreish.

The whole evening, although slightly stressful, went very well with all the food well received (despite "bean suspicions"). Although we did realise that it was a very "orange" feast, as most processed foods seem to be. Anyway, another challenge successfully taken on. Definitely the hardest yet. On to the recipes:

Vegetable crisps and red pepper houmous

No recipe here. Just make houmous as usual (chickpeas, tahini, lemon, olive oil, garlic, seasoning) adding as few or as many pepperdew peppers to suit your taste.

Crumpets

I used my tried and tested Gary Rhodes recipe.

Baked beans on toast (taken from Tom Kerridge's Proper Pub Food) - serves 4

Ingredients:
1 tin haricot or flageolet beans, drained and rinsed

100g smoked streaky bacon, diced
100g onions, finely chopped
Garlic clove, minced
1 can chopped tomatoes
1tbsp tomato puree
75g soft dark brown sugar
100ml red wine vinegar
250ml water

Method:
1. Heat some oil in a large casserole and fry the bacon until crisp.
2. Add the onion and garlic and cook until onion is soft.
3. Add the vinegar and de-glaze the pan.
4. Add all the remaining ingredients (apart from the beans) and bring to the boil.
5. Add the beans and simmer over a low heat for 1.5-2h until the sauce is thick and the beans soft.
6. Serve on slices of buttered toast.


Fish fingers and tartare sauce

I'm not sure there's much of a recipe for the fish fingers. Simply cut some fish into suitable pieces, dust in seasoned flour, douse in beaten egg and then cover liberally with breadcrumbs. Fry gently until the coating is crisp.

There's slightly more to tartar sauce though.

Ingredients:

Egg yolk

1tsp Dijon mustard

Flavourless oil

Gherkins, chopped finely (I used cornichons)

Capers

Parsley

Lemon juice

Method:

1. Mix the egg yolk and mustard together in a bowl.

2. Gradually whisk oil into the egg mix until the desired quantity and consistency is reached.

3. Add the capers, gherkins and parsley to taste.

4. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

Scotch Eggs (taken from Heston's recipe)

Ingredients:
10 medium egg
450g good-quality sausages, skins removed
½ tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp cornflour
45g Dijon mustard
Plain flour, seasoned
125g breadcrumbs

Method:
1. Put 8 eggs into a pan in which they fit in a single layer. Add enough cold water to cover the eggs by 3cm and cover with a lid then place the pan over a high heat.
2. Once the water comes to a boil, remove the pan from the heat and allow to stand for 3 minutes. In the meantime, fill a bowl with ice and cold water and after the 3 minutes, transfer the eggs to the iced water.
3. Leave to cool for 10–15 minutes.
4. Once the eggs are cool enough to handle, carefully peel off the shells using a teaspoon.
5. Place the sausagemeat in a food processor with the smoked paprika, cornflour, mustard, and a splash of cold water. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and blitz together. Divide into eight balls, approximately 55g per portion.
6. Flatten each portion of sausagemeat between two sheets of clingfilm into a circle, then remove the top layer of clingfilm. Place an egg in the centre of each sausage meat circle. Wrap the sausage meat around the egg, by bringing all of the edges together and twist the top of the clingfilm. Press the edges to seal but don’t press too hard. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes.
7. Roll each coated egg in the seasoned flour, then dip it the remaining beaten eggs. Finally, roll it in the breadcrumbs, making sure that all sides are coated. Place the eggs in the fridge for 15 minutes.
8. Fry the Scotch eggs until golden brown in a deep fat fryer at 190º.
9. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and place on a baking tray.
10. When all the eggs have been fried, place in the oven for 10 minutes at 190ºC

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (This came from A Cozy Kitchen, sorry about the American cups...)

Ingredients:
For the crust:
4oz butter, room temperature
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar
1 large egg yolk
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
For the filling:
3oz butter, room temperature
3/4 cups creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
2 tbsp double cream
For the topping:
75ml double cream
75g dark chocolate, broken in to pieces

0.5oz butter

Topping:
Maldon sea salt

Method:
1. To make the pastry cream the butter and sugar until combined. Add egg yolk and vanilla, and beat until smooth. Sift in flour and cocoa powder, and beat on low speed until just combined. Scrape the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap, and form it into a disk; wrap well in plastic wrap. Chill until firm, at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
2. Preheat oven to 160°C. Between two sheets of lightly floured parchment paper, roll the tart dough into a 14-inch circle. Gently transfer dough to a 9 1/2-inch tart pan. Press the dough into the tart pan, trimming away any excess dough. Chill the tart shell in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
3. Line the tart shell with a piece of parchment paper, and fill with pie weights. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and its contents, and bake until the pastry looks dry and set, 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool.
4. To make the filling, beat together the ingredients until smooth.
5. Fill the cooled tart crust with the peanut butter mixture and smooth top. Chill for 30 minutes to set.
6. Meanwhile, make the ganache. Place the chocolate, cream and butter in a bain marie and heat until the chocolate melts. Pour some the glaze over the tart while still (just) warm.

Top with a few sprinkles of sea salt and serve.

Battenberg (and baked potatoes)

Tonight was the culmination of yet another culinary challenge from K&A. The theme was Battenberg and baked potatoes in recognition of Rhod Gilbert's latest comic DVD offering. I'll give you one guess as to who was providing the Battenberg...

First order of the day was research. Now a cake always has to taste good, but in this case appearance was just as important. A Mr Kipling Battenberg was duly procured. I'm not a fan of using food-colouring but there'd be no option this time. The determining factor for my square cross-sections would be the rise of the cake. Only once the cake was baked would I be able to determine the appropriate proportional length.

Interestingly the packaged described the multi-coloured cake as

chequered sponge with apricot filling wrapped in almond flavoured paste

Hardly mouth-watering, eh?

Once I worked out how to bake "squares" (I divided an 8" square loose-bottomed tin with a greaseproof paper-covered foil divider), I was just left worrying about making marzipan. My Dad always makes the marzipan for our Christmas cake so I knew it was possible and a damn sight tastier than the packaged stuff. I was amazed at just how easy it is making marzipan. Far simpler than I had expected. (Mind you, had the marzipan gone wrong I was prepared to resort to packet-stuff. Only as a last resort back-up.)

It turns out my cake was a behemoth when compared to the mass-produced ones. I'd provided the large Mr Kipling but there were also mini versions available. (It's as if there was no faith in my Battenberg-producing skills...)

In terms of overall appearance I think I did pretty well. It could have been a little pinker and maybe I should have trimmed the brown edges sides of the cakes. I also hadn't enhanced the yellow part of my cake, relying on the natural colour of the sponge.

Taste-wise I think I trumped Mr Kipling. My cake was less sweet and had a far less "false" chemical flavour. I was right about the marzipan being far more palatable too. I now understand why people say they don't like it. I wonder how many of those have actually tried home-made marzipan? It was so good even the leftovers were made light work of.

Anyway, on to the recipe

Recipe for Battenberg cake

Ingredients:

3 eggs

6oz plain flour

1tsp baking powder

6oz caster sugar

6oz butter

1/4tsp almond essence

Red food colouring

Apricot jam

For the marzipan:

75g icing sugar

1 egg

1tbsp lemon juice

175 ground almonds

1 egg yolk

Method:

1. To make the cake make a three egg Victoria sponge batter in the normal fashion (cream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs and then fold in the sifted baking powder and flour).

2. Divide the batter into two equal portions. To one half add red food colouring until a desired level of pink is achieved.

3. To the other half add the almond essence.

4. To prepare the tin, first of all grease liberally. Then make an 8" foil divider and wedge in the middle of the tin. Then line the tin, and divider with greaseproof paper leaving the ends overlapping (so that it is easier to remove the cake).
5. Put the two cake mixes either side of the divider and bake at 180°C for 20min or until done.
6. Once cool, stack the two cakes on top of one another and trim so that they are the same size. Then split in half longitudinally.

7. Gently warm some apricot jam and slacken with a dash of water until a smooth easily spreadable consistency is achieved.
8. Sandwich the four rectangles of cake together with the jam, making sure to alternate the cakes to achieve the chequerboard effect.

9. For the marzipan, whisk the egg, egg yolk and sugar in a bain marie for about 10mins until pale and thick

10. Take the "sabayon" off the heat and beat in the lemon juice and almonds until smooth.

11. Chill for 30 mins.

12. Roll-out the marzipan, dusting the surface with icing sugar. Ensure the marzipan is large enough to completely enrobe the cake.
13. Brush one edge of the cake with jam and place on an edge of the marzipan. Brush the remaining exposed sides with jam (not the ends!) then swaddle the cake in marzipan. Try to keep the seam at the bottom. Trim any excess marzipan.
14. Tidy up the end by chopping them off (chef's perk!) to reveal a marzipan encased cake.

Avocado and Peanut butter

Tonight I hosted a celebratory meal for a very new primary school deputy-head. In order to celebrate suitably a meal featuring avocado and peanut butter was requested.

Now I love the challenge of sculpting a meal to a certain set of conditions but I wasn't too sure what to do with avocado. It's never really used as the main thrust of a dish more as a featuring accompaniment. Thus I turned to Niki Segnit's The Flavour Thesaurus for inspiration and found it in spades. The peanut butter element was far too easy as I love peanut butter and it makes for a great dessert. The problem was more trying to reign myself in. Anyhoo, we ended up having:

Avocado and Cucumber "soup"

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Avocado Tasting Plate

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Spring Vegetable Tagliatelle

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Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwich and Grape Sorbet

Avocado and Cucumber "soup"

On a warm June's evening this was a delightful fresh start. The flavours of the avocado and cucumber complemented each other perfectly, accented by lemon juice. A little dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper gave a rounded and more complete mouthful.

Avocado Tasting Plate

Because I wasn't quite sure what to do with the avocado I put together an avocado tasting plate pairing avocado in three different ways: avocado with bacon and blue cheese; grilled avocado, grapefruit and prawn; and finally avocado and mango. I had a hunch that these should be eaten in the same order going from a very savoury salt end through the flavour spectrum to almost sweet with mango.

Rather pleasingly it all worked out rather well. Each of the combinations worked really well. So much so that all the trimmings were very quickly hoovered up and a various different combinations were tried and tested, not all quite so successful as my original!

Spring Vegetable Tagliatelle

Having put so much effort into the avocado and peanut butter elements, I was little lost for inspiration in terms of the main course. I went for a simple spring/summer vegetable pasta: mangetout, peas and asparagus seasoned with lemon and mint. Fresh, seasonal and very tasty.

Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwich and Grape Sorbet

For dessert I put together a peanut butter and jam sandwich. Two peanut butter cookies sandwiched together by fresh peanut butter ice-cream and blackcurrant jam, served with a  grape sorbet.

The ice-cream was delicious but was over-whelmed by too much biscuit. Peeling off one of the cookies gave a much better balance. The grape sorbet gave a lovely contrast to the rich creamy ice-cream and also prevented the peanut-butter flavour from being too dominant. It went down well but not the resounding finish I was hoping for.

To try and improve I gave it another go the following day, essentially making and ice-cream "cheesecake". I crumbled one of the peanut butter cookies up as the base, covered that with jam and then put the ice-cream on top. It was served with the sorbet on top and a shard of salted peanut brittle. This had a much better balance although it was just too big! (Not something I ever thought I'd say!)

All in all a very good night. Here are the recipes:

Avocado and cucumber "soup"

Ingredients:

Half cucumber, de-seeded and roughly chopped

Medium-sized avocado, roughly chopped

Juice of half a lemon

Sour cream

Cayenne pepper

Method:

1. Put the avocado, cucumber and lemon juice in a blender. Blend until smooth adding a little water at a time to achieve a silky consistency.

2. Season with salt and pepper (and lemon juice) to taste and chill.

3. Serve in espresso cups topped with a teaspoon of sour cream and a restrained sprinkle of cayenne pepper.

Avocado Tasting Plate

Ingredients:
Two ripe avocados
3 slices of white bread, crusts removed, cut into three
2 slices of dry-cured bacon
Gorgonzola
Half red chilli, finely diced
Lime juice
Red grapefruit, segmented
Prawns
Mango, sliced
Mint, chopped
Melted butter

Method:
For the avocado, bacon and blue cheese:
1. Fry the bacon until crisp, leave to cool and then cut into pieces.
2. In the same pan, fry one side of three of the bread slices in the bacon fat until crispy.
3. Brush the other side of the bread with melted butter and fry until toasted.
4. Mash half an avocado with lime juice, salt and pepper and chilli to taste.
5. To serve, liberally spread the avocado on the toast. Sprinkle over the bacon bits and add little pinches of blue cheese. Finish with a light drizzle of olive oil.
For the avocado, grapefruit and prawn:
1. Slice and avocado thickly. Liberally brush three slices with melted butter and season. Grill.
2. Brush three slices of bread with melted butter on both sides and fry until toasted.
3. Fry the prawn in a dash of butter until just cooked and then season with lime juice, salt and pepper.
4. To serve, place an avocado slice on each piece of bread, top with a grapefruit segment and a prawn
For the avocado and mango:
1. Marinate slices of avocado and mango in lime juice and mint.
2. Brush three slices of bread with melted butter on both sides and fry until toasted.
3. To serve, top the bread with a slice of avocado and a slice of mango.
[Note: This might actually work better as a mango and avocado salsa, rather than slices of each]

Spring Vegetable Tagliatelle (serves 3, inspired by Simon Rimmer's Pasta primavera)

Ingredients: 
1/2 onion, finely chopped
300g tagliatelle, cooked and cooking water reserved
2oz butter
1 clove garlic, crushed
200g asparagus, blanched, cut into bite-sized pieces
200g frozen peas, podded
200g mangetout
150g baby spinach
1 lemon, juice and zest
Parmesan shavings
Half bunch mint, chopped
Half bunch parsley, chopped

Method:
1. Heat the butter in a pan, sweat the onion until translucent then add the garlic and fry for one minute.
2. Add the asparagus, peas, mangetout and spinach and stir fry for 1-2 minutes, until the spinach has wilted slightly.
3. Add the pasta and a little of the cooking water to the pan and stir to combine.
4  Stir in the lemon juice and zest and the herbs and season, to taste.
5. To serve, divide the pasta and sprinkle over Parmesan shavings and drizzle with olive oil.

For the dessert I'll just give you the recipes for the peanut-butter ice-cream and grape sorbet.

Peanut butter ice-cream (taken from Allrecipes)
Makes 500ml

Ingredients:
2tbsp caster sugar
2 eggs
125ml milk
100g peanut butter
80ml sweetened condensed milk
60ml double cream
1tsp vanilla extract

Method:
1. Beat the sugar and eggs with an electric mixer until thick, about 3 minutes. Set aside.
2. Bring the milk to a simmer over low heat.
3. Take off the heat and gradually add the milk to the eggs while whisking vigorously. Then pour the whole mixture into the saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon.
4. Remove from heat and whisk in peanut butter. Allow to cool slightly, then whisk in the sweetened condensed milk, single cream and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.
5. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Or put in a container and freezer, taking out of the freezer and whisking every hour for the first three hours. Then leave to freeze.

Grape sorbet (from Niki Segnit's The Flavour Thesaurus)

Ingredients:
250ml red grape juice
100ml water
100g caster sugar.

Method:
1. Warm the water and sugar together in a pan until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Take off the heat and combine with the grape juice. Leave to cool.
3. Once cool, pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Or put in a container and freezer, taking out of the freezer and whisking every hour for the first three hours. Then leave to freeze.

Morrocan lamb, asparagus and rhubarb

My first proper dinner guest for quite some time (potentially the first this year). I went very seasonal with the menu and also made use of some rhubarb from a colleague for pud. We had:

Lamb "Pastilla"

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Asparagus Risotto and Watercress Salad

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Rhubarb Cheesecake

Lamb Pastilla

This was quite involved for a starter: a lamb filo parcel (the pastilla), a red pepper sauce and tzatziki. The three elements really worked together. The lamb parcel was crispy and full of fragrant and savoury lamb (although it could happily have coped with more apricot). The red pepper sauce added some heat and moisture. The tzatziki cooled the heat and provided a creamy contrast with a fresh herbal hit.

I'm very glad that all the effort was worthwhile.

Asparagus Risotto and Watercress Salad

A nice spring risotto which brought the asparagus to the forefront (highlighted by lemon). The watercress salad helped to keep the meal fresh. And I finally managed to make a decent Parmesan crisp!

Rhubarb Cheesecake

The cheesecake wasn't as good as I hoped. Not to say it wasn't tasty, it just wasn't very rhubarby. It was simply too lemony which overpowered the rhubarb.

It was a baked cheesecake, which I haven't really made many of in the past. Mainly because I just don't see the need to bake a cheese cake; I don't see what it adds. Yes it was incredibly creamy and had a velvety smooth texture, but the base was soft. I love the contrast of the traditional biscuit and butter base.

There's no picture as late season rhubarb is never as pretty (i.e. pink) as the forced stuff. Also the cheesecake was supposed to be marbled. However, the rhubarb just sank to the bottom. Nobody's life will be enhanced by a picture of a white slice of cake with a stripe of green and brown at the bottom.

The rhubarb crisp garnishes were great though. Thin strips of rhubarb steeped in a vanilla stock syrup (100ml water, 100g caster sugar and ~1tsp vanilla extract) until soft. Then baked at 100°C for ~10mins until dried out.

Here is the recipe for the lamb starter. The risotto is pretty straightforward. Just make a risotto in the normal fashion. For the asparagus I sliced the spears thinly, reserving the tips. The asparagus was blanched in the vegetable stock until tender (~1-2mins) then stirred into the risotto at the end. The cheesecake definitely needs some work and I'll post a recipe once it's up to scratch.

Lamb "pastilla" (makes three)

Ingredients:
250g lamb mince
Star anise
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/2tsp allspice
1/4tsp chilli flakes
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp cumin
2tbsp dried apricots, finely chopped
1tbsp parsley, chopped
3 sheets filo pastry, cut in half
Melted butter
Sesame seeds
For the red pepper sauce:
2 red peppers
1tsp tomato puree
Garlic clove, sliced
1/4tsp paprika
Pinch cayenne pepper
Lemon juice
For the tzatziki:
Greek yoghurt
Mint, chopped finely
Half cucumber, de-seeded and grated
Lemon juice
Olive oil

Method:
1. For the red pepper sauce, char the outside of the peppers, leave to cool and then remove the skins and chop roughly.
2. Gently fry the red peppers and spices in olive oil for ~1min. Add the tomato purée and fry for ~1min. Add the garlic until it just started to colour.
3. Add 100ml vegetable stock and simmer for a few minutes. Liquidise the pepper mixture and return to a clean pan.
4. Reduce the sauce to a suitable consistency (covering the back of a spoon) and season with salt and lemon juice to taste.
5. For the lamb, chop the apricots and cover with boiling water and leave to rehydrate.
6. Fry the mince with the star anise in batches over a high heat. Remove the mince as soon as it is browned.
7. Add the onion and fry till brown. Add the spies and fry briefly.
8. Combine the mince, onion and spices, drained apricots and parsley in a bowl and mix. Season to taste.
9. Take a sheet of filo and liberally douse in melted butter. Repeat with another sheet of filo. Put a third of the lamb mince along a long edge and then roll tightly and place on a baking sheet. Repeat until all the mixture and filling has been used up.
10. Liberally brush melted butter over the outside of the filo tubes and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake at 200°C for 20mins until the pastry is browned and crispy.
11. For the tzatziki, put the grated cucumber in a sieve and leave to drain for a few hours then squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
12. Combine the Greek yoghurt, cucumber, chopped mint, lemon juice and olive oil to taste. Season.
13. To serve, put a puddle of pepper sauce in the centre of the plate. Cut the pastilla in half and place on the plate. Serve the tzatziki separately.

Lamb breast

Lamb breast (or belly; I've never been able to get my head around the fact that the same bit of an animal is called different things depending on the beast so you get lamb breast, pork belly and beef brisket. Anyhoo, moving on.) is something I've been wanting to try for ages. A pre-Alpine leaving feast, was the perfect excuse to go to the butchers in Banners and get my hands on a big old breast of lamb. (Well over a kilo of lamby goodness for a little over £3: bargain!)

(Sorry for the terrible photos, I got a bit in to the swing of hosting and only remembered to take any photos at the last moment.)

I stuffed and rolled the lamb and slow roasted it. As my friends arrived they both commented that they could smell the lamb way out in the landing outside me flat. The lamb skin was incredibly crispy, quite like pork cracking. The meat was meltingly tender with the fat having rendered away leaving a strong flavour of lamb. The sides of broccoli, courgettes and carrots were suitably light and fresh (despite the appalling weather outside).

For pudding, I put together a little trio of puds. I made Heston's passion fruit and chocolate tart, which is quite possibly the silkiest, smoothest thing I have ever made. Simple chocolate deliciousness. To go with the tart I made a berry sorbet and finished off with a piece of my favourite brownie. All in all a pretty damn good pud plate: complimentary flavours, different textures and contrasting temperatures.

On to the recipes.

Stuffed lamb breast

Ingredients:

Lamb breast

For the stuffing: (use quantities as you see fit and to reflect your palette)

1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Rosemary
~80g best sausage meat (lamb sausages or mince would be great)
Nutmeg
Parsley
Mint
Zest of 1/2 a lemon

Method:
1. Sweat the onion until transparent and soft. Leave to cool.
2. Mix all the stuffing ingredients together.
3. Trim any excess skin or fat from the lamb. Rub a cut clove of garlic over the meat. Spread the stuffing all over the lamb. Roll the belly tightly and tie.
4. Brown the meat all over in a pan then roast at 150°C for 3hours. Once tender (a skewer should pass in to the meat with no resistance). Leave to rest for about 15mins.

5. Carve in to thick slices and serve.

Roast courgettes with lemon (a recipe from Sainsbury's)

Ingredients:

6 courgettes, trimmed and cut into thirds, then each third cut into thick strips

1tsp lemon juice
1tbsp olive oil

1tbsp mint leaves, chopped

Method:

1. Put the courgettes in a roasting dish in a single layer.

2. Whisk together the lemon juice and olive oil, then drizzle over the courgettes. Turn to coat.

3. Roast at 160°C (fan oven) for 30 minutes. Spoon into a warm serving dish and sprinkle with the chopped mint.

Steamed broccoli with toasted sesame seeds (a recipe from Sainsbury's)

Ingredients:

900g broccoli, cut into small florets

1tbsp olive oil

1½ tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

Method:

1. Steam the broccoli over a pan of boiling water for 7-10 minutes until tender.

2. Fry the sesame seeds in the oil until lightly browned. Add the broccoli and stir-fry briefly. 

Lemon and parsley carrots (taken from New British Classics, Rhodes, G, 1999, BBC Worldwide)

Ingredients:
1lb carrots, sliced thinly
1tsp caster sugar
1oz butter
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Parsley, chopped

Method:
1. Put the carrots in a medium pan and barely cover with water. Add the sugar, half the butter and a pinch of salt. Cover with a butter paper and bring to the simmer. Cook until tender.
2. Remove the carrots and reserve.
3. Bring the cooking liquor to the boil and reduce by three-quarters. It should be nearly a syrup.
4. Add the lemon juice and simmer for 1min.
5. Season to taste. Add the carrots and re-heat. Stir in the parsley before serving.

Exploding chocolate gateau recipe (Heston's recipe with some steps slightly simplified)

Ingredients:

For the base:

150g all butter shortbread biscuits

30g butter, melted

2 tbsp white caster sugar

25g orange popping candy

For the chocolate ganache

• 175g whipping cream

• Pinch of salt

• Pulp from 6 passion fruits

• 50g fresh custard

• 110g dark chocolate (minimum of 60% cocoa solids), broken into pieces

• 50g milk chocolate, broken into pieces

Method:

1. Place the biscuits in a food processor and add the melted butter and sugar. Blitz until the mixture resembles fine sand in texture.

2. Gently stir in the popping candy. Place the mixture inside a 20cm cake ring placed on a tray lined with baking paper. Flatten using the back of a spoon then put to one side to set.
NOTE: Heston uses a smaller 15cm cake ring which gives a very satisfying deep slice

3. Add the cream, salt and passion fruit to a small saucepan and place over a medium heat until it almost comes to the boil. Remove from the heat and allow to stand for 5 minutes, then stir in the fresh custard.

4. Put the dark and milk chocolate in a bowl. Place over a bain marie (a pan of gently simmering water) and allow to melt completely. Remove from the heat.

5. Strain the infused cream and add to the bowl of melted chocolate a third at a time, making sure to incorporate the cream thoroughly after each addition. Allow the ganache to cool to room temperature.

6. Pour the ganache into the ring and place the tart in the fridge to set for 2 hours. Place the tart in the freeze.
7. Remove from the freezer 20 minutes before serving.

Creamy berry sorbet (a recipe from Sainsbury's)

Ingredients:

500g frozen summer fruits, slightly defrosted

60g caster sugar

125ml pomegranate juice drink

30ml double cream

Method:

1. In a food processor, whizz the berries, sugar and pomegranate juice drink together until smooth. With the motor still running, gradually add the cream and continue to whizz until well blended. Transfer the mixture to a stainless steel bowl, cover with clingfilm and put in the freezer.

2. Freeze the sorbet for between 1 hour and 1 hour 20 minutes or until set. Take the bowl out of the freezer at 15 minute intervals to whip the mixture with a spatula - by doing this, you'll break up any ice crystals that might have formed, resulting in a smoother, creamier sorbet.

3. Remove from the freezer 15 minutes before serving.

Mushrooms and chocolate

Tonight I made dinner for BK and have just realised it is for only the fourth time this year that I've had someone round for dinner (mind you that's four times as many as in 2011 (co-incidentally BK was the "lucky" one then too)...).

The driving force behind what we had was the fact that BK likes "mushrooms and chocolate". My other motivation was my ongoing strive to be as seasonal as possible. Given that it's the tail-end of autumn and I  LOVE autumnal ingredients, it took a while. Game, beetroot, parsnips, cabbage, celeriac, apples, pears, mushrooms, squashes and pumpkins: they are just so delicious either individually or together, in almost any combination. I eventually decided on:

Mushroom soup

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Venison steak with braised red cabbage and seasonal root vegetables

***

Gâteau Opéra

I also hadn't done any "proper" cooking for a while, so I ended up going a little over-board and made some mushroom and walnut dip to have with pre-dinner crudités and some chocolate and pistachio biscotti to have with coffee. Both recipes taken from Marcus Wareing's One Perfect Ingredient, also the source of the Gâteau Opéra recipe, so really I'm pretty sure some of the blame lies with him and his damn good cooking. Doesn't it?

Mushroom soup

Essentially liquid mushroom: Brilliant. I think this is because of the few ingredients involved; it can't help but give you a hit in the face with the glorious deep umami of mushroom (even if I had slightly over seasoned with lemon juice - curse my metal body). As smooth as this was, it's times like these that make me wonder if it could have been even silkier if I had a liquidiser...

For me it's the garnishes which turn a run-of-the-mill bowl of liquid into a memorable and enjoyable stand alone experience. I'd toyed with the idea of a poached egg and even a single large croûton topped with a large portabello mushroom and fried quail egg, but eventually opted for a riff on persillade or gremolata. A few Parmesan croutons and some walnuts fried in duck fat (great crunch and depth of flavour), with plenty of parsley and tarragon (a fragrant note and a lovely lightly crisp texture as they were mixed with the hot bread and nuts), lemon zest (adding a zing) and a hint of garlic. Altogether pretty damn good, even if I do say so myself.

Venison steak with braised red cabbage and seasonal root vegetables

I got a pair of 7oz venison steaks from the great butchers in Banners. It's a proper traditional establishment and has pretty much everything you can think of. I always get a bit giddy when I go in there and have to stop myself from buying a random cut with no plan whatsoever (my freezer currently has a trotter awaiting culinary dispatch). The venison was lean and full of deep complex flavours. Thankfully I managed to cook it reasonably rare. It's not often I cook a slab of meat so I'm always full of trepidation.

The braised red cabbage was a great accompaniment the port adding a deep fruity note which worked really well with the venison. We also had celeriac puree, roast parsnips (dusted slightly over-zealously with cayenne pepper. I should have used cumin really.) and roast beetroot. All the vegetables worked really well together with an underlying earthy note. the only thing that was missing was something to pull them all together (especially the beetroot). Mind you the pan juices de-glazed with port worked pretty well.

Gâteau Opéra

Now apparently (I say apparently as I can't find it in my Larousse) this is a classic French cake of almond sponge, coffee butter cream and chocolate ganache. Though this version was without the almonds it was still bloomin' lovely. The 18 different layers make for a far more interesting eating experience than a normal slab of cake.The coffee was an underlying and understated flavour. The intensity of the dark chocolate came through at the end of each mouthful apart from the glaze which gave a whacking great big chocolate hit. The layers also give a great contrast in texture: hard ganache, soft and smooth butter cream, airy sponge

[The butter cream might possibly be slightly too buttery (not that I'm in a position to question Marcus Wareing's recipe!) but I think it might benefit from whipping the eggs over a bain marie or actually using less butter].

Overall I think BK was fairly satisfied and happy with her cake filled doggy-bag. Now what to do with the left-overs? Oh and here are the recipes, if you're interested:

Mushroom soup (taken from Week In Week Out by Simon Hopkinson (Quadrille, 2007))

Ingredients:

175g open-cup mushrooms, sliced

125ml milk

125ml double cream

Nutmeg

Onion, chopped,

1/2pint Marigold vegetable bouillon

1oz butter

Squeeze of lemon juice

For the garnish:

2 slices of old white bread, de-crusted and cut into 1cm cubes

1oz Parmesan, finely grated

Lemon zest

Clove of garlic, crushed

Handful of parsley, chopped

Handful of tarragon, chopped

2oz walnuts, chopped coarsely

Method:

1.Place the mushroom ilk and cram in a pan and bring to a simmer. Cook very gently for 20 mins.

2. Meanwhile, sweat the onion gently in the butter until golden and pour in the stock. Simmer for 5 mins.

3. Combine the two pans of ingredients and liquidise. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and lemon juice.

4. For the garnish, mix the bread cubes, parmesan, walnuts and garlic in a bowl with a slug of olive oil. Fry in a little duck fat until the croutons are golden.

5. Co-mingle the herbs, lemon zest and fried bits together in the original bowl.

6. Serve the soup with a drizzle of extra double cream and crown with a generous assortment of the garnish.

Venison steak with braised red cabbage and seasonal root vegetables

Ingredients:

2 venison steaks
2 parsnips, quartered and woody centre removed
Ground cumin
2 cooked beetroot, cut in an array of shapes: wedges, slices etc.

For the celeriac check out the recipe from January

For the red cabbage:
Red cabbage, sliced
2 red onions, thinly sliced
2 red apples, grated
4 rashers of smoky bacon, cut into lardons
2tbsp muscavado sugar
4tbsp balsamic vinegar
Juice from an orange
1/2 glass port
2 garlic cloves, whole
2 bay leaves
1/2tsp all spice
1/2tsp cinnamon

1/2tsp nutmeg

Method:

For the red cabbage:

1. Fry the bacon gently to render out the fat. Then add the onion and allow the bacon to crisp. Once the onion is soft add the spices to the pan and fry briefly.

2. Add all the other ingredients and put the lid on. Leave to braise for ~2hours, stirring occasionally.

3. Before serving, remove the garlic and bay leaves then season.

4. For the parsnips fry in duck fat then re-heat in the oven (~180°C) and dust lightly(!) with cumin.

5. Re-heat the segments with the parsnips in the oven.

6. For the steaks, season each side with slat and pepper. Fry for two minutes flipping every 30s in a scorchingly hot pan (exact cooking time will depend on thickness of the steaks) and leave to rest.

7. De-glaze the pan with a little port. Add a little water and reduce for a few moments.

8. To serve, slice the venison and season, serve on top of the red cabbage. Add a spoonful of the celeriac and top with parsnip and beetroot wedges. Serve the jus separately.

Gâteau Opéra (taken from One Perfect Ingredient by Marcus Wareing (Dorling Kindersley, 2008))

Ingredients:
For the sponge:
4oz butter

4oz plain flour
4oz caster sugar
2 eggs
1tsp baking powder
1tsp instant coffee mixed with 1dsp hot water
For the butter cream:
1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks
3oz caster sugar
125g butter, diced
1tsp instant coffee mixed with 1dsp hot water
For the ganache:
100ml double cream
100g dark chocolate
20g butter
For the glaze:
2tbsp double cream
25g dark chocolate
10g caster sugar
1tsp cocoa

Method:

1. Make the sponge in the usual way - cream the butter and sugar, beat in eggs, fold in flour and baking powder - spread into a greased rectangular baking tray 22x36cm (ideally) and bake at 180°C for 5mins (or until done). Cool in the tray.

2. For the butter cream whisk the eggs until light and foamy.

3. Dissolve the sugar in 2tbsp sugar and boil for 3mins. Slowly pour the syrup down the side of the bowl whilst still whisking the eggs unitl barely luke warm.

4. Whisk in the butter and then the coffee. Leave to cool completely.

5. To make the ganache, gently warm the cream then break the chocolate into the cream. Leave for 5mins. Beat until smooth then add the butter one piece at a time.

6. For the glaze, gently warm half the cream then break the chocolate into the cream.

7. Warm the sugar, cocoa, remaining cream and 50ml water until dissolved. Simmer for 2 mins. Beat into the cream and chocolate mix. Leave to cool and thicken.

8. Now assemble. Take the cake out of the tray and spread the butter cream evenly over. Chill for 30 mins.
9. Spread the ganache evenly over the butter cream. Chill for 30 mins.
10. With a hot knife, cut the cake in half, then each half into three rectangles. Stack the rectangles on top of each other. Chill for 30 mins.
11. Trim the sides of the cake and carefully pour the glaze on top and spread evenly.
12, Cut into slices, with a hot knife, to serve.

Wood pigeon for Sunday lunch

Had one of my sisters over for lunch today, which is the first time anyone has come over for quite some time. As it's game season I had managed to get a pair of wood pigeons on Friday. I always think that having your own bird is like having your own private individual roast.

My normal modus operandi is to use a number of recipes in combination e.g. one for the main component of the meal (in this case the wood pigeon) then others for the accompaniments. For the first time I actually followed an entire recipe from a single source. Mind you, a recipe from Michel Roux's probably a good one to follow.

The "pigeon canoes with grape jus" from Only the best (Roux, 2002, p146) look like this:

Mine didn't look quite so refined (although my cabbage definitely looks better!):

Making the jus was by far and away the most time consuming and elaborate part of the recipe. It always seems that it's the sauces that sets professional cooking apart from the amateur. That and the availability, variety and quality of ingredients.

It was very tasty and I did have a reasonable sense of achievement although the sauce was little sweet (I hadn't completely compensated for the reduced quantity of grapes needed - idiot). Although the pigeon crown (or "canoe") was well cooked the legs were a little chewy. I'm not sure why (maybe over cooked?).

In quite deliberate contrast pudding was a comforting autumn crumble!

Essentially, I spent the whole day working out a menu (and writing shopping lists), shopping, cooking, eating and then clearing up. All in all a pretty good Sunday really.