Horseradish sauce

2 Comments / sauce, The Ordinary Cook, yoghurt /

I roasted a rib of beef for sunday lunch this week and made this horseradish sauce to go with it.  I was impressed with its fresh and zingy taste, much nicer than anything that you can buy in a jar.  We only grew one root of horseradish in the garden this year and this is it, but we will definitely be making space in the garden for some more next year as it really is lovely to have a freshly made sauce.  The grating of the horseradish root does make your eyes stream though so be prepared. Making it with yoghurt rather than the usual cream means it is a lot healthier.  This means you can have more with none of the guilt.

2 tbsp horseradish root, grated finely
1 tsp white wine vinegar
150g greek yoghurt
salt and pepper to taste

Method
Place the grated horseradish into a bowl with the white wine vinegar and mix well, stir in the yoghurt and add salt and pepper to taste.  Chill and serve with roast beef.

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Chocolate and coffee cake

4 Comments / cake, chocolate /

It was my husband’s birthday yesterday and the girls wanted to make him a cat themed birthday cake.  They are both a bit obsessed with cats it has to be said.  So this is it.  The cake is Nigel Slater’s Chocolate Espresso Cake (from Real Food), which always works wonderfully and is popular with everyone who tries it. It is rich and fudgy and very moreish.  The cat is a whipped ganache and complements the cake very well.

For the cake:

180g 70% cocoa chocolate, broken into pieces
3 tbsp espresso (very strong coffee)
140g butter, cut into small pieces
5 eggs, separated
200g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp good quality cocoa powder
90g plain flour

Topping:
100ml double cream
50g 70% cocoa chocolate, broken into small pieces

Method for the cake

You will need a 20cm springform tin, lined with baking parchment.
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of just simmering water.  Be careful that the steam does not make contact with the chocolate and make sure the water doesn’t boil.  Too much heat will seize the chocolate. When the chocolate begins to melt add the warm espresso and leave to continue to melt.  Add the diced butter, (the smaller the better), and stir gently until it is all melted and combined.

Whilst this is happening beat the 5 egg whites in a very clean bowl until stiff and then fold the sugar in as gently as possible.

Remove the melted chocolate from the heat and stir in the 5 egg yolks, then slowly fold this into the egg whites, trying to be as careful as possible to retain as much air as you can.

Sieve the flour, cocoa and baking powder together into the mixture and fold in until just combined.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180° c (gas mark 4) for about 30 minutes, until it is springy to the touch.  Leave it in the tin to cool completely.  It can be served like this, dusted with cocoa powder.  It is lovely with double cream poured over it. However if you want to recreate the topping read on.

For the topping, beat the cream until it’s aerated but still soft, (adding the chocolate will thicken it up quite a bit so you don’t want it to be thick at this stage). Melt the chocolate gently over a pan of barely simmering water.  Add the chocolate to the cream and stir to combine. Spread onto the cake and if you want it to look like  a cat then use jelly tots and spaghetti to decorate.

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Baked apples

4 Comments / apples, pudding /

This is one of my favourite puddings.  We used to have it when we were kids on a regular basis as we had some lovely Bramley apple trees in the garden of the house I grew up in.  Fluffy apple, syrupy apple juices, plump raisins and lashings of cream make a very satisfying end to a meal.  I haven’t given quantities as it will depend on how many people you are feeding, you will need one apple for each person and for each apple you will need about a tablespoon of syrup, a tablespoon of dried fruit and a little bit of butter.

Bramley apples, cored and the skin split around the middle to prevent apple explosions
Raisins or sultanas or mixed dried fruit ( I used a mixture of chopped glace cherries to the apples in the photo)
Golden syrup
Butter
Splash of water

Method

Place the apples into a baking dish that is big enough to take all of the apples. Fill the centre of the apples with dried fruit.  Spoon over golden syrup (about a tablespoon for each apple) and place a small lump of butter onto each apple. Add a splash of water to the dish, this will help prevent the syrup burning.

Cook in a preheated oven at 180°c (gas mark 4, 350°c) for 20-25 minutes until the apples are fluffy.

Ready for the oven
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Roasted butternut squash soup

3 Comments / soup, squash /

The gales are blowing so it has to be time for the ultimate comfort food, a tasty bowl of soup.  This one is delicious and satisfies those hunger pangs. I roasted some unpeeled cloves of garlic with the squash and spread the lovely softened garlic onto my bread to eat alongside which made it even more delicious.

1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks
1 onion, diced
2cm root ginger, peeled and grated
½ tsp cumin seed
300 ml vegetable stock

Method
Place the cubes of butternut squash on a baking tray and sprinkle with olive oil.  Bake in a preheated oven at 200°c (gas mark 6, 400°f) for 15 – 20 minutes until softened and beginning to colour.

In the meantime, soften the onion by cooking over a gentle heat in a large saucepan with a splash of olive oil.  Add the grated ginger and the cumin seeds and cook for a further minute.  Add the roasted butternut squash and the vegetable stock.  Cook over a gentle heat for about 15 minutes until the squash is completely tender.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. Blend the soup with a hand blender or in a blender or processor until completely smooth. Reheat very gently if you need to and serve in warmed bowls with plenty of bread. You can of course add a little cream to the top.

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Red cabbage

Leave a Comment / cabbage /

red cabbage

It’s cold outside and that for me signals the time to cook red cabbage to serve with a roast.  I normally cook Delia’s version of slow cooked red cabbage but I fancied a change and this recipe is inspired by Nigella Lawson’s use of red wine in her version of Red Cabbage which can be found in her Feast book. I wanted to use sour dried cherries again to echo the sauce that I was making for the duck that we were eating this with and it worked beautifully.  My husband can normally take or leave my red cabbage (more for me!) but he commented on how much he liked this version so it may have to be the version I use in the future (less for me).

1 red cabbage, shredded finely
1 onion, peeled and chopped finely
2 eating apples (I used Egremont Russets), peeled, cored and chopped finely
200 ml red wine
1 star anise
3 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
25g dried sour cherries
1½ tbsp dark brown soft sugar

Method

Heat a little olive oil in a large saucepan over a gentle heat and cook the onions until soft. Add the cabbage and the apples and stir to combine.  Add the red wine, the spices and the cherries.  Add the sugar and stir to combine everything well.  Cook for a few minutes until the wine is bubbling and then turn the heat down as low as it will go and cook for at least two hours.

Any cabbage left over can either be reheated the next day, when it will taste even better or it can be frozen.  If frozen, defrost thoroughly then place into a pan and reheat thoroughly.

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Roast duck with sour cherry sauce

Leave a Comment / duck /

roast duck

I have had a bit of a sour cherry theme to this week, last night we had roast duck with sour cherry sauce, served with red cabbage which included, of course, dried sour cherries.  It was very tasty too.

We don’t eat much duck in this house, but when I was in the supermarket this week I nearly picked up a chicken but was drawn to the duck instead.  I always buy free range chickens and if there is an organic one available I will have that.  I noticed that you cannot get an organic, or indeed free range, duck from the supermarket that I was in, so I went for the next best – an RSPCA Freedom Food endorsed bird. Perhaps Hugh and Jamie should get on the case of all poultry farming, as the choice when you want to buy  turkey seems even more limited.  I try to buy our meat from the butcher as much as I can, but sometimes when you are already in the supermarket this is an impractical option and interestingly whilst we have two very good local butchers, both with excellent reputations for their meat, it can be difficult to get free range birds from either of them so I tend to buy our chicken at the supermarket where it is labelled as organic and free range.

Anyway, back to the meal.  I have adapted Delia Smith’s version of the recipe, which can be found in her Winter Collection, by omitting the Morello cherry jam and using instead a scant tablespoon of dark soft brown sugar to the reduced gravy.  I followed Delia’s instructions for cooking the duck, which includes taking the bird out of the wrapping as soon as you get it home and placing it in the fridge for a day without any covering so that the skin becomes really dry before cooking and then cooking it for a long time to achieve a lovely crispy skin and a duck that does not taste too fatty.

Just before cooking the duck is pricked all over with a fork, so that the fat can escape, and then placed on a grill rack in a roasting tin.  The duck came with its giblets so I placed these underneath the duck in the roasting tin to flavour the gravy.  The duck is put into a preheated oven at 220°c (425°f, gas mark 7) for 30 minutes.  The heat is then turned down to 180°c (350°f, gas mark 4) and the duck is cooked for another 2 hours. You may need to pour off some of the fat during the cooking time. Whilst the duck rests the gravy can be made.

For the gravy:
400 ml red wine
25g dried sour cherries
1 tbsp dark soft brown sugar

Method
Soak the cherries in the red wine whilst the duck is cooking so that they are nice and plump. Delia recommends fifteen minutes of soaking but I left mine for 2 hours and they were lovely.

After the duck has been removed to a plate to keep warm and rest, remove the giblets from the pan and pour the fat off, leaving the juices remaining in the pan. Place the pan on a medium heat and add the wine (with the cherries), stirring to deglaze the pan, making sure all the tasty crusty bits are incorporated into the gravy. Reduce the liquid by about a half, so that it is thick and syrupy and add the sugar to taste (you may need more, or you may need less).  Season with salt and pepper and pour over the carved bird.

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Cherry chocolate truffles

3 Comments / chocolate /

cherry chocolate truffles

I absolutely love the combination of cherry and chocolate.  There is a very good chocolate shop, The Chocolate Gourmet, in Shrewsbury and Ludlow and whenever I am in either town I can’t resist a visit.  I always get both varieties of their cherry chocolates, 3 of each, and then I squirrel them away in the crockery cupboard so that I can treat myself surreptitiously when I am on my own in the kitchen.  It is the little things in life that make us happy..

These truffles were inspired by the fact that I had a packet of sour cherries and a bottle of cherry brandy in the cupboard so I thought I would give them a go. They are very lovely, the problem now is that I have 16 truffles in the fridge that will need to be eaten in the next week.  Life is sometimes so hard.

150ml double cream
75g 70% cocoa chocolate
50g dried sour cherries
3 tbsp cherry brandy
2-3 tbsp good quality cocoa

Method

Place the cherries into a bowl and cover with the 3 tbsp of cherry brandy and leave to soak whilst you prepare the truffle mixture.

Chop the chocolate finely and place into a large shallow dish.  Heat the cream in a small saucepan until almost boiling point and then pour the cream over the chopped chocolate.  Stir very gently until the chocolate is melted and the cream and chocolate are combined.  Add the cherries and the brandy.  Stir to combine. Place the mixture into the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up.

Spread the cocoa onto a plate.  Take a teaspoonful of the mixture and shape into a sort of craggy ball with another teaspoon by passing the mixture between the two spoons.  Drop into the cocoa and turn until covered.  Place  onto a plate and repeat the process with the rest of the mixture. I ended up with 16 truffles from this amount.

Keep in the fridge and eat within a week.

They make very good presents to take to friends.

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Chocolate chip cookies

6 Comments / biscuits, chocolate /

chocolate chip cookies

Inspired by Choclette on her Chocolate Log Blog, I thought I would try to adapt the recipe I often use for chocolate chip cookies.  The original recipe has lots of sugar in and makes a very sweet biscuit.  By cutting down the amount of sugar from 175g to 125g and using 100g wholemeal flour with 50g of plain flour, instead of the original 150g plain flour, it makes a much more interesting biscuit.  It is still sweet, but not cloying and the wholemeal flour gives it a much more interesting texture.  The bonus of course is that it also makes a healthier cookie and as I get asked at least once a week if we can make a batch of cookies this is a big bonus.

Makes about 12 large cookies

125g (5oz) butter
125g (5oz) light brown soft unrefined sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g (4oz) wholemeal flour
50g (2oz) plain white flour
½ tsp baking powder
100g 70% cocoa chocolate, chopped into chunks

Method

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a gentle heat.  Put the sugar into a bowl and pour the butter over and mix well. Add the egg and the vanilla extract and mix well.  Fold in the flours and the baking powder.  Add the chocolate and mix until combined.  Place spoonfuls of the mixture onto baking sheets lined with baking parchment.  Place in the preheated oven at 180°c (350°f, gas mark 4) for 8-10 minutes until golden.  Leave on the tray for five minutes and then place onto a rack to cool.

These are very nice when they are still warm and the chocolate is still melted, but they are also very nice the next day.

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Chorizo, chickpea and kale

2 Comments / chickpea, chorizo, soup, stew, tomato /

chorizo chickpea and kale stew

I was inspired to make this because I was watching the Good Food channel (of which I watch far too much I admit!) and Rachel Allen made a version in her Favourite Foods programme which was followed shortly after by Market Kitchen and the chef in the market made a very similar version.  I took it as a sign!

I served it with a roast chicken last night and it was good, although it might have been better if I had reduced the tomato sauce a bit more so it was less of a soup and more of a sauce.  You can cook it to the consistency that you think you may prefer by just simmering it for longer if you want it more sauce-y than soupy.

You could substitute the chickpeas for butter beans and the kale for spinach or any other Brassica you have in the house.

1 chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
A good-sized chunk of chorizo, cubed (I used about 100g)
1 410g tin of chickpeas in water (no salt added) drained of most of the liquid
1 400g tin of tomatoes
kale ( I used about 100g), shredded
feta cheese to crumble over the top

Method

Heat a little olive oil over a medium heat and fry the chorizo until it begins to leach its golden fat, add the chilli and garlic and fry for another couple of minutes.  Add the tomatoes, breaking them up with a wooden spoon, add the chickpeas and a little bit of the water from the tin. Simmer gently for about 20 minutes or longer if you would prefer a thicker consistency.  Add the kale and  cook for another five minutes until the kale is tender. Scatter cubes of feta over the top and serve with lots of crusty bread to mop up the juices.

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