Claudia's Lemon Posset

People say that the harder you work the greater the rewards, I beg to differ, Lemon Posset could be made by a dead person it’s that easy. Having said that my little sister did go a little overboard with her first attempt and added the juice of 6 lemons as opposed to 3, rendering the pudding terrifyingly wince inducing. This, her second attempt, was absolutely delicious.

It is delicious with shortbread which is very easy to make, I’ll do that another time, I was in a rush so I scooped it out of the ramakin and dumped a few strawberries on it. Boom.

Ingredients: (Serves whoever gets there first)

800ml double cream

175g caster sugar

Juice of 3 lemons


Strawberries

Method:

1. Pour the sugar and cream into a saucepan and bring to the boil, simmer for a minute or so and take off the heat before stirring in the lemon juice. Pour into ramekins and leave to cool to room temperature, slide them into the fridge to set for at least 3 hours or overnight. It’ll keep for a couple of days so you can make it for yourself and have it for pudding after at least five of the most important meals of the day.

Roasted Duck Red Thai Curry (Gaeng Phed Ped Yang)

In the summer of 2006 during the first of several periods of extended vagrancy, I found myself (as most of us travlaars do), sitting on a beach in the Gulf of Thailand staring out at a ludicrously beautiful seascape, which wasn’t at all tainted by the hoards of bucket wielding, same same but different sporting, “oh my god! It’s such a small world”ing gappers, intent on getting utterly mind-fucked.

You may detect an air of sarcasm, but you’d be wrong, I was one of them.

It didn’t matter whether the moon was full, as long as my bucket was, and if it wasn’t you can bet it was affixed to my belt as a triumphant accessory, next to the glow stick/s, by my man-bag.

(Incidentally it’s not a small world you morons! If we bumped into each other in Magadan maybe that turn of phrase would apply, or Reykjavik perhaps, but not Thailand. It’s like Uni, but with Magic Mushrooms and Ladyboys).

Me and my partner in crime and best friend Ed, who still retains the mantle to this day in fact, needed to line our stomachs with food before drinking Thailand’s taurine filled answer to Red Bull (which actually has bits of bovine bollock floating in it), and although Ed romanticised about experimenting with the weird and wonderful flavours of South East Asia, the furthest he ever got was a chicken schnitzel. I on the other hand dived straight in and tried all I could get my hands on, the real favourite for me were the curries, and in particular the Thai Red Curry.

It came to pass that a year later I found myself back in Thailand, a little bit older and just as stupid, still armed with my glow sticks and man-bag, but with a newly developed affinity for cooking.

I arrived in Chiang Mai in the North West of the country and set about searching for a cooking school that would teach me how to create my beloved curry – ‘The Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School’ came highly recommended so I signed up for 5 days of lessons in all things Thai. On the final day we were bussed out to the house of the school’s owner, TV celebrity chef Sompon Nabnian, where he showed us his step by step recipe for the best Roasted Duck Red Curry in the world.

I have added and subtracted a few things here and there, some I couldn’t get like the fresh kaffir lime, and others I don’t like such as the green peppercorns. The taste however is sweet, rich, spicy and divine.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

If you want to make the paste from scratch then do so, you can store the surplus for a good few weeks in the fridge.

Paste:

10 Large red chillies, deseeded, finely chopped

10 Red bird eye chillies

1 tspn coriander seeds, dry roasted for a few minutes

2 cardamom pods, dry roasted for a few minutes

½ tspn salt

½ tspb black peppercorns

2cm fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped

1 tspn fresh coriander root, chopped

3 cm of lemongrass, the lower end of the root

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

3 shallots, finely chopped

1 tspn shrimp paste

Curry:

3 duck breasts

100g red curry paste

350ml coconut milk

200ml coconut cream

4 kaffir lime leaves

1 small dark aubergine, cut into thin wedges

8 cherry tomatoes

8 white grapes
2 sticks of lemon grass, topped and tailed and cut into 3cm lengths

Small handful of sweet basil leaves

1 wheel of fresh pineapple, cut into small segments

2 large red chillies, thinly sliced into wheels

1 tablespoon fish sauce (Nam Pla)

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

1 tspn palm sugar

1 tspn white sugar

Rice for serving, this is necessary as the curry is extremely rich and really needs the cool blandness of the grain to soak up the flavours of the sauce.

Method:

Paste:

1. You can make the mix by pounding everything in a pestle and mortar - start with the coriander seeds, cardamom pods and black peppercorns, then add the rest of the ingredients and grind into a smooth paste. Alternatively you can put everything in a blender and whizz it that way, you may have to add a little water to the mix.

There are plenty of great curry pastes in the supermarket if you don’t have the time to make your own, Waitrose has a particularly good ‘Foods of the World’ section where you can find almost all of the ingredients you’ll need.

Curry:

1. Slice a few slits across the skin of the duck breasts and season them, fry them skin side down in a pan with a little oil for a few minutes so they get a little crispy, put them on a baking tray in the oven at 200°C for 15 minutes. When the time is up take the duck out and cut it into thin slices, it may be pink in the middle but this is alright as it can be eaten rare and will continue to cook in the curry later on. Set aside.

2. In a measuring jug pour 100ml of coconut milk and 150ml of coconut cream, mix together thoroughly. Pour it into a wok and simmer for 5 minutes whilst constantly stirring, the coconut oil will begin to separate out on top, this isn’t massively noticeable but it does enhance the flavour a lot. I can’t explain why, it just does.

3. Add the curry paste and stir it through, simmer for a further 2 minutes and add the remaining 250ml of coconut milk and mix it in. When it bubbles roughly tear up the kaffir lime leaves and chuck them in along with the aubergine, pineapple and cherry tomatoes, cook for 3 minutes. Now add the grapes, half of the sweet basil leaves, half of the chopped chilli wheels, the chopper lemon grass, the palm sugar, white sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce and the sliced duck. Mix it up and cook for another 4 minutes.

4. Plate up with some rice, garnish with the remaining basil leaves, chilli wheels and a drizzle of the leftover coconut cream. There are so many flavours in this curry but they all love each other, it’s a very happy dish.

Insalata Caprese

I was sat in my girlfriends kitchen flipping through the Daily Mail, the back up paper I hasten to add, and sure enough on page two there was a picture accompanying the important news that four baby red squirrels had been rescued after being blown from a tree in high winds. One of the youngens was snapped giving its sibling a peck on the cheek, precious, I thought.

There was something about global economic meltdown in a column on page 40, but sod that, the squirrels are safe!

A knock fell on the door and in came two of the neighbours, a delightful Polish couple called Alex and Ursula who had just returned from a trip to their motherland, bearing a bag of tomatoes so bulbous and ripe that they looked positively cryogenic.

“These are from my brother’s garden” Alex exclaimed, “and they are the best tasting tomatoes you will ever have”.

A serious claim, and obviously one that had to be tested and tasted. (It turns out he was right).

If yesterday’s steak has cured your haemophilia then this salad will surely purge your soul.

Ingredients: (Serves whoever gets there first)

2 large, red, delicious Polish tomatoes from Alex’s brother’s garden, roughly chopped

1 red onion, chopped into half moons

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Handful of fresh basil, chopped

1 ball of fresh buffalo mozzarella, torn into smallish chunks

Balsamic Vinegar

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Pepper

Method:

1. Mix together the tomatoes, onion and mozzarella in a serving plate. Grind a couple of turns of black pepper over the mix, sprinkle the basil over, slug around two thirds extra virgin olive oil to one third balsamic vinegar. Use quite a lot so you end up with a good centimetre or two of juice at the bottom when you’ve eaten the salad, enable this with some crusty baguette.

2. Eat it. This salad takes about two minutes to make and is one of the more deliciously fresh things on earth, more so than Vanilla Ice in his heyday.

Rump Steak with a Twin Cheese White Wine Mushroom Sauce

“Did you ever see the customers in health-food stores? They are pale, skinny people who look half dead. In a steak house, you see robust, ruddy people. They’re dying, of course, but they look terrific.”

The wise words of Mr Bill Cosby (still touring) and the 8oz rump sat in my cooler were invitation enough to go rich or go home, no half way point, no celebration of culinary mediocrity, the whole hog, or cow for that matter. I think that’s the great thing about eating a steak; there’s something intrinsically masculine, nay (moo) empowering about using a specially provided knife to cut into a great slab of meat, and watching the blood, that only days earlier was coursing through a methane machine somewhere in the home counties, ooze out and meander across your plate. “I am a man!” I think to myself, “And I shall eat this beast.”

Not only does red meat massively increase your libido, pulling power and general masculinity, it is also a source of zinc that is important for your immune system, iron, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and selenium, all of which produce a squeaky pop, and it has been shown that a diet based on lean red meat can aid in weight loss. So for those of you Mr Cosby is talking about, why not try, at least once a week (or perhaps on a rare occasion), to tuck into a sumptuous sirloin, a tender T-bone, a revelatory rib eye or even the phenomenal filet mignon. In terms of health, the steaks really aren’t that high.

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

2 x 8oz rump steaks

1 small glass dry white wine

8 shallots, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

150g cup mushroom, destalked, finely sliced

Handful fresh parsley, finely chopped

Sprig of thyme

150ml double cream

50g Swiss Gruyere cheese, finely grated

50g Saint Agur blue cheese, broken into bits

Butter

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Method:

1. In a thick bottomed pan/skillet heat a splash of olive oil with a tspn of butter over a medium to high heat until it begins to sizzle, add the shallots and garlic and fry for a minute, then add the mushrooms and toss to coat. Pour in the wine and burn off the alcohol, the liquid should reduce by over half as the flavour is absorbed by the shallots and mushrooms, this will take a few minutes.

2. Pour in the cream and stir it through, then add the sprig of thyme and simmer for a few minutes taking care to continue stirring. The aroma from the herb will waft rather deliciously up at you. Add the cheeses and melt into the mix, the flavours will be getting pretty orgasmic by now. Mix the chopped parsley in and remove from the heat.

3. Whilst you are making the sauce prepare you beef, season both sides thoroughly with salt and pepper, depending on how you like your meat cooked you will have to make allowances for timing. I like mine rare so a minute on each side, you may want more. In a griddle pan heat a couple of slugs of olive oil over a high heat, put the steaks in and add a small knob of butter around them (doing this when they are already in stops the butter from burning), fry them to how you like them. If they spring back at you when you touch them then the meat is getting to well done, if they are still relatively soft then towards rare.

4. Plate up the steaks and cover with the sauce. Garnish with a wee sprig of un-chopped parsley and prepare to grow chest hair (careful ladies). 

Kashmiri Baingan Tikka

 I had a couple of aubergines to use up today and went in search of a recipe, first I had a quick look on the web, I found a website entirely dedicated to the ‘Solanum Melongena’ (Wikipedia) named http://www.aubergines.org/ that has “3116 recipes and counting”. Many of the recipes are questionable, some are quite good, and others are frankly disgusting, although before long I was side tract reading the heated comment wars going on about the MSG content in the ‘Aubergine in Garlic Sauce’ recipe, and in particular the sweeping and ill educated opinions of a pillock named JJ from Hoboken. Inspiration would have to be found elsewhere.

I recalled then looking through the instruction manual of a 1980s blender whilst staying with my adopted Indian mother a few months ago, there were a selection of poorly edited recipes at the back of the book which I copied down into my notepad with the hope of recreating them on my return home. One of them included the Ouef Plant as its focal point, and although I have had to change a few of the ingredients through necessity, the basic format remains integral. (I added the tamarind which may well make it less Kasmiri and more Punjabi).

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

2 large black aubergines

1 large white onion, finely chopped

1 cup green peas, fresh or frozen

1 carrot, chopped

1 bird eye chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

2 potatoes

2 medium tomatoes

Handful coriander leaves, finely chopped

Handful mint leaves, chopped

4 cloves garlic

2cm ginger, chopped

100g tamarind soaked in 100ml of warm water

Juice of 1 lime

½ tspn cumin powder

½ tspn coriander powder

½ tspn turmeric powder

1 tspn garam masala

Oil/ghee for frying

Salt and pepper

8 spring onions, finely shredded

Vegetable oil for deep-frying

Yoghurt for garnishing

1 dry red chilli

Method:

1. Soak the tamarind in enough warm water to cover for 1 hour, squeeze out juices and strain into another bowl through a sieve.

2. While the tamarind is soaking peel and the boil the potatoes, drain and mash them with a little butter.

3. Put the ginger, garlic, coriander leaves, mint leaves, tamarind juice, lime juice and salt in a blender and whizz into a paste, set aside.

4. Cut the aubergines in half lengthways and brush with olive oil before grilling them in the oven until they are soft, around 20 minutes should do it. Scoop out the flesh with a spoon and add it to the potato, mash it together and save the aubergine skins, keeping them warm.

5. Cut the hard stem section from the tomatoes, cover them with water and boil for 5 minutes over a high heat, remove, strain, and run under cold water before removing their skins.

6. In a pan heat a little oil and add the onions and carrots, fry until browning and add the paste, after a few minutes the oil will separate, add the potato and aubergine pulp and the tomatoes and stir through thoroughly, making sure the tomatoes break up in the mix. Add the peas and stir.

Then sprinkle over the cumin, turmeric, coriander and garam masala powders and mix them in. Cook for a few more minutes, set aside and keep warm.

7. In a small pan pour in a couple of inches of vegetable oil and bring it up to extra hot, drop the shredded spring onion in and deep-fry for a few minutes, drain on kitchen towl.

8. Put the aubergine shell on a plate and add a healthy spoon load of the mix, garnish with a small dollop of yoghurt, a red chilli and a sprinkling of the fried spring onion. Vegetarian stodge.

Pear, Broccoli, Celery and Stilton Crumble

The fruit trees in the garden are seriously heavy at the moment, laden with cooking apples and berries and crab apples and pears, the latter of which we have in such abundance I’m sure we could ferment a considerable amount of our own Perry, which I will look into. But in the meantime I got to thinking, when it comes to our fruit bowls at home the humble pear takes a backseat to the more exotic orange, the phallic banana, the sour grapefruit and the frankly ostentatious pineapple.

I personally would have a ripe pear over any of the above and aforementioned, however as is often the case ‘out of sight is out of mind’, and the poor pear remains all too often and unlike its name would suggest, all alone. In fact my only run in with the fruit in recent memory was in its liquid form in the belly of a psychedelic trance festival 100km south of Lake Ballaton in Hungary, it was magic.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

1 head of celery, chopped into 3cm lengths

3 pears, cored and chopped into wedges

200g sprouting broccoli, the long stemmed stuff

150g stilton cheese, crumbled

300ml single cream

100g wholemeal breadcrumbs

Salt and Pepper

Olive oil

Method:

1. Boil the celery and broccoli for 3 minutes in two separate saucepans, drain all the water off them.

2. In a reasonably shallow pie dish lay out the pear wedges and season lightly with the salt and pepper, randomly position the celery and broccoli over the top and sprinkle the over the stilton. Pour over the cream evenly and then add the bread crumbs, finish with a small drizzle of oil on the crumbs and place in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes until the tops browns.

3. Plate up and season if needs be. It is possible to thicken the sauce by using double cream, mine was a vague attempt at lowering the calories.   

Tandoori Chicken Mini Pittas

I got into a discussion with an obliging Indian lady whilst exploring the dusty yet charming mountain city of Leh, the capital of the Ladakh region in the North East of the country, about the reason for the vivid red colour of tandoori chicken masala. As it turns out it is the addition of red food colouring and not any of the ten or more ingredients that compose the marinade, therefore making it entirely possible to turn your chicken green and justify your kebab on Saint Paddy’s day for instance, or perhaps even multi coloured on United Nations day, the 24^th of October, my birthday.

As for the mini pittas, it’s always more fun eating food in miniature.

 It is possible to buy the masala powder ready made in most shops, especially useful if you are in a rush, I am not however, and once you make the powder you can store it like most other spices for at least 6 months in a cool dry place ready for your next spicy outing. Also I have found the shop bought stuff tastes near enough makes no difference like mild curry powder, it’s worth taking a little time to reap the flavours.

I like a lot of spice so you may need to adjust your version accordingly.

The chicken needs to be marinated for at least 6 hours, preferably over night.

Ingredients: (Makes 9 mini pittas)

3 chicken breasts, cut into strips

9 mini pittas

1 red pepper, sliced thinly

½ red onion, sliced into thin half moons

1 little gem lettuce, shredded

6 cloves of garlic

2 shallots, roughly chopped

2 green chillies, bird eye, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons yoghurt

4 tspns vegetable oil

Sweet chilli sauce

Salt

For the Mayo:

300ml mayonnaise

Zest of half a lime

Juice of half a lime

1cm of freshly grated ginger

1 clove garlic, crushed

For the Masala:

6 cloves

4 black cardomam pods

8 large red chillies

Method:

1. Brush the red chillies with oil and roast in the oven until dark and crispy.

2. Crush the black cardomams and dry roast along with the cloves in a frying pan for 10 minutes. When done grind down in a pestle and mortar with the roasted red chillies into a fine dry masala powder, set aside.

3. Blend the shallots, garlic and green chillies into a fine paste (wet masala).

4. In a bowl marinate the chicken in the oil, dry masala, wet masala and yoghurt, toss to coat and leave in the fridge for at least 6 hours (use food colouring here to change to whatever shade of the rainbow you feel like).

5. For the mayonnaise mix the lime zest, lime juice, garlic and ginger together in a bowl with the mayo and set aside ready for use.

6. In a griddle pan or on the BBQ if weather permits, grill the chicken until brown and charred and get ready to load up.

7. On a baking tray heat the pittas so they puff up but don’t crisp, about 3 minutes, take them out and cut them down the middle. Line the pitta with the mayo, a piece of chicken, the lettuce, peppers and onions, a dollop more mayo and a drizzle of sweet chilli sauce. Tasty and fast provided the pre-prep is done. 

Pan Fried Trout on Butter Smashed New Potatoes,with Peppered Rocket and a Chilli, Corn, Mung Bean and Chickpea Puree

My youngest sister, creator of the vanilla panna cotta and mastermind behind the nicoise, arrived back from a day on the river Test in Hampshire armed with a beautiful three pound brown trout. After taking care of the slippery task of gutting, which peculiarly she wanted to and enjoys doing (taking photos on her blackberry and seemingly uploading them to a group who also share her fetish), she entrusted it to me to make a dish worthy of the fifteen minutes she spent playing it down the banks of the river in the direction of my father, asleep, and in possession of the Priest needed to administer the last rights. A pescatarian I imagine.

Mum came in with some new potatoes fresh from the ground and I visited the herb garden, what came together is simple, delicious and fresh.

Note: Having stared at the picture for some time the colour appears very flat, maybe add some roasted vine tomatoes to lift the plate.

Ingredients: (Serves 5)

1 can mung beans, 400g

1 can sweetcorn, 400g

2 cans chickpeas, 400g each

2 medium red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

Small bunch coriander, finely chopped

3 tablespoons Crème fraiche

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt

Pepper

1 brown trout, 3 pounds, filleted and cut into 5 portions

1 large clove garlic, crushed

Small bunch of parsley, finely chopped

Extra virgin olive oil

25 medium new potatoes (5 each)

Handful of fresh chives, finely chopped

Healthy knob of butter

Bag of peppered rocket

Small handful of freshly grated parmesan

Method:

1. Put the fish in a bowl with a few slugs of extra virgin olive oil, the garlic, a sprinkling of parsley and a little lemon zest, coat and leave on the side.

2. Empty the corn, mung beans, and 1 can of chickpeas into a colander, rinse them off add to a saucepan with enough boiling water to cover with an inch to spare. Boil for 5 minutes, strain and add to a blender with the crème fraiche and pulverise for a minute or two. Put a sieve over a bowl and add a third of the mixture to it, push it through with a wooden spoon so that a smooth puree collects in the bowl, repeat this with the remaining mixture making sure to squeeze as much of the juice out as possible. It can be rather tiresome if the blended mix is too thick, if this is so you can add a little more crème fraiche. You can discard the lumpy excess or keep it for later as a humousy substitute on toast or pitta.

3. Strain the second can of chickpeas and boil them for a few minutes, drain in the colander and add to the bowl of puree, along with the chopped coriander, chilli, half the lemon zest, the lemon juice and a few turns of salt and pepper. Stir through thoroughly and add seasoning to taste, set aside and keep warm.

4. Boil the new potatoes until soft, strain and put in a bowl with the chives, butter, a little seasoning and a dash of extra virgin olive oil. As you mix them around the will break up and coat. Keep warm.

5. In a not stick pan add a dash of oil and fry the fish, skin side down over a high heat for around 4 minutes, when it is 80% done flip it over and fry the top for 1 minute.

6. While the fish is cooking toss the rocket in a little oil and add the remaining zest, a little parsley and the parmesan. Plate up and drizzle a little chilli oil over the top. Delightful.

Naga Viper Chilli

I bought this in Brick Lane on my curry mission last weekend, it was on the counter in an Indian supermarket with a big warning sign behind it. The single chilli I purchased was about an inch long and cost me 60p.


Yesterday I was reading the Sunday paper and came across an article by Tom Parker Bowles about how England is up there with the world's greatest cultivators of the fiery vegetable, it reminded me of the Naga Viper wrapped up in a brown paper bag in my fridge. 

Here are some numbers: Tabasco = 4,000 on the Scoville Heat Scale, the Naga Viper.....
1.2 million! 


I cut it open and with the tip of my tongue grazed it for a fraction of a second.


Fuck me.
That's all.

Caramelised Beetroot and Onion Chutney

I came downstairs yesterday to find the kitchen work surface covered in fresh muddy beetroots pulled straight from the ground only seconds before. In the spirit of freshness I set about devising a recipe for some tasty beetroot chutney. I have to say they have never really been top of my list when it comes to prioritising my favourite root vegetables, parsnips are right up there, and until recently my only experience of the purple stain monger was in my mother’s radioactive coloured ‘Créme Fraiche and diced Beetroot’.

Whilst chopping in the Petersham kitchen I was priveed to the joys of roasted red beets in balsamic glaze, and golden beets tossed in oil, lemon juice and tipico cheese (not entirely dissimilar to parmesan).

This new found affability in a previously untrusted vegetable accompanied with the sheer quantity I had before me could only have meant one thing; chutney.  

Ingredients:

1.5kg red beetroots

2 large cooking onions, diced

1 large red onion, diced

1 sweet romano pepper, roasted to brown, chopped

3 large red chillies, finely chopped, seeds left in

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 large cloves garlic, mashed

500ml red wine vinegar

250ml balsamic vinegar

500g light brown muscovado sugar

2 tspns ground cinnamon

2 bay leaves

Method:

1. In a large pan blanch the beetroots in boiling, salted water for 20 minutes. Drain in a colander and run under cool water and pull the skins off with your hands. Wear plastic gloves if you don’t want to stain your fingers. When all the beets are done dice them into small cubes.

2. In the same pan heat the oil over a medium heat and add the onions, coat in the oil and soften but don’t brown. Add the beetroot, garlic, chilli, romano pepper, bay leaves and cinnamon, mix thoroughly whilst adding the balsamic and red wine vinegars. Finally add the sugar and mix through so it dissolves.

3. Simmer over a medium to low heat until the chutney reduces to a thick consistency, stirring occasionally. When all the liquid is absorbed and you can spoon the chutney to one side without it slopping back, it is done. This took me between 4 and 5 hours.

4. Leave to cool completely before transferring to a handful of empty jam jars, leave in the cupboard to settle for at least a week before eating. It goes deliciously with extra mature crumbly cheddar and water biscuits. 

Julia Child's Bouef Bourguignon

Last night I received a rather jovial message on ‘The Book’ from an ardent admirer of both me and my blog (you know who you are), the content of which poked fun at the correlation between me and my blogging and the character of Amy Adams in the recent Julie and Julia film.

As with all comments, no matter how misdirected, I took this to heart immediately and have subsequently spent an epic 5 hours in the kitchen cooking, almost word for word, the recipe for Julia Child’s Bouef Bourguignon. As for the mischievous pixie whose request led to me pouring my blood, sweat, and half a bottle of Beaujolais into a casserole, this time you get off Scott free, next time you won’t be so lucky and you may find some auburn bread men dedicated to you.

I have converted the measurements from US into UK and 20^th to 21^st century, this should make it easier when preparing, rather than drenching your keyboard into grease like I’m doing this very second finding online measurement converters.

Ingredients: (Serves 6 ) – 5 hours prep and cook

1 pack of finest unsmoked bacon, cut into 1cm squares

Olive Oil

1.3kg lean stewing beef, cut into 2 inch cubes

1 carrot, sliced into circles

1 white onion, sliced

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoons plain flour

400ml red wine, young and full-bodied (like Beaujolais, Cotes du Rhone, Burgundy or Mon Petit Amis)

800ml beef stock

1 tablespoon tomato purée

2 cloves garlic, mashed

½ tspn thyme

1 crumbled bay leaf

20 small round shallots, skin taken off

60g butter

Herb bouquet - 4 parsley sprigs, one-half bay leaf, one-quarter tspn thyme, tied in cheesecloth

(For the above I just used a Bouquet Garni from Waitrose)

450g chestnut mushrooms, quartered

Method:

Preheat the oven to 230°C

1. Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a flame proof casserole and add the bacon bits, fry until brown and transfer onto kitchen towel to drain off the oil.

2. Pat the beef dry with paper towel and brown in the same casserole in batches, transferring to the plate with the bacon when done.

3. In the same fat, brown the sliced onion and carrot, pour out the excess fat, and return the beef to the casserole and toss with ½ tspn of salt and ¼ tspn of black pepper. Sprinkle the flour on top and toss again to lightly coat the beef before placing it, uncovered, in the middle of the preheated oven for 4 minutes. Toss the meat again and return to the oven for another 4 minutes – this browns the flour and covers the meat with a light crust.

4. Remove the casserole and turn the oven down to 160°C, stir in the red wine and around 500ml of stock, enough to just about cover the meat. Add the tomato purée, mashed garlic, thyme and bay leaf (I chucked in a bouquet garni here for good measure) and bring to a simmer on top of the cooker. Cover the casserole and return to the oven for 3 – 4 hours, stirring a couple of times between, the beef should become incredibly soft and tender.

5. Whilst the meat is cooking heat a tablespoon of butter with the same amount of olive oil in a thick bottomed frying pan, add the small whole shallots and sauté over a moderate heat for around 10 minutes, roll them around to get them smothered in the butter. Add 150ml of stock, salt and pepper and a bouquet garni, cover and simmer for 45 minutes until the onions are tender and the liquid has evaporated. Remove the bouquet garni and drain the shallots on kitchen paper.

6. Wipe the pan and add the same amount of butter and oil over a high heat, when sizzling add the mushrooms and toss them around for 5 minutes till they are cooked and browned.

7. When the meat is done Julia recommends that you - “Pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan. Wash out the casserole and return the beef and bacon to it. Distribute the cooked shallots and mushrooms on top. Skim fat off sauce in saucepan. Simmer sauce for a minute or two, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 ½ cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. If too thin, boil down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few teaspoons of stock. Pour over the meat and vegetables and baste the beef several times”.

I simply added the shallots and mushrooms to the original casserole, mixed them in, and served with some parsley to garnish. It tasted absolutely delicious. I didn’t bother but some boiled new potatoes tossed in butter and chives would have gone perfectly with it.

HEMSTOCK CHARITY MUSIC FESTIVAL ***17th September 2011***

http://hemstockfestival.co.uk/

This is going to be a large weekend, music from all genres and a great family atmosphere to boot. Whilst you're down in Dorset you could always buy some crab, I'm going to as soon as I've finished stomping in the Techno Tent.

////JURASSIC RECORDS DJS//// 

***AyKay***Audley***After8***

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Vanilla Panna Cotta with Raspberry Coulis

This is the best pudding in the world hands down, as wonderful as it is fattening and the sweetness of the raspberries in the coulis just tops it off. My sister made this today and after several attempts at squeezing it from the ramekin unscathed, we managed to get it on the plate to take a seriously quick picture before swallowing it whole.

To quote my father – “Claudia, this is hyper-seductive devils work, it’s a murder weapon. Don’t make it too often!”

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

600ml double cream

50g caster sugar

½ vanilla pod

2 tspns of Gelatine

3 tablespoons of milk

Coulis:

2 cups raspberries

½ cup sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method:

1. Put the cream into a heavy based pan with the vanilla pod and caster sugar, bring to the boil taking care that it doesn’t bubble over and remove from the heat.

2. In a separate bowl stir/fold the gelatine into the milk, the bits won’t dissolve they simply need to be submerged and coated.

3. Add the gelatine/milk mixture to the cream and stir it in thoroughly before pouring into large ramekins or moulds, allow this to cool to room temperature on the side then whack them in the fridge overnight.

4. For the coulis put the raspberries in a pan with ½ cup of sugar and bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and reduce for 15 minutes until deliciously rich. Pass through a sieve making sure to squeeze all the liquid through with a straw, add the lemon juice and mix it in before leaving it to cool.

Serve the panna cotta with a sprig of mint to garnish and a smear or drop of coulis.

Salad Nicoise

Sometimes a salad doesn’t sound like enough when a main course may be more than you’re after, you want a bit of flesh, some substance for the leaves to wrap around and more than just a drizzle to add the flavour. The French are master salad makers and do some quite spectacular things with duck gizzards and foie gras that the unethical amongst us can enjoy guilt free, however the most basic and quintessential of the leaf based dishes beyond the ‘salad vert’, is the deliciously fresh Niçoise. This recipe was put together by my baby sister (19, but the youngest) and I added a dash of flavouring and helped with the plating up.

Having paid some attention to ‘The Great Fish Fight’ and several other programs regarding the alarming dissipation of our oceans’ populations, I urge you to enquire as to whether your tuna steaks were sustainably caught before you purchase them. Pole and Line fishing are the two best ways to do so.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

2 tuna steaks

100g mixed olives, stoned and halved

100g plum tomatoes, quartered

1 red onion, finely diced

2 little gem lettuces

150g French beans, boiled and sliced down the middle

3 soft boiled eggs cut into wedges

Extra virgin olive oil

Red wine vinegar

Balsamic vinegar

Small pot of anchovies from the deli

Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Season the tuna in salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil and sear briefly on both sides so it is still pink in the middle. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl mix the olives, diced onion and chopped tomatoes with a little seasoning, a dash of olive oil and the same of red wine vinegar.

3. Boil the French beans for 5 minutes until tender, strain and slice carefully down the middle.

4. Pull the individual leaves off the lettuce put in a bowl with the beans, dress in olive oil just before service.

5. Soft boil the eggs for 3 minutes and run under cold water, remove the shells and cut into 6 wedges being careful not to lose the tasty yolk.

6. Finally sear the tuna for another minute on each side so it is medium rare and chop it into rough chunks. Toss the lettuce and beans in olive oil, get a handful and dump it however which way on your plate, as though it just fell from the sky. Do the same with the onion/tomato/olive mix, then the tuna chunks, a few anchovies, the egg wedges, drizzle of olive oil and the same of balsamic vinegar and you’re ready to serve. It is massively important to wait till the last minute to dress your salad as the leaves become heavy and the plate will look flat.

Tempura Prawns (Nestling behind the Nicoise)

I love the lightness of Tempura batter, even though you are deep frying it you don’t feel like you’re eating something filled with calories, if you worry about that kind of thing that is, I personally am not too pressed. Eat more, run a bit further, eat less, stay lazy. I can’t bear the thought of substituting my original 79% ‘pure fat’ mayonnaise for anything skinnier for instance, and the idea of putting skimmed milk with anything whatsoever angers me, almost as much as people who claim that ‘Diet Coke’ tastes better than regular. It doesn’t, you are wrong. If you want to go healthy - drink water.

The dip for your prawns is just as important as the tempura itself, in terms of flavour probably more so. As I walked past the small Japanese section in Tesco a while back I had this in mind and did a shelf sweep of all the liquids I could see, brought them home, and stuck them in the pantry ready for such an occasion.

Ingredients: (Serves 4 as a starter)

2 handfuls of king prawns, shelled with tails still attached

Tempura Batter:

80g plain flour

80g corn flour

1 large egg, beaten

190ml ice cold soda water

1 litre of vegetable oil for deep frying

Dip:

1 tspn toasted sesame oil

2 tspns mirin

2 tspns rice vinegar

2 tspns oyster sauce

5 tspns light soy sauce

2 tspns dark soy sauce

1 tspn chilli flakes

2 tspns sweet chilli sauce

Method:

1. Cut the prawns down the spine so they fan out, when you come to cook this will increase the surface area and bulk out the prawn for that tasty dip. Ooh.

2. Sift the plain flour and corn flour together through a sieve into a bowl, make a well and pour in the egg and soda water stirring with a whisk. The mixture should be thinner than the regular beer batter due to the lightness of the corn flour and carbonated soda water.

3. Heat the vegetable oil in a thick bottomed pan until it sizzles when you drop a few bread crumbs in, dunk the prawns in the batter and carefully drop them into the oil, fry for around 3 minutes until lightly golden before removing them and draining them on kitchen towel. Fry them in batches as if you chuck too many in they tend to group together and stick.

4. For the dip simply mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and serve on the side. Tasty Morsels.