The Ordinary Cook

Chocolate roulade, with a touch of the Black Forest

22 Comments / chocolate, pudding, The Ordinary Cook, vegetarian /

This was another of my contributions to my Dad’s birthday pudding bonanza.  It’s a flourless creation, which means that my gluten-intolerant sister can enjoy it.  I really like Black Forest gâteau, and anything with cherries and cherry brandy in it is always a big hit with me.  So I opted to add these, but you could add Marron Glaces for a chestnutty treat or just opt for the simpler (but nearly as delicious) chocolate and cream combo.

When I rolled it, I had as usual added far too much filling and it all oozed out.  But, actually I like it this way, it makes it look a lot more decadent and that can never be a bad thing, surely?

For the roulade (recipe from Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course):

6 eggs, separated
150g (5oz) caster sugar
50g (2oz) cocoa powder

A swiss roll tin (a shallow sided tray) measuring 29cm x 18cm, greased and lined with baking parchment.

Whisk the egg yolks until they begin to thicken, then add the sugar and whisk again until the mixture thickens a little more, but you don’t want it to be too thick.  Add the cocoa powder and mix until combined.  In a very clean bowl whisk the egg whites until they make soft peaks.  Add one-third of the egg whites to the egg yolk mixture to loosen the mixture and then carefully fold in the rest of the egg whites, retaining as much air as possible. Carefully pour this mixture into the tin and lift the tin to spread the mixture evenly.

Place in a preheated oven at 180°c, gas mark 4 or on the middle shelf of the Aga’s Baking Oven and cook for 20-25 minutes until the cake is springy to touch. Leave it in the cake tin to cool.

Make the chocolate ganache:

225g (8oz) good quality dark chocolate
225ml double cream
Cherry Brandy (to taste, I tend to put a good swig in, I know that isn’t very scientific, but keep on tasting until it suits you)

Chop the chocolate finely and place in a shallow and long dish. Heat the cream in a saucepan until just under boiling point. Pour the cream over the chocolate and leave to melt for a few moments.  Stir gently until well combined and then add the cherry brandy to taste.

Softly whip 200ml of double cream and drain a can of cherries.

Place a fresh piece of baking parchment on the worktop, it should be a little bigger than the cake.  Dust this with cocoa powder and turn the cake onto it.  Peel off the baking parchment from the bottom of the cake.  Spread the chocolate ganache over and then dot with the cherries.

Spread the softly whipped cream on top and then taking hold of one the shorter edges of baking parchment use this to roll the cake over to make a log.  If the filling oozes out, don’t worry just use a knife to spread it back onto the ends of the roulade.  If the cake cracks then that’s a bonus part of its appeal.

Enjoy in thick slices.

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Toffee Apples

16 Comments / apples, pudding, The Ordinary Cook, vegetarian /

They might not look perfect but they got the thumbs up from my two girls and the girl next door.

Toffee apples always remind me of Bonfire Night and as that night is nearly upon us I felt the need to make toffee apples.  Also, we recently took the girls to the annual Apple Day at The GreenWood Centre and there were toffee apples on sale, however by the time we had fought our way through the crowds there weren’t enough toffee apples left.  So I promised to make them some and last week I managed to find the time.

Actually, it takes surprisingly little time to make these, especially if you don’t mind how haphazard they look when they are finished.

PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL , BOILING SUGAR IS EXTREMELY HOT.  It is best to do this in a quiet kitchen unaided by small children.

3 eating apples
3 lolly sticks
100g (4oz) granulated sugar
50ml (2 fl oz) water
15g (½ oz) butter
1 tbsp golden syrup

Silicone sheet or non-stick baking parchment, a pan of boiling water

Pour the sugar and water into a heavy-based pan and heat over a gentle heat until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the butter and syrup and bring to a fast boil.  Use a sugar thermometer and bring the mixture to the hard crack stage (150°c).  If you don’t have a sugar thermometer then boil for about ten minutes until a deep golden colour and drop a small amount into a cold glass of water.  It should form a hard ball straight away.  If it clouds the water at all it isn’t ready. Boil for a few more minutes and test again.

Whilst the toffee  is boiling, bring a pan of water to the boil and drop the apples in for a few seconds.  This will remove any waxy coating and  help the toffee stick to the apples.  Remove from the water and dry well.  Stick the lolly sticks into the apples.

When the toffee is ready, take it off the heat and working quickly dip each apple into the mixture until well coated and place on the silicone sheet to harden and cool. If the mixture starts to harden before you are finished then place back on the heat for a minute or so.

To clean the pan, fill it with water and place back on the heat until it cleans itself.

DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO LICK THE SPOON.

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Proper trifle – citrussy

19 Comments / pudding, The Ordinary Cook /


I have discovered that it is quite hard to take a good photo of a trifle. All that cream on top is boring to look at.  But this trifle was not boring to eat.  I am not an inveterate trifle maker, I think I made one for Christmas about 7 years ago, but I do love a good trifle.  It was my Dad’s birthday and I felt the need to make a trifle to act as one of the many desserts we had that day (the list also included chocolate roulade, Christmas pudding, apple pie, syrup steamed pudding, baked apple and chocolate fudge cake – well there were twenty people to feed and we like to put on a spread.)

A trifle is a fairly easy thing to make but it does take quite a bit of time to assemble all the parts and there does need to be time to allow each layer to settle. I started mine on the Friday to serve on the Sunday. On friday I made the madeira cake, on saturday morning I soaked the cake with sherry, placed the tinned orange segments on top and made the jelly.  On saturday evening I made the custard and on Sunday morning I whisked the cream for the top, and then just before serving I sprinkled generously with hundreds and thousands because a trifle isn’t a trifle without this addition.

If you are a proper foodiephile then the notion of putting jelly and tinned fruit into a trifle and then topping it with hundreds and thousands may send you a little frantic with worry, but this is my trifle and I like it this way (and it tastes delicious and brings back memories of childhood Christmases. Although I am pretty sure that it would have been Rowntree jelly and Bird’s custard back then, but feel free to use these if you want to take the even easier route towards trifle perfection).

This time I used a lemon flavoured madeira cake, tinned orange segments and made a jelly from orange juice to lend a citrus theme to my jelly, but you could spread raspberry jam thickly over the sponge before drowning in sherry and make a berry flavoured jelly.  Or, if you must be sophisticated, then you could spread the jam, and miss out the tinned fruit and jelly altogether – it will be trifle, just not as I know it.

For the lemony madeira cake (adapted from Jill Brand’s Best Kept Secrets of The Women’s Institute Cakes and Biscuits):

For a 15cm square tin or an 18cm round tin, greased and lined with baking parchment.

115g (40z) softened butter
115g (40z) caster sugar
2 eggs
165g (6oz) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

Method
Cream the butter and the sugar together until really light and fluffy.  Beat the eggs into the mixture one at a time. Sieve the flour and the baking powder together into the bowl and gently fold in with the zest and juice of the lemon.

Pour the mixture into the tin and cook in a preheated oven at 160°c or gas mark 3, or on the grid shelf placed on the floor of the baking oven of the four-oven Aga for about 1 hour.  It is ready when a skewer comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

When the cake is completely cool, cut it into slices that will fit neatly into the bottom of your trifle dish and the cover liberally with a good sherry. I used 150ml over my sponge.

Once the sherry has had time to soak in, drain a tin of mandarin segments and place these on top of the sponge.  It’s a good idea to place some against the sides of the bowl so that they can be seen when all is assembled.

For the orange jelly (taken from The River Cottage Family Cookbook):

The juice of about 6 oranges – enough to make just below 600ml.
the juice of 1 lemon
50g icing sugar
4 leaves of gelatine ( but check pack instructions as they can differ, you need enough to set 600ml of liquid)
half mug of just boiled water

Method

Combine the juice of the lemon and the oranges with the icing sugar.  Place the gelatine leaves in the half mug of just boiled water and stir until dissolved.  Pour the gelatine water into the orange juice and stir well.  It should now make 600ml of liquid.  Pour this jelly over the sponge and oranges and place in the fridge for several hours or overnight until set.

For the custard (recipe taken from Delia Smith’s How to Cook, Book One):

570ml (1 pint) double cream
1 vanilla pod
6 egg yolks
1 dessertspoon cornflour
50g (2oz) caster sugar

Method

Pour the cream into a small saucepan. Split the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds and place these into the cream, along with the pod.  Heat the cream over a gentle heat until just below simmering point.  Whilst that is happening whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and cornflour in a large bowl.  Pour the hot cream over the egg mixture whisking all the time to prevent the eggs from scrambling. Pour the whole lot back into the pan and back onto the gentle heat stirring all the time.  The custard will thicken and it should coat the back of a spoon, so that when you run your finger down the spoon the line where you did this is clear.  Pour the custard into a bowl and stir for a minute or so until cool, sprinkle a little sugar over the top  to prevent a skin from forming and leave to cool completely.

Pour the custard over the jelly layer of the trifle, sprinkle with a  little more sugar and place back in the fridge.

Whisk 600ml (1 pint) of double cream until softly whipped and spread over the custard layer.  Sprinkle over your choice of decorations just before serving.

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Apple pie in the Aga

21 Comments / apples, pastry, pudding, The Ordinary Cook /

A lady called Una contacted me to ask how to cook an apple pie in the Aga as she could not find a recipe online. Well I do love apple pie, it definitely ranks up there as yet one more of my favourites ( well I like my food, so there are a lot of favourites).  So as soon as I was given some apples by a friend I made this and have now finally got around to blogging about it so hopefully rectifying Una’s dilemma.

Apple pies, in my opinion, need a shortcrust pastry and a good cooking apple – preferably a Bramley.  Now I like my apple pie to be on the tart side of things so I am more sparing with the sugar, if you prefer yours a little sweeter then add another 25g (1 oz) of sugar.  You can make shortcrust with all butter, but I do like it with half butter/ half shortening or lard.  Make sure both are straight from the fridge and that your hands are cool, as warm pastry is not a good thing.

50g (2oz) vegetable shortening or lard
50g (2oz) butter
225g (8oz) plain flour
203 tbsp of cold water

2-3 cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
50-75g (2-3oz) granulated sugar

Method

If you are using a food processor then tip the flour into the bowl of the processor, add the diced butter and shortening/lard and pulse for a few seconds until the fat is incorporated into the flour and the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Add 2 tbsp of water and pulse again (you may need a little extra water or not quite that much) until the mixture starts to come together.  Try not to over process, you need to stop as soon as it starts to come together. Remove the blade and form the mixture into two flattened discs. Wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.

If you aren’t using a food processor then make sure your hands are cool by running cold water over them.  Then place the flour and the diced fat into a bowl and using the tips of your fingers rub the fat into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Add the water and then mix using a pallet knife at first and then your hands until it is a smooth dough.  Try to handle it as little as possible.  Divide into two flattened discs and cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

You will need a pie dish or plate. Mine is 20cm in diameter and 3cm deep.

Remove the pastry from the clingfilm and lightly flour the worktop and your rolling-pin. Roll the first disc of pastry until it is big enough to cover the bottom and the sides of the dish. Press it carefully into the dish.  Place your chopped apples into the dish and sprinkle with the sugar.  Roll the second disc until it is large enough to cover the dish. Brush a little milk around the edges of the pastry and place the lid of pastry on top and crimp around the edge to form a seal with two fingers.  Cut off any excess pastry. You can brush the top with milk too.

Place the pie on the floor of the roasting oven of the Aga for about 20-25 minutes until the pastry is golden. In a conventional cooker, place in a preheated oven at 220°c for about the same amount of time. Allow to cool slightly before enjoying warm with lashings of cold double cream or custard. My mouth is watering at the very thought.

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Ludlow Food Festival’s Sausage Trail

17 Comments / sausages, The Ordinary Cook /

Ludlow is a wonderful place to get good food, and once a year they have a fantastic festival that celebrates local and regional food.  The festival grows every year with new events and new foodie fanatics displaying their wares.

Some of you may remember that I was a judge for Shropshire’s Tastiest Sausage back in January and I blogged all about the wonderful time I had tasting delicious sausages.  Well, luckily for me, one of the expert judges, The Sausage King, had other commitments this year and found my post about judging sausages and asked if I could step in for him as an Expert Judge for this year’s Sausage Trail.  This was quite an honour, and when you take a look at The Sausage King’s website, you will see that I had a lot to live up to. The Sausage King certainly knows his sausages.

The Sausage Trail is a great part of the festival. There is a People’s Choice, where you pay £3.50, then you set off around Ludlow to taste the sausages in the competition and mark your score on the sheet you have been given.  This year there were five sausages to judge.  This is the busiest I have ever seen the festival and I can tell you that the queue I saw for one butcher’s sausages was long!

Then there is an Expert’s Choice and this year there were four judges, including me.  The other judges were Dave Gurr-Gearing, chef at The Queens, Ludlow, Howard Lyons of Taste Real Food, and Anthony Harrison, who bravely volunteered his services from the audience.

The entrants were all local or regional butchers, four from Ludlow and one from Bromyard in Herefordshire.

We decided that the sausages would be judged by taste, smell, appearance, texture and the salability of the sausage.  This last one was the hardest to judge, as I think you are either a person that prefers a plain pork sausage or you are a person that loves to try the more unusual varieties and so that would form the basis of judgement on the potential for commercial success of a more unusual sausage.

All of the sausages in the competition are new flavours that haven’t been sold by the butcher before.

Ludlow butchers are very proud of their sausages and the competition between them to create the best is strong.

The Expert’s Choice this year was A H Griffith’s Pork with Wild Hedgerow Berries sausage.  It was a difficult  decision to make because all the sausages were very delicious. It was the fact that they were all so good that meant that the vote wasn’t a unanimous one and the decision was made after a tot up of the scores we had given for each sausage.

The other sausages in the competition were:

Legges of Bromyard’s Pork and Black Pudding sausage
D W Wall & Son’s Pork with Wild Mushrooms and Blue Cheese
Andrew Francis’s Rare Breed Pork with Sage and Black Pepper
Ludlow Food Centre’s Pork with Honey Roasted Onion

It was a great experience being an Expert Judge and so thank you Sausage King for finding me and asking me!

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Byron Bay Cookie Review

6 Comments / review, The Ordinary Cook /

I was looking at the UK Food Blogger’s Association website the other day and noticed that Beyond the Bean wanted food bloggers to sample their range of cookies and write about them.  Well, never one to turn down the chance of eating a cookie I offered to do just that. Paul sent me a box of ten cookies, which arrived the very next day. This called for a cup of tea and some serious taste testing.  I suffer for my art.

I had asked them to send me their gluten-free cookies as my sister is gluten intolerant so I have a vested interest in finding a good gluten-free cookie.

The Byron Bay Cookies are made in the UK, using free range eggs exclusively, which is a very good thing. The gluten-free cookies come single wrapped to make sure that they don’t get contaminated by any naughty gluten cookies. They are distributed to cafes, to have with your take-away coffee and are also available in mini cookie bite boxes from larger Sainsbury’s stores and health food shops.

Right to get down to business:

They are certainly substantial in size, so should satisfy even the biggest of appetites.

Gluten-free biscuits are always more crumbly than their gluten-y counterparts and I wish I had asked Paul to send me a sample of their gluten containing range so I could have done a comparison.

I received two of each of the White Choc Chunk & Macadamia Nut, Sticky Date & Ginger with Walnut, Triple Choc Fudge, Dark Choc Orange and Dotty Cookies to sample.

I shared them around.  My girls jumped on the Dotty Cookies, the ones that I guess are aimed at children with their sugar-coated chocolate sweets on top.  My adult nephew who is a big fan of chocolate and knows about gluten-free cookies, because my sister is his mum, tried the Triple Choc Fudge and the White Choc Chunk & Macadamia Nut Cookie.  Mr OC got to try the Dark Choc Orange and the Sticky Date & Ginger with Walnut Cookie.  In the interests of this review, of course, I tried a bit of each.

My favourite was the Sticky Date & Ginger with Walnut Cookie, which surprised me as I am a big fan of the chocolate cookie.  But this has a lovely gingery zing to and is a really comforting biscuit.  It is not quite so crumbly as the rest, or perhaps it’s because the crumbliness suits it better. There are good pieces of stem ginger in there and you can taste the walnuts and the cinnamon, but you can’t really taste the dates. If I see them in café, this will be my biscuit of choice from the range.

The Dark Choc Orange cookie has a powerful orange kick, which I am afraid I found just a little too powerful for my liking.

The Triple Choc Fudge Cookie is a sweet cookie, which found favour with my nephew.  There are good-sized chunks of fudge in there and it has a strong chocolate flavour.

If I saw these cookies for sale in a café I would buy one to see how the cookies that aren’t gluten-free compare to these.  I am always pleased to see that gluten-free biscuits are becoming more of a feature in our cafes and shops and so well done to Byron Bay for producing a range of gluten-free cookies. If I was to see them in a café then I would happily buy the gluten-free Sticky Date & Ginger with Walnut cookie to go with my coffee.

Disclaimer: I have received no financial reward for this review, but I did receive 10 free cookies to sample. The review is based on my honest opinion of the cookies and the information about them received from Beyond the Bean.

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Blogiversary

26 Comments / The Ordinary Cook /

Today is my blogiversary! It has been a great year and I love writing my blog.

I started this blog because a long-term work contract had come to an end and I still wanted to have something to focus on that would fit in with being a full-time mum.  I have always wanted to write a recipe book and I originally thought that was what I would focus on, but I realised that I had no idea how to go about doing such a thing. Then I thought about blogging and realised that this was something I could do and it would mean that I shared my recipes with the world too.

When I started I had no idea that it would give me as much pleasure as it does. I had no idea that I would make so many new friends.  I hadn’t delved into the world of food blogging before I started this, but I now spend hours poring over other food blogs and it’s wonderful to be invited into other people’s kitchens and lives.

It has also made me more creative in the kitchen, trying new foods and new ways of cooking – you learn a lot from other people’s blogs!  I still sometimes cook the same old thing for tea, but not quite as often as before.

The only downside that I can find to this lark though is that it has encouraged me to bake more, and then, of course, to eat the result.  The bathroom scales have been shoved out of sight and I really need to devote more time to exercise. Oh well, you can’t have it all ways.

So, this is just to say thank you to everyone who reads my blog and to say here’s to another year’s blogging.

Kath x

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Aubergine and tomato salad

12 Comments / aubergine, salad, The Ordinary Cook, tomato, vegetarian /

This post has been waiting for me to write it for a while.  I made this dish probably about ten days ago, but it’s been the end of the summer holidays and we have been making the most of our time with the girls.

This was the harvest from our polytunnel:

We were very excited as this is the first time we have had success with growing aubergines.  Mr OC planted a mixed seed collection and these beauties were the result. We kept them in the house on the windowsills until the fruit appeared and then transferred them into the polytunnel and this, I think, has been the secret of our success.  The ones planted directly into the polytunnel have produced flowers but no fruit, which was our experience last year.  Our tomatoes have been brilliant this year, supplying a constant stream of ripe fruit and our basil is beautifully scented.  I think this particular harvest is from a supermarket plant that I had pretty much used up in the house and so put it in the greenhouse and it has survived and gone from strength to strength.

I wanted to do something which made the most of both the aubergines and the tomatoes.  Sometimes, the aubergine gets a bit lost when baked with a tomato sauce when I do an aubergine lasagne thingy.  That is OK (and really quite delicious) when the aubergines are from the grocers, but when you have looked at them growing every day for a few months you really want them to be the centrepiece.  I do minted aubergines quite a lot, but the mint is over and cut back in the garden now.  Michele at Cooking at Home posted a wonderful and very inspiring pomodoro crudo the other week and so this seemed perfect to adapt a little for an aubergine and tomato salad.

So the tomatoes were diced and thrown into a bowl with some crumbled feta, salt and pepper and extra virgin olive oil and the basil and left to marinate whilst I got on with roasting the aubergines.

This picture doesn’t compare with Michele’s, so pop over to her site for a more beautiful image, where she uses mozzarella with her tomatoes.

I sliced the aubergines, sprinkled them with olive oil and seasoned generously with salt and pepper.

I then roasted them in the baking oven of my Aga, which is the equivalent of 180°c (gas mark 4) for about 20 minutes until soft and golden.

I placed the aubergines on the serving platter and placed the tomatoes and the lovely juices all over.

It’s best to leave it to stand for five minutes or so for the juices to be absorbed into the aubergine and then serve with lots of bread to mop up the juices.

This was a dish which definitely made the best of our polytunnel harvest.

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Lamb paprika with spiced rice

15 Comments / lamb, leftovers, rice, The Ordinary Cook /

I haven’t shared a dinner with you for quite a while and there has been a very good reason for this.  A few weeks ago Chele at The Chocolate Teapot said she had lost her baking mojo (only temporarily, she soon found it again), well I seemed to have lost my making dinner mojo.  I burned quite a few things, some things I undercooked, some I just didn’t season right.  Poor old Mr OC, he has had to suffer some disappointing meals.

This is why I was so pleased when this dinner made from Sunday’s leftover lamb was so tasty.  I do hope my making dinner mojo is back for good! (And so does Mr OC).

For the Lamb paprika:

Cooked lamb (however much you have left from a roast, or put another way, enough for two greedy people)
1 onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
5-6 fresh tomatoes or 1 tin of plum tomatoes
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp sugar (if you are using fresh English tomatoes)
salt and pepper

Method

If you are using fresh tomatoes, place them in boiling water for 1 minute, drain, allow to cool and then peel off the skin. Dice the tomatoes, keeping the juice.

Fry the onion and pepper in a little olive oil over a medium heat until the onion is translucent and the pepper is softened.  Add the cooked lamb and the paprika and cumin and cook for a few minutes, stirring all the while so that the spices don’t burn. Add the diced tomatoes and their juice or the tin of tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and add the sugar if using fresh tomatoes.  Turn the heat down and simmer gently for 30-40 minutes until the tomatoes have cooked down and the juices have reduced to a pulpy sauce.  Whilst this is happening cook the spiced rice.

For the spiced rice: (generously serves 2)

200ml basmati rice
300ml water
25g butter
1 scant tsp salt
1-2 tsp cumin seed
5-6 cardamom pods
generous handful of raisins

Method

Measure the rice in a measuring jug and rinse several times with water and then leave to soak in a jugful of water for 30 minutes if you have time.

Melt the butter in a heavy based pan and add the cumin seeds and cardamom pods and cook for a minute, stirring all the time.  Drain the rice and add to the buttery spices, stirring carefully until coated with butter. Add 300ml of fresh water and the raisins and salt.  Stir once gently, cover with a tight-fitting lid, bring to a gentle simmer and simmer for 20 minutes.  Take off the heat, take off the lid and cover with a clean cloth and leave to stand for five minutes.  All of the water should have been absorbed and the rice will be perfectly cooked.

Serve the rice and the lamb and tuck in.  A spoonful or two of yoghurt wouldn’t go amiss.

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