Spiced Beef

With all this cold weather about, its time for a warming comforting dish, basically thrown together from ingredients that we found left over from other dishes or just in the cupboard anyway. The beef dish we've made here has good depth of flavour, is smooth and light yet really packs a punch with the warm spices used. Absolutely suited to winter weather!!

500G Diced beef
2 Spring Onions
2cm piece ginger
3 Garlic cloves
Half a dried scotch bonnet chilli
Half a dried chilli
5 Potatoes
1 Butternut squash
1 Tin coconut milk
1 Tin Butter beans-drained
500ml Chicken Stock
Sprig Thyme
Salt and pepper


This one is very straightforward to prepare.

Heat some oil in a pan, add the beef, season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile chop the ginger and chilli, slice the garlic and add to the pan with the thyme.
When the meat is sealed, cover with 500ml stock and cover with a lid. Allow to simmer for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile peel the squash and potatoes and dice these evenly. Add to the pot and simmer for a further 20 minutes. Now add the coconut milk and butter beans, simmer until the beef and potatoes are cooked to perfection. Sprinkle in the chopped spring onion and serve.

Great served with sour dough bread to mop up the juice. Should any be left over then next day it makes a great soup like light lunch, ideal following a walk on a frosty morning.

Cabinet pudding

A real blast from the past, but one that really should never have fallen from its place at the dinner table. Delicious hot, warm or cold, with ice cream, sauce anglaise, creme fraiche or simply cream, full of fruit and vanilla flavours the Cabinet pudding really ticks many boxes. Cabinet pudding really should acquire the status that its cousin the bread and butter pudding has achieved in recent years. If made with dried fruits its a Cabinet pudding, if made with Glace fruits its called a Diplomat!! Ideal at any time of year, and basically uses only stock cupboard essentials.

Ingredients

Old sponge, diced (fresh sponge works too)
500ml milk
3 egg yolks
60g Caster sugar
half of a vanilla pod
30g currants and sultanas
25g Butter
Nutmeg to taste

1. Line a casserole type dish with some of the butter and a little of the caster sugar.
2. Dice the sponge and then add some of it to the dish, then some of the dried fruits and so on until full.
3. Scrape the vanilla pod to remove the small seeds.
4. Pour the milk into a pan with the remaining caster sugar, add the vanilla seeds. Heat to warm through, but do not boil.
5. Beat the egg yolks, then slowly add the warmed milk and vanilla. Stir then strain into a pouring jug/bowl.
6. Pour the egg and milk mixture over the the sponge and allow to soak well.
7. Dot the top with the remaining butter and grate over fresh nutmeg to taste.
7. Place the dish in a roasting tin with about 2cm water in the bottom, place into oven at 175 centigrade and bake until the egg has fully set.
8. Allow to cool, unmold and enjoy.

Herb crusted Salmon

A delightful idea making for an impressively flavoured meal. Simple to prepare with everyday ingredients, can be made a little in advance then placed in the oven whilst you entertain your guests, just slice into generous portions at the table.

A side of Salmon, deboned and skinned
A bunch of herbs-fresh from the garden
100g butter
Fresh breadcrumbs made from several slices of bread
1 lemon
dried fresh chilli-to taste!
sea salt
black pepper

Butter a greaseproof sheet and place on a baking sheet.
Place the salmon on this and cover generously with sea salt and black pepper, place in fridge.
Meanwhile remove the zest from the lemon with a fine grater and squeeze the juice.
Slice and chop the chilli.
Finely chop your fresh herbs, we used parsley, sage, thyme and chive.
Put the soft fresh breadcrumbs in a bowl, add the herbs, chilli and lemon zest, season with salt and pepper and mix together with your hands. (to make breadcrumbs, simply wizz some bread in a liquidizer or food processor).
Pour over the lemon juice and turn the mixture over a couple of times, leave to soak in for a few minutes.
Remove Salmon from the fridge and sprinkle the herb and breadcrumb mix generously over the top, take care to cover the edges too.
Dot the crusted Salmon with the remaining butter.
Bake in the oven on about 170 centigrade for 20 minutes until the crust is beginning to brown and the Salmon is just cooked, ideally it will still have an almost jelly type texture, rather like smoked salmon.

Enjoy.

Garlic bread

Garlic bread

Well, having made the garlic butter it would be a shame not to make garlic bread! Be warned though, once you have made your own, you will never want to have that poor greasy and bitter tasting shop bought alternative again. Imagine the wonderful aroma as you open this up at the table for your guests to tear at with their meal.

Simply take a french stick or baguette and cut it three quarters through, every 2cm all the way along its length. In  each cut place a generous helping of garlic butter, wrap in foil and bake for 10 minutes until all the butter is melted, serve and enjoy. 

See the pictures, simple to make and a pleasure to eat.

Garlic Butter

Garlic butter

Everyones favourite, yet seldom made well today. Garlic butter can be made in advance, frozen in little cylinders ready for later use, all you need to do is to remove it from the freezer a few before you slice it and place it carefully over your fish or steak or even to flavour a sauce. It is of course a great base for making garlic bread too.

500g Butter, retain both wrappers

Good bunch chopped parsley

Garlic to taste, use your own discretion!

Sea salt,

Black pepper

Place the butter in the bowl of a mixer and turn on to beat. Leave beating whilst you prepare the remaining ingredients, the butter needs about 10 minutes to become soft and very light in colour.

Meanwhile, chop your parsley finely and place to one side.

Peel the garlic by placing a clove on your chopping board, then cover with a wide flat implement (we just use the knife blade place flat on the clove) and strike it quickly with the side of a clenched fist. The skin should split open and then peel away easily, you can also achieve this by striking down on the clove with the base of a tin can.

Place garlic in a mortar and pound into a paste along with a good pinch of salt and a generous helping of ground black pepper.

The butter is probably ready by now, so stop the machine, and fold the garlic into the butter, followed by the parsley.

Place the some butter mixture onto a butter paper and roll carefully, twist each end to form a christmas cracker shape and gently press each end to help even out the mixture.

The butter can be placed in the fridge to set, or frozen for later use, it keeps well and gives you a wonderful standby ingredient that add depth and flavour to your food.

Enjoy

Sourdough Pizza

Sourdough Pizza

Thought that we could have a change from bread, so knocked out a little sourdough pizza base, then whilst it was proving nipped out for a couple of hours on the bike. Just a case of rolling out, baking off and topping then for a quick warming and thoroughly enjoyable meal. Just great on these sunny winter days....

For the bases you will need:-
200g Sourdough starter-see earlier recipe May 2012
125ml warm water
30ml olive oil
10ml maple syrup
400g strong plain flour
10g sea salt
Quarter teaspoon garlic salt

Simply place all ingredients, except for the salt, in a mixer bowl and using a dough hook, mix thoroughly for 4 minutes or until a soft very slightly tacky dough forms.

Allow to stand for 10 minutes, then add the sea salt and thoroughly knead for 2 minutes. Cover with a cloth and allow to stand at room temperature for up to 6 hours prior to use. Knock back a couple times during this period of time.

Turn oven on to 180 centigrade. Knock dough back and knead into a ball. Divide the dough equally into 4-6 pieces (depending on your chosen base size). Roll out on a lightly floured surface to make thin bases, approx 2mm in thickness. Place base on a pizza tin, bake for about 5 minutes during which time it may ballon like a pitta. Remove from oven and cool slightly.

Spread the base with provencale sauce (see June 2012) and your favourite toppings. Place back in oven and bake until the cheese is lightly golden. Remove, cut and enjoy...

Your choice of topping is dependant upon your tastes, or in this case what we had in the fridge, some Bolognese,  homemade Mozzarella, chorizo, spinach etc.

We prefer very thin bases, and have done since we experienced wood baked pizza in Sardinia some years ago. These were very effective simple pizza, topped purely with a tomato sauce, local cheese, folded and served with a quiet beer in the village square, where we ate these as the sun slowly dipped behind the horizon to end a perfect day at the beach.....just delightful.....must return one day.....soon.

Bacon butty

Bacon butty

                                                       A simple treat, an old time favourite.

A perfect winters day out was followed up with a simple bacon butty, but this is no ordinary bacon. Available only from Huddlestons in Windermere, by mail order if needed, is the outstanding Treacle cured back bacon and the equally impressive oak smoked variant too. The Oak smoke is delicately present throughout the whole slice, complimented by the crisp bubbly rind, giving a warm and full flavour with that wonderful crunch, whilst the Treacle cured has a deep sweetness accentuated by the deep aromatic treacle and dark colour that this imparts to the meat, absolutely stunning.
This was simply grilled until crisp then set upon a thick slice of buttered warm sourdough, no sauce needed, just let the bacon do the talking! Definitely be back for more soon.
If Windermere is too far to travel then check out www.cumberlandsausage.co.uk

Enjoy.

How To Chop Parsley

Hello it's Lad here, sorry we have not posted in a while but as from our last post Dad went to Paris and as it is now the school holiday I have been biking and stuff like that.
Anyway back to the food. We have got another video tutorial on How to chop Parsley. As the video tells you, you first pick the stems off, the secondly you screw it all up into a golf ball size piece and chop through it, you then rotate it 90 degrees and do the same, next you chop through it with "The Guillotine" motion. After you have chopped the Parsley you can use it on loads of things like garlic bread, on top of soup, sprinkle into sauces for colour or simply sprinkle over finished items for decoration.

A visit to Paris

Smoked Duck, Confit and Foie Gras

Just returned from a visit to Paris, and well, whilst in France its great to sample some classic dishes and then be able to bring some home too. Some years ago we were fortunate enough to stay in the South West of France in a small town called Aiguillon, where many of the local farms produced Foie Gras. So a great pleasure to find these familiar offerings in Paris too, of course theres more to food in Paris than i had time to enjoy, but what i sampled was superb. From crepes in Versailles through the range of local breads, croissant and pastries to the homemade noisette ice cream in Montmartre it was a pleasure throughout. Then theres the markets laden with delicacies, honey, macaroons, cheeses and spices reflecting the cosmopolitan nature of the area, or maybe a chance to try the smoked pigs ears or chicken gizzards that are so good on salads. The flavour of Fleur de del adds delicate compexity to any food that you season, being hand harvested, sun dried and unique in qualities, its all here to sample. Most visits to Paris will understandably take in the museums, galleries and shops on offer, enjoy these but remember to refuel regularly on at least some of the above.  If you are lucky enough to visit then go try, you'll be pleased that you did, and don't forget to bring something home to remind of the visit.

Bon appetit

Fritatta

An ideal quick supper or lunch, straight from the fridge and made from almost anything that you find in there too. Never two the same, but totally satisfying and made for sharing . No recipe here, seems self explanatory, but remember to warm the pan and pre heat the grill first....Enjoy.

Provençal Sauce

Simple ingredients, stunning result.

One of those great standbys to have in the fridge and the basis of so many good tasting dishes. Why buy one of those jarred alternatives when this is so easy to make? Just use a spoonful to give extra taste or texture to sauces, or as a sauce on vegetables, heat and serve on top of pasta or even spread it on a pizza base. The sauce is a great with fish, wrapped in foil and baked together in the oven, or with prawns and peppers, maybe simply spread on an omelette and topped with cheese, once again this sauce base is only limited by your creativity and imagination. It will easily keep for 2 weeks stored in the fridge and the flavour can be adapted simply by adding fresh basil, paprika, chilli, roasted vegetables etc again the combinations are endless and a whole world better than those you can buy. Have a go, you will not be disappointed. Enjoy.

Ingredients

2 medium onions, chopped finely
5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
A glass white wine-optional
4 tins plum tomatoes
Salt and black pepper to season

Method

1. Place a pan onto warm, peel and chop onion. Add a little olive oil to the pan, add the onion and sauté gently to soften, but not colour.
2. Meanwhile, peel and slice the garlic and add to the pan too.
3. When onion is softened add the glass of white wine, if using and reduce until syrup like in consistency. Add seasoning.
4. Add the tomatoes, bring to a simmer and reduce again until the watery appearance of the liquid disappears and the sauce thickens somewhat.
5. Pour into container, chill until ready for use.

Strawberry Puree

Got up this morning and remembered we had the first of the summer strawberries. Rather than just having the same old strawberries and cream I decided to make something different. So I made a puree to put into a yoghurt. To make the puree I used 250g of strawberries and 50g of Icing Sugar.
Method For Puree

1. Add the strawberries and icing sugar together in a liquidizer,
2. Blend these quickly and make sure it is properly blended,
3. When its done simply pass it through a sieve and if it does not all go through simply stir it round with a wooden spoon.

So after you have made the puree you can do loads with it. You could:

• Pour it over your homemade Ice Cream from our previous recipe,
• Make a yoghurt,
• Pour it over puddings
• Add to sumer drinks at your BBQ

So with our puree I simply stirred it into about 500g of Natural Yoghurt. Then stirred until fully mixed. Enjoy it with your breakfast or even as a little snack as it is good for you.

Great stuff from the Lad here, don't forget that you can apply the above to many of our berry fruits throughout the season, try Raspberries or Blackberries for instance. The puree can be made in a cooked form too, Lad can follow up on this soon. A cooked "coulis" is perfect for churning into an ice cream, sorbet or delice type dessert. Enjoy

Chicken Stock

One of your kitchen essentials is simply stock. Rather than reach for the stock cubes, have a go at making some yourself. Very straightforward and very rewarding and very easy to store too.

Bones from 1 raw chicken
2 Carrots
2 Sticks Celery
1 Medium Onion
Handful fresh herbs-parsley, thyme, sage
1 Clove Garlic, whole but crushed.
Half glass white wine
25ml White wine vinegar
750ml Water

1. Place stock pot onto heat gently. Peel carrots and onion, then chop all coarsely with the celery. Crush garlic by covering unpeeled clove under side of blade of your chopping knife, and thumping down sharply with the underside of your fist.
2. Pour a little vegetable oil into the stock pot and add the chopped vegetables, your herbs and garlic, when sweated and softened, add the chicken bones. Cook all until golden brown.
3. Pour the white wine and vinegar over the vegetable and chicken bones, stir in and allow to reduce until the liquid becomes syrup like.
4. Add the water, bring to boil, then turn down to simmer. Allow to reduce by half. Skim off any scum that forms carefully. Strain through a sieve into a suitable container. Use stock as your recipe requires.

The stock can be reduced still further, if you wish, until it becomes even stronger in taste, at which time you can cool it and then pour it into ice cube trays and freeze for later use. This way you can always have your own instant stock in the freezer, ready to use, simple add them to your cooking for an instant taste boost. Great for gravies or sauces, or adding depth to lighter cream based reductions too. Should you wish for a lighter coloured stock then simply seal the chicken and vegetables and do not brown.

BBQ

A great day out at a local country fest, with a heavy emphasis on food, where we really enjoyed a good look around and some good tasting sessions. Really good to catch with old friends and to talk to the producers who give us so much pleasure. Having been such a hot day what better way than a BBQ to sample some of produce with friends too.

The first outing this year for the fire starter, a great device for starting the charcoal or briquettes with. Just stuff some paper into the base, top with some old coals and then fill with new ones, place over the base shelf and light. Leave this until you have red hot glowing coals, pour over the BBQ base and you can begin to cook, simple and effective, but we are yet to decide the best paper to use, a midweek or weekend one, a broadsheet or tabloid, the jury is still out!

We were lucky enough to have purchased some racks of ribs, traditional, sweet chilli and peri-peri, along with a coarse Cumberland sausage, pork and chive sausage, Springbok burgers and Kangaroo burger, certainly something a little different.

The ribs were sealed off and cooked in a rack, then when nicely browned, wrapped in foil and returned to a cooler area of the BBQ, whilst the sausage and burgers were cooked over the coals. Everything remained moist and juicy with excellent flavour, the Springbok and Kangaroo were certainly powerfully surprising and to be recommended as a great alternative to the usual offerings. The ribs were juicy, tender and well flavoured, offering a selection for everyone and keeping us happy as we ate them by hand, giving us the opportunity to lick our fingers clean afterwards too! These meats all came from Shaw meats in Wigton, check them out at www.shawmeats.co.uk

A bit of a Mess

Forever popular, Eton Mess is a firm favourite of ours. Simple and quick to make, and today this will be the ideal end to a Chinese style meal. The dish can be as simple as just whipped cream with mashed Strawberries but here we add a few twists to give the dish a little more complexity in taste, yet still it retains the fresh smooth delicate balance that has made it a classic.

200g Strawberries
200g Raspberries
300g Lychees
200g Blueberries
Zest of 1 Orange
500ml Double Cream
4 Meringue nests



Method
1. Remove zest from Orange, place  to one side.
2. Remove green leaves from Strawberries, chop into small bite sized pieces, place in a bowl.
3. Remove the shell like skin from the Lychees, cut each in half and gently remove stone from middle, place in bowl with strawberries.
4. Add raspberries and Blueberries to the bowl.
5. Pour cream into another clean bowl and whisk until well risen and stiff.
6. Pour fruit and orange zest over the cream, place in fridge until required.
7. Break meringues into small pieces.
8. At the last minute, add meringue to fruit and cream, fold everything together gently, serve.


The combination of fruits can easily be varied to suit the occasion or even the season, try adding halved grapes, some nuts for texture or even broken biscuits, consider adding fresh chopped mint leaves or the explosive taste of fresh basil with black pepper and some soft crumbly goats cheese. Top it all with a generous serving of honey or Maple syrup, its really there to be tried. Explore, imagine and enjoy.

Tagliatelle

One of the real pleasures that we get  from food is to just open the fridge, look around the garden, market or shop, wherever and just to collect up some ingredients together and then to simply knock out whatever falls into place. A fridge and larder are never devoid of a meal, just follow your senses and see what happens, some of the tastiest dishes that we have made happened this way, this recipe is the result of one of those moments. Luckily we had Salmon in store, but it could just as easily have been bacon, various sausage, ham, tuna or even based upon vegetables alone, peas, broad bean, carrot, courgette to name but a few. This technique can be applied to so many ingredients, just experiment, be brave and do it.

Just a quick supper, using the now dried Tagliatelle from the Cannelloni we made earlier. No real ingredients list this time, simply put on a large pan of salted water to boil (remember pasta likes to swim), now chop an onion, slice a couple of garlic cloves and sweat these till soft with a knob of butter in a hot pan. Now, slice some Salmon into bite size pieces, toss these into the pan with the onion, add a splash of white wine and reduce volume by half on a high heat. Add finely grated zest of a lemon plus the juice from half along with a teaspoon of sugar, reduce again by half. Add your tagliatelle to the now boiling pan of water. Chop a good handful of fresh herbs, we had chives and parsley, and place to one side. Add a generous amount of double cream to the Salmon pan, bring to boil, add the herbs. By now the Tagliatelle should be almost cooked (homemade cooks more rapidly than shop bought) add some delicate shoots of fresh broccoli, boil for 1 minute, drain this into a colander, return to the pan, or serving dish, pour over the Salmon mixture, stir lightly to combine, serve with thinly shaved Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil over the top.



Enjoy.

Sourdough Bread

Freshly baked bread, what a welcoming thought, what a superb smell in the kitchen and what great reaction from everyone who eats it. Even better if you know that all of the flavour is coming from the sour dough culture that you have been maturing for some weeks. And thats where most people stop in this age of instant food satisfaction, they just nip out and buy it, but why when with a little time and care, you can be enjoying the fruits of your efforts on a regular basis. We tend to bake sour dough twice a week now that both our cultures are established and we have a simple routine to look after them. The beginning processes of sour dough baking do however take a little patience and planning, but we hope that you try out the following and are rewarded with a little gem of your own.

Your sour dough starter

75g Wholemeal bread flour.

75ml Warm water.

Large lidded or Kilner jar.

1. Simply mix the flour and water into a paste. Pour into jar, loosely seal and stand to one side in the kitchen, leave for 2 days.

2. Weigh out the same ingredients as above, and stir into the jar too, place in the safe spot again and leave for a further 2 days.

3. Repeat number 2, leave for 2 more days.

4. By now the mix should be showing the first signs of life, bubbles should be evident. This is the natural yeasts getting to work, the mix will probably have a sour type of scent too. At this stage the culture can be placed in the fridge.

Thats it, the messing around is over and you now have a living culture that will mature over time, giving ever more character to your breads at each use. You can of course use plain strong bread flour, which will result in a slightly creamier textured starter with a less sour taste.

Sourdough bread

This is a good weekend project or mid week treat. Plan this next stage for a Friday night.

Your starter mix will now weigh 450g, take 75g and place it in a new clean jar. This is now your midweek starter, place this in the fridge.

Leave the rest of the starter out overnight, during which time it should begin to bubble more strongly. On Saturday morning, remove 75g of the mix and place in another clean jar, seal and place in fridge, this is the next weekend culture. You are ready to make your first sourdough loaf.

Ingredients

450G Strong plain(bread) flour

200ml Warm water

25g Butter

10g Sea salt

300g Sourdough starter culture(this is what is left in your jar)

Ground semolina or rice 

Simply place the flour, culture and butter into your mixers bowl and combine using the dough hook. Add most of the water and continue to knead until you get a slightly tacky but not sticky dough, if too dry add some of the remaining water to correct.

Cover and leave for 10 minutes, then add the salt and mix for 5 more minutes. Cover and leave to gently rise for 3 or 4 hours at room temperature.

Prepare a shaped container(bowl, bread basket etc) by lining with cling film, oiling lightly and then dusting generously with the ground semolina.

Knead the dough, then shape, place in the container, sprinkle exposed top of dough with ground semolina, cover lightly and place in a warm spot to rise for 6 to 8 hours.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees centigrade.

Turn out gently onto a prepared baking sheet, quickly slash the top skin with a very sharp knife, splash with water and bake in the oven for approx 25 minutes or until golden and well crusted.

Looking after your culture.

This first run through is the most complex and from here onwards it gets easier, promise.

After a couple of days in the fridge, take out your cultures and beat in the 75g strong flour and 75ml warm water combination, return to the fridge till you are ready to use it. The culture benefits from use and feeding, but can survive for several weeks in-between uses too.

The night before you intend using your culture, remove it from the fridge, beat in the usual flour and water mix again. Leave out overnight, it will be ready to use the following morning.

Simply follow the recipe above, remembering to place 75g starter back into the fridge, keep jars clean. Remember that in the early weeks your culture is still developing its own unique characteristics and that these change over time too.

But most of all 

Enjoy.

PS This is only the beginning, if you get truly hooked on sourdough then take a look at www.northwestsourdough.com its an eye opener.

Croutons

Its lad again, I got in from school and decided to make dinner. I made a simple stuffed jacket potato meal with a salad. So to make the salad have a better flavour and texture I just made a few croutons. These are very basic to make but some people find them a bit dull so i decided to add interest to them as detailed below.

All you need is;

• A couple of slices of bakery style bread
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Couple pinches mixed herbs
• olive oil

Then to make them you simply;

1. Cut the bread into equal bite size pieces.
2. Heat oil in a large frying pan.
3. When oil is slightly hot add the garlic, it can be crushed or sliced, and it should start to sizzle.
4. Add the bread and it might stop sizzling so turn it up a bit so it sizzles again, add herbs.
5. Wait for them to crisp and brown and serve on top of the salad with a nice italian dressing.

Sauce Anglaise

The real way to make the best custard! Take the time to master this classic sauce, it really is worth all the effort.

Ingredients


3 Egg yolks
65g Caster Sugar
250ml Milk
Half a Vanilla pod

Method

1. Pour milk into a pan on a gentle heat, scrape out sticky centre of the vanilla pod and add to the milk along with the outer pod casing.
2. Place egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy in colour and thickened to leave a "ribbon" trail.
3. When the milk and vanilla mix is just coming to a simmer, remove from heat.
4. Gradually pour a small quantity of the milk onto the egg mixture and beat in thoroughly.
5. Continue to add the hot milk gradually until all is incorporated.
6. Pour the complete mix to the pan, and stirring continuously return to the heat.
7. Keep stirring until the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of the wooden spoon. DO NOT ALLOW TO BOIL.
8. When the mixture shows the first sign of coming to the boil, remove from heat, keep stirring and pass the sauce through a sieve into a clean cool bowl.
9. Keep stirring until the sauce stops steaming, cover and place in fridge until needed.

Serve cold with a range of desserts to add a light but rich elegant and complimentary taste.

Rinse the vanilla pod casing, allow to air dry for a couple of days and place in your caster sugar container to make vanilla sugar.

Home made vanilla ice cream

Forget tubs of insipid synthetic tasting ice creams when you can recreate the taste of real dairy ice cream using just a few basic ingredients. We were inspired to make this when we found an ice cream maker on offer locally at a price too low to refuse! You will need to master the skills involved in making a sauce anglaise first but once you have done this you have the base on which to make memorable ice creams with the added benefits of having a sauce that is delightful to use in its own right.


Ingredients


1 Quantity of Sauce anglaise (see sauce anglaise recipe)
250 ml Double Cream

Method

1. Follow instructions for your ice cream maker. The one we used needed the bowl to be frozen for 24 hours first.

2. Set up ice cream maker and switch on. When paddle is turning pour in the sauce anglaise.

3. When this begins to freeze and thicken lightly, pour in the cream. 

4. Continue churning until the ice cream is thick and frozen. 

5. Remove ice cream from machine. Place in plastic container and put this in the freezer.

6. If ice cream has been frozen for some time remove

 from freezer for approx 15 minutes before use.

ENJOY

Cannelloni and Wild Garlic

Hey its Lad here, i got in from a pleasant day at school and decided I wanted to make a pasta dish. So before Dad arrived I started making a 3 egg pasta recipe. Then Dad arrived with a bag full of wild garlic he was given and took some pictures. I then thought as I had the pasta I may as well use it so I thought humm.... Love cannelloni but never made it lets have a go. So found a brilliant recipe for cannelloni. To make it we got all the ingredients prepared.  I started off making a Béchamel sauce which was just the basic sauce but I added some nutmeg for extra flavour. Then when that was made I made a sauce using passata, the wild garlic we were given, and some cheese. We then put the pasta through the pasta rollers, cut it into lasagne sized sheets, topped with the filling of ricotta cheese, sun dried tomatoes and more garlic, then rolled it all up into a classic cannelloni shape. It was then simple we put the cannelloni in a casserole dish, added about half of the béchamel sauce and then passata sauce then add the rest of béchamel sauce on top. Then simply top off with parmesan shavings and a splash of olive oil, place in the oven and cook until golden, and serve. Enjoy.

As we made home made pasta we had some left over, rather than wasting it we decided to make tagliatelle as you can see from the pictures. So expect a recipe with tagliatelle soon...

The bag of wild garlic had barely been touched and the gentle aroma of the early spring  in the lakes was filling the kitchen, so a quickly chopped onion or two sauté in some butter along with grated potato gave the perfect base to a wild garlic soup. Once softened, the garlic leaves were chopped and added, then covered with chicken stock to cook out. A quick whizz in the blender, a splash of milk and boom.....the perfect spring soup

How To Chop An Onion

The Onion and The Knife

Here is another video tutorial, it is just on how to chop an onion as onions are in pretty much every meal we have. Again it tell's you the instructions as you go along so you can cut while listening. Hopefully this will save many a tear in your preparations!

            

Broccoli

Is it two c's or is it two l's it makes no difference when your broccoli is fresh from the garden and in season. What can make a difference is perhaps the way we cook it so here we offer a few simple ideas to add extra interest without compromising the fresh taste of the broccoli itself.

Our Home Grown Broccoli

Simply boil your broccoli in salted water for 1 minute then drain. Heat a wok and add a little sunflower oil, toss in some sliced garlic cook for about 10 seconds then add the hot broccoli and toss together for about 15 seconds then serve and enjoy.

For other options just repeat the above but use a finely chopped, fresh ginger, or red pepper, bacon or chilli to taste.

Risotto

This is our first recipe for you, a very tasteful risotto. Once you master the basic principles of risotto you can easily vary the outcome by simply changing a few ingredients, for example the meats, vegetables or herbs to suit what you have to use.  This gives a great meal in about 40 minutes. The recipe we have used here has a good balance of ingredients resulting in a creamy, mild and satisfying herby risotto.

Ingredients-Serves 4

1 Onion

2 Sticks Celery

Our Risotto

2 Carrots

2 tbsp Olive Oil

4 Rashers Back Bacon or 50g Pancetta

60g Chorizo, thinly sliced

250g Arborio Rice

2 cloves Garlic

Approx 1lt Chicken Stock

40g Peas 

40g Broad Beans

20g Button Mushrooms

30g Butter

40g Grated Parmesan

A good bunch chopped fresh herbs

Salt and Pepper

Method

1. Weigh out frozen items, peas, broad beans and prawns place in separate containers.

2. Chop onion, carrot and celery into small dice. Peel and slice garlic thinly, slice mushrooms. Place into separate containers ready to use.

3. Peel chorizo and slice. Cut bacon into small pieces.

4. Heat oil in a deep pan, add chopped onion, garlic, celery and carrot. Allow to cook gently for 2 minutes, do not colour.

5. Add bacon and allow to cook until pink and sealed. Add chorizo cook for 1 minute.

6. Add the rice, cook for about 2 minutes stirring with a wooden spoon, until the rice becomes  opaque, do not allow vegetables or rice to colour.

7. Add mushrooms and cook for 1 minute to soften. Add enough stock to just cover rice, bring to boil and turn down to simmer.

8. Simmer gently and cook until stock is absorbed, add more stock to just cover rice again. Stir continuously. Repeat as needed until the rice expands and you have a glossy, sticky sauce and the rice has lost its chalky texture.

9. Add your broad beans cook for 1 minute, add peas and prawns and cook out for 2 minutes. 

10. Check that the rice has become tender and a sticky sauce is in evidence.

11. Put pan to one side, add the butter, herbs and Parmesan, allow to melt and stir into risotto. Check seasoning add salt and pepper if required.

12. Serve on warm plates and enjoy.

Dad and Lad

Welcome to our first blog.