Definitely back in September!!!

3 Comments / The Ordinary Cook /

The girls are on their school holidays and life is even busier than usual.  In September I will have more time to devote to my blog and  my lovely blog friends.  I will definitely be back then, if not before.  In the meantime, thank you all for your kind messages, have a lovely summer ( or winter if you are in the other hemisphere) and I will be back bothering you all again with my mutterings soon.  I promise. xxx

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Back soon

10 Comments / The Ordinary Cook /

Some of you may have been wondering where I am (others might not care – that’s OK, I don’t mind).  I am sorry if I haven’t been visiting your blogs as much as I like to. Life has been busy and I have been distracted.

I also moved from wordpress.com to my own domain using wordpress.org and I have been trying to get used to the new way of working and getting my head around it all. Blimey, I wish I was more techie!  I need to do quite a bit of back end stuff and that has been taking up any spare time I have had.

I promise to be back soon. Kath x

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Gooseberry and Elderflower cheesecake

23 Comments / pudding /

Firstly, I must apologise for not posting this sooner.  I made it last week when the elderflowers were still in bloom, and this may not be the case for some of you in the more southerly reaches of the UK. However, all is not lost as you could replace the flower heads with a couple of dessertspoonfuls of Elderflower Cordial if you really wanted to give it a go, and I recommend that you do.  It has the most delicately perfumed taste, with both the gooseberries and the elderflower complementing one another beautifully.

I have two of my school gate friends to thanks for this recipe.  Firstly S for her gift of a punnet of lovely gooseberries. We have about five gooseberry bushes in the garden but we cannot get rid of the mildew which infects them each year.  We have moved them, sprayed them, but still the berries are marred before they are ready.  I think they will have to be sacrificed.  So her offering is very much appreciated. Secondly, S for his inspiration.  He was telling me how he had picked some gooseberries on his allotment and had used them in a gooseberry and elderflower fool.  He had read comments below the recipe that he had sourced online that a biscuit was needed to complete the dessert and so he had used a digestive crumb base.  I thought this sounded very good indeed.

However, I foolishly put more than a splash of water in the gooseberries when I was stewing them and they had a lot more liquid than could be soaked up by a tub of cream.  Fortunately for me I had a tub of mascarpone skulking in the fridge and so instead of fool, I made a cheesecake.  It is funny how a recipe can develop.

For the biscuit crumb base
200g digestive biscuits (or similar)
100g butter, melted

For the cheescake
500g gooseberries, topped and tailed so that the little brown bits at each end are removed
10 freshly picked elderflower heads (or 2 dessertspoons Elderflower Cordial)
2 tablespoons caster sugar
strip of lemon zest (peeled using a veg peeler)
300ml double cream
250g mascarpone

Method
Whizz the biscuits in a food processor until crumbs or place in a large plastic food bag and bash with a rolling pin.  Add the melted butter and stir until well combined.  Pour the mixture into a 23cm flan dish and press down well with a wooden spoon until level. Place in a fridge.

Gently shake any insects off the elderflower heads and place in a pan with the gooseberries, sugar and lemon peel.  Pour in a splash of water (you really do not need very much). Stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and then simmer for about ten minutes until the gooseberries are soft and mushy. Strain through a sieve into a bowl, pushing through with a spoon to get all of the gooseberry goodness. Leave to cool.

Whip the double cream until softly peaked and stir in the mascarpone.  Stir in the gooseberry puree and pour over the biscuit base.  Chill in the fridge for at least 6 hours or overnight.

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Summer tart

25 Comments / fruit, pastry /

summer tart

These berries all came from the garden.  How lucky are we?

I knew I had to make something that would make the most of these little beauties. I adore a fruit tart, with its contrast of crisp pastry, unctuous custard and tart fruit and this one didn’t disappoint.  The girls loved decorating the top with the berries too.

For the pastry
200g plain flour
100g cold butter
1 tbsp icing sugar
1 egg, beaten

For the pastry cream
4 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
25g plain (all purpose flour) sifted
½ tsp vanilla extract or a vanilla pod
350ml milk

For the topping:
fruit of your choice
2 tbsps jam or jelly (such as medlar or redcurrant)

Method

Make the pastry by placing the flour, cubed butter and icing sugar in a food processor and whizzing until it looks like tiny breadcrumbs.  Add half the egg and pulse the food processor a few times.  The pastry should begin to gather in a ball.  Add more egg if you need to and pulse again.  Be careful not to overwork the pastry. Form the pastry into a flattened disc, wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge for thirty minutes.

Remove the pastry from the clingfilm and roll out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll it into a circle slightly bigger than the flan case.  My flan case measures 23cm. Carefully place the pastry into the flan case, pushing it into the corners with your fingers.  Roll the rolling pin over the top of the flan case to remove any extra pastry and neaten the top.  If you have time allow to rest again in the fridge for 20 minutes.  This will reduce shrinking of the pastry during cooking. Place a square of foil on top of the pastry and then fill the case with baking beans ( or dried beans or uncooked rice). This will prevent the pastry from rising during cooking. Place in a preheated oven at 200°c, gas mark 6 for 15 minutes.  Remove the beans and the foil and prick the base of the pastry all over with a fork.  Return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes until golden brown all over.  Leave the pastry case to cool.

Make the pastry cream by whisking together the egg yolks and the sugar until light in colour and thick. Stir in the sifted flour.

Heat the milk and the vanilla until just boiling (remove the vanilla pod if using) and then pour slowly over the egg mixture whisking all the time.  Pour it all back into the saucepan and continue to cook over a gentle heat until it comes to a gentle boil. Allow it to boil, stirring all the time for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir until it cools.  If is is lumpy then push the mixture through a sieve.  Cover the custard with clingfilm directly on top to prevent a skin forming and leave to cool completely.

About an hour before serving pour the pastry cream into the pastry case.  Decorate with the fruit.  Warm the jam/ jelly in a small saucepan and sieve if it has any seeds in it, then brush gently over the fruit to glaze.

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Blackcurrant cordial

10 Comments / blackcurrant /

We have tons of blackcurrants on the bushes this year and I have been thinking of ways to use them up.  Last year I made Elderflower Cordial, which was very delicious and I had wanted to make blackcurrant cordial but just didn’t get round to it. So, I was determined to do it this year, and what a treat it is.  It is simply diluted with tap water in this photo, but I am going to try it with sparkling water and I think it would be lovely in prosecco. The girls love it too and I am sure that it is much better for them than the bought stuff. I will be making this again and again.

I am not going to put the recipe here as I used this one from The British Larder pretty much word for word so take a look at their blog for how to make this lovely summer treat.  It is really worth making.

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Almond trifle

11 Comments / pudding /

I actually made this trifle a few weeks ago, with the leftover cake from that first almond cake I made.  That particular cake was OK, but a bit dry and after a couple of days wasn’t particularly tempting.  The second one I made and posted about here was so delicious that I scoffed it all and so it didn’t make its way into a trifle.

Stale cake makes a great base for a trifle and so it was that I made this for a Sunday dessert. There was a little under half a cake left to use. I sliced it and spread it with strawberry jam and soaked it with Amaretto. Then made a custard and covered it with lashings of softly whipped cream and toasted almonds.  It was a very comforting end to dinner but I was asked where the jelly was.  Oh well, you can’t please all of the people all of the time… If you want a trifle that has a jelly layer I have posted one before here.

Leftover almond cake (or you could use sponge, pound or madeira cake)
4-5 tbsp strawberry jam
50ml  Amaretto (or you could use sherry)
For the custard layer:
300ml double cream
3 egg yolks
25g caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour (cornstarch)
For the top layer:
300ml double cream
25g almonds

Method

Slice the almond cake and spread with the strawberry jam.  Lay in the bottom of a trifle bowl.  Sprinkle the amaretto all over the sponge.

To make the custard, whisk the egg yolks, the sugar and cornflour (cornstarch) together in a bowl.  Heat the cream until almost boiling.  Pour the hot cream slowly over the egg yolks, whisking all the time.  Return the mixture to the pan and place onto a gentle heat.  Stir all the time until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.  Take off the heat and keep stirring until it cools a little.  Leave to cool and then pour over the cake slices.  Cover with clingfilm so that it is on top of the custard to prevent a skin forming and place in the fridge.

About an hour before serving softly whip the cream and spoon onto the custard. Toast the almonds in a dry pan over a medium heat (keep your eye on them as they can burn quickly) and then sprinkle over the cream.

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Garden salad

9 Comments / The Ordinary Cook /

I love living in England.  I love the way the weather changes with each season and I even love how the weather changes from day to day.  In June, for example, you should really be basking in some warm hazy days.  Of course, we aren’t.  It has rained and rained and been pretty dull for most of June.  April of course was a different matter with blazing sunshine for most of the month (and this from a month famous for its showers).

I love how in the winter in England you can forget that in the summer your house will be so warm that you will want every window open and then in the summer you forget how bloomin’ cold the kitchen was (even with the Aga!) in January.  You can also forget just what a pleasure it is when June comes around to be able to eat pretty much everything on your plate straight out of the garden.

I must add that everything in this picture is out of my parents’ garden ( they are so much more organised with their earlier planting than Mr OC and I).

I was having a dilemma about what to make for dinner.  Then I called at my parents and came away with this lovely bounty.  Some tiny beetroot with their delicious leaves, two types of lettuce leaf, a few baby carrots, a red onion  and the last of the new potatoes out of their greenhouse. What a lucky girl.

I defrosted some bacon, chopped a bit of last year’s garlic, got out the olive oil, the balsamic vinegar and a pack of feta, added some mint, and ended up with this.

It was the perfect celebration of fresh garden produce.

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Almond cake

65 Comments / cake /

This is a proper almond cake!  Moist, sweet and decadently almondy.  I urge you to make one as soon as you can, allow it to cool, brew a strong coffee, pull up a chair and indulge in a slice or two.

I have adapted this from a recipe by Mary Berry.  Far be it from me to suggest that Mary Berry’s cakes can be improved upon, but when I made her almond cake from The Aga Book the other week, whilst I enjoyed it, it just wasn’t quite almondy enough for my taste. So I swapped the quantities of ground almond to flour and replaced one egg with 150ml of yoghurt and Bob’s your uncle, it turned out to be just what I was longing for.

175g softened butter
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
150ml natural yoghurt ( I use Greek yoghurt)
1 tsp almond extract
200g ground almonds
100g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

25g flaked almonds for the top of the cake

Method

Beat the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add one egg at a time, whisking well between each addition.  Add the yoghurt and the almond extract and beat well.

Add the ground almonds, flour and baking powder and fold in carefully.

Pour into a greased and lined 20cm cake tin and  sprinkle with the flaked almonds.

Bake in a preheated oven at 160°c, gas mark 3, or on the grid shelf on the floor of the Baking Oven of the Aga for about 1 hour until golden and a skewer comes out clean.

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New potatoes with a chorizo and tomato sauce

21 Comments / potato, sauce, tomato /

Life has been busy and so dinners have mostly been quick and easy. This sauce is my store cupboard sauce that I turn to when I need something that requires little thought or effort.  The new potatoes are so delicious at the moment that I decided to serve the sauce with them instead of cooking pasta, which is a more usual accompaniment to this sauce.

It was really good – the melt in the mouth buttered potatoes were a delicious foil to this slightly acidic sauce.

100g chorizo sausage, sliced into 1 cm thick rings
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
400g tin of plum tomatoes, whizzed in a blender until smooth
1 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp capers

new potatoes
large knob of butter
chopped mint leaves

Method

Scrape the new potatoes and place in a saucepan. Cover with cold water.  Add ½ tsp salt to the water and 3 sprigs of mint.  Bring to the boil and then simmer until tender when you test with the point of a knife. Drain and return to the saucepan with the knob of butter.

Whilst the potatoes are cooking, place the chorizo, chilli and garlic in a pan with a little olive oil and cook for a minute or so. Add the tomatoes, the tomato puree and the caper berries. Season with salt and pepper.  Simmer until the potatoes are cooked.

Serve the chorizo sauce with the buttered potatoes and sprinkle with chopped mint.

 

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Sticky ribs

10 Comments / meat, The Ordinary Cook /

The photo doesn’t really do these ribs justice.  They are sticky, savoury, sweet and just delicious.  A friend made something similar for a party a few months ago and they disappeared very quickly indeed.

This recipe is loosely based on one of Hugh F-W’s in his Everyday recipe book. I have added cumin and rosemary to add a bit of an edge and instead of honey I used maple syrup.  I used my medlar jelly, but you could use redcurrant, bramble or any other fruit jelly you may have in the cupboard.

If I had more patience I would have cooked them a little bit longer so that they were really caramelised but we were hungry and I couldn’t wait any longer.

I would definitely recommend having lots of paper cloth to hand as you will need it to mop sticky fingers and chins.

Enough for four hungry people.

1.5 kg pork ribs

6 tbsp medlar, or other fruit jelly
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp finely chopped root ginger
½ tsp crushed chilli flakes
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped

Method

Mix all the ingredients for the marinade together.  Place the ribs in a single layer in a shallow oven proof dish.  Pour the marinade over and cover the ribs well by turning them over in the marinade.

Place in the fridge for a few hours (as much time as you have) turning the ribs a couple of times.

Hugh F-W recommends covering the dish with foil, cooking in a preheated oven at 170°c, gas mark 3, for 45 minutes.  Then turning the oven up to 190°c, gas mark 5, removing the foil, turning the ribs over, and cooking for another 35 minutes.

I, of course neglected to read any of this.  I put my ribs (without foil) in to the baking oven of my Aga (about 180°) for about 1 hour and 20 minutes (whilst I took the girls swimming) and then moved them into the roasting oven (about 200°c) for another 15 minutes when I got back.  They might have been stickier with another 5-10 minutes in the roasting oven, but we were all hungry.  This worked out well, so it’s up to you if you want to try the advice of a professional or my more slapdash approach to cooking dinner.

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