Recipe

January 21, 2013 Baking

Chorizo and Fennel Seed Sausage Rolls

You may have realised, by now, that I’m catching up on all the recipes I intended to cook in December! A combination of gas leaks, children’s flu etc, has somewhat disrupted my schedule. One thing I really wanted to cook for my annual quiz night were Andy Bates’ chorizo and fennel seed sausage rolls…

Andy is an amazing advocate of street food, and travels the world exploring the tastiest. Whilst he is an extremely competent chef, often it’s just about great flavour combinations that are accessible to the home cook. I came across this recipe on one of the Food Networks Christmas roundups. They struck me as ideal party food, and much nicer than the usual sausage rolls. The chorizo mini-sausages have been sitting in my fridge for a few weeks now, so it seemed like an appropriate time to get on with them. Frankly they couldn’t be simpler, but this isn’t about complicated food, but simple, quick, scrumminess!

Ingredients:
200g mini cooking Chorizo
1 sheet pre-rolled puff pastry, cut in half lengthways
Egg yolk
1 tbsp fennel seeds (I used caraway)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Peel the mini chorizos and roll them in your hands to make a sausage shape.
Lay the mini chorizo lengthways along each piece of pastry. Roll and fold the pastry over the chorizo brushing the inside with egg yolk to help seal.
Using a fork seal the edges and trim any excess pastry, Cut the sausage rolls into individual rolls and place on a baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper. At this point you can transfer to a freezer-safe container, lined with greaseproof paper to cook from frozen later. Please note, cooking times will increase when cooking from frozen and you may need to lower your oven temperature slightly.
Brush with egg yolk and sprinkle with fennel seeds.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden brown.

Notes:

I really would chop your chorizo before you shape it. Firstly this will give you a better and more even sausage shape. Chopping the meat finely would also allow you to get a cleaner cut – I had to saw mine a little…
And this is one of those pastry recipes where it is important to cut the pastry cleanly, as this gives you more rise and layers in your pastry. But don’t swamp the pastry in egg wash, as this will inhibit those layers, so stay away from the edges, and cut cleanly.
If you’re looking at this, I’d highly recommend you check out the pic of Paul Ainsworth’s black pudding variant, which we had at his dinner with Alyn Williams. I think it looks ridiculously good, though by the time I got to it, I’d given up meat… Hubby said it was amazing though!

Make sure you seal the sides of the pastry well

Now don’t you want one of these with a glass of something?

This is Paul’s black pudding pastry – apparently divine!

You can find more of Andy’s recipes in his new book >

January 21, 2013 Angela Hartnett

Fettuccini with lardons and chestnuts…

I came across this great little recipe by Angela Hartnett, in the Guardian… Angela comes form an Italian family, and often talks about the dishes she learnt at her Nonna’s side… As well as running Murano’s, she is working with Luke Holder, Head Chef at Limewood Hotel on a new venture showcasing New Forest produce.

I particuarly liked the sound of the chestnuts in this, and it seemed a good way to use up any you might have lurking after Christmas… This makes a fantastic lunch dish.

Ingredients:
375g dried fettuccine
50ml olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
6 rashers of back bacon, roughly chopped (I used pancetta, sliced into lardons)
1 small leek, washed and finely sliced
100g ricotta
1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
6 cooked chestnuts, sliced

Season a pan of water and bring it to the boil. Add the pasta and cook as instructed on the packet – usually for about seven minutes – until it is al dente.

Add the oil, garlic and bacon to another large pan and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the sliced leek and cook for about five minutes, until soft.

When the pasta is ready, drain well and toss it in with the leek and bacon. Add the ricotta and flat-leaf parsley and mix through. Check the seasoning to taste and finish with the sliced chestnuts.

Serve immediately.

Notes:

Do make sure you use dried pasta – the surface texture is much rougher than fresh egg pasta, and the sauce clings to it much better.

Look at your ricotta before you use it – like a dolt I didn’t mix mine until smooth with a little of the starchy pasta water, which would have made the sauce more unctuous. Nor did I spoon it into little mouthfuls within the pasta… Instead, I stirred it in, straight from the fridge. Don’t do that – though it doesn’t alter the flavour, it does make the sauce very slightly grainy… But hey – now I’ve warned you…

If you want to pimp your pasta (for dinner perhaps), you could also sauté a chicken breast to serve on top… Yes, I had too! Hubby had been in the gym and was suspiciously eyeing the low meat quotient. I think there’s more than enough flavour from the pancetta though to forgo it, and we could all do with eating less meat….

The ‘pimped’ fettuccini, with sautéd chicken breast

Fettuccini, with lardons and chestnuts

Do use dry fettuccini, you can see the rougher surface of the dried variety

You can find more delicious recipes by Angela in her books >

January 21, 2013 Blood Oranges

Blood Orange and Fennel Salad

After the best part of a year waiting for their return, blood oranges are finally back in season. I’ve made them into sorbet in the past, but sometimes when something is this seasonal it’s nice to enjoy them in a very simple recipe. So – this one is not really a hardship – no waiting for dough to prove – no hanging around!

Simply peel your blood oranges and cut into fine slices. Try to capture as much of the juice as you can… Dress with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and leave the flavours to mingle. In the meantime, finely slice some fennel on a mandolin, and when ready layer over the blood oranges… Dress the fennel in a little olive oil…

Finely slice the blood oranges and dress them in oil, salt and pepper

Blood orange salad, with fennel and red vein sorrel

January 21, 2013 101 Cookbooks

Oven-Baked Doughnuts and Knot Rolls

Amongst other things, one of my very dear friends gave me a doughnut pan for my birthday (because that’s what dear friends do, when you’re an obsessive baker)! The books have been read, the pictures poured over, but the unused pan has remained in my kitchen drawer – silent – mysterious – resolute. “Try me”, it cries, when I open the drawer, “let’s make doughnuts”…

This week its silent entreaties have worked their magic on my 7 year old, who is rapidly turning into a useful little baker. Yesterday we made cup-cakes to her ratios (fantastic), and today she really wanted to make doughnuts. Needless to say I couldn’t find the recipes lovingly documented by Kristen, for I fear they have been snaffled into the jaws of the Trolley-of-Doom (aka my ‘books to be shelved’ trolley). The Wilton recipe supplied with the pan seemed somewhat unappealing (though I have listed it below) – I wanted plump, yeasty golden things, puffed with air, and smelling sensational…

I hunted for more traditional doughnut recipes, finally stumbling across this yeasted recipe from @101Cookbooks, though not intended for the tin. I have to say, I was most impressed – whilst tray doughnuts don’t have the pillowiness of traditional doughnuts, they do taste amazing. I only made one tray, and used the rest of the dough to make knot rolls – you can see from the photo how much they puffed up in the oven.

Ingredients:

79ml hand hot milk
7g of instant yeast

225ml of warm milk
2 Tbsp butter
158g sugar
2 eggs
1125g plain flour (I used pasta flour, as it has a lower protein content)
A pinch or two of nutmeg, freshly grated
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

Method:

Place the first quantity of warm milk in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the yeast and set aside for five minutes or so. Be sure your milk isn’t too hot or it will kill the yeast. Stir the butter and sugar into the remaining warm milk and add it to the yeast mixture. With a fork, stir in the eggs, flour, nutmeg, and salt – just until the flour is incorporated. With the dough hook attachment of your mixer beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed. This is where you are going to need to make adjustments – if your dough is overly sticky, add flour a few tablespoons at a time. Too dry? Add more milk a bit at a time. You want the dough to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl and eventually become supple and smooth. Turn it out onto a floured counter-top, knead a few times (the dough should be barely sticky), and shape into a ball.
Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, cover, put in a warm place. Let it rise for an hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.
The original instructions were for cut doughnuts: Punch down the dough and roll it out 1/2-inch thick on your floured countertop. Most people (like myself) don’t have a doughnut cutter, instead I use a 2-3 inch cookie cutter to stamp out circles. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet and stamp out the smaller inner circles using a smaller cutter. If you cut the inner holes out any earlier, they become distorted when you attempt to move them. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes.
As I was shaping them for the pan, I rolled them into balls and then punctured the centre… Swizzle the doughnut around on your finger to increase the size of the hole. Do not make them too big as they will increase dramatically in size on the second prove – as above, cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes. Now. I glazed mine with beaten egg – but I hadn’t thought it through – egg may give you a golden colour, but it also creates a crust. I think you’d be better off glazing with milk, which will give you a softer crust
Bake at 190° C until the bottoms are just golden, 8 to 10 minutes – start checking around 8.
Remove the doughnuts from the oven and let cool for just a minute or two.

A cross-section of the dough after the first prove

I had no idea on sizing as this was the first time, so I did a variety to see – the little one’s in the bottom right hand corner came out best – the larger one on the bottom row rose so high it lost its hole! Don’t worry about how “scraggy” they look, the second prove takes care of that…

I glazed the doughnut with beaten egg, I’d glaze it with milk next time

I dipped mine in cream cheese icing, and then sprinkles.
You can dip them in melted chocolate, or melted butter and cinnamon icing

This is the same dough, left to prove as a knot roll

The Wilton Baked Cake Donuts Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups cake flour, sifted
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
¾ cup buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp. butter, melted

Method:

Preheat oven to 425*F. Spray doughnut pan with nonstick cooking spray.
In a large mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Add buttermilk, eggs and butter. Beat until just combined. Fill each doughnut cup approx. 2/3 full.
Bake 7-9 minutes or until the top of the doughnuts spring back when touched.
Let cool in pan for 4-5 minutes before removing. Finish doughnut with chocolate glaze, cinnamon sugar or confectioners’ sugar. Doughnuts are best served fresh.
Makes 12 doughnuts

Variations:

Cinnamon Sugar 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
2 tbsp. butter, melted

In small bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon together and dip the baked doughnut in melted butter. Roll in cinnamon sugar mixture to coat.

Chocolate Glaze
¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. corn syrup
1 tsp. hot water

Microwave chips, butter and corn syrup on 50% power for 1 minute, stirring frequently until completely melted. Stir in hot water until the glaze is thick smooth. Add more water, a tsp. at a time to thin if glaze is too thick. Immediately glaze doughnuts.

Confectioners Sugar Doughnuts Place 2/3 cup confectioners sugar in plastic bag. Add a doughnut, seal the bag and shake to coat. Repeat with remaining doughnuts.

January 13, 2013 Baking

Pecan and Salted Caramel Brownies

Just lately I’ve been craving Gower Cottage’s chocolate brownies, but my secret stash in the freezer was sorely depleted over Christmas! However serendipity has struck again, as I spotted Ed Kimber‘s brownie recipe in my in-box this morning. There’s definitely something about salted caramel… It’s my favourite filling in Laduree Macaron’s, my favourite combination in chocolate bars, there’s something about the salty sweetness that becomes utterly addictive!

It was a given then that I’d have to try these, but I thought I’d adapt the brownie recipe for the Thermomix, to see how they’d turn out. You can find the original recipe on Ed’s site.

Salted Caramel Filling
175g caster sugar
150ml double cream
10g unsalted butter
large pinch of flaked sea salt OR
1/2 jar of Bonne Maman Confiture de Caramel

Fudge Brownies
180g plain flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder (preferably Green and Blacks, which uses the ‘Dutch’ process)
1/4 tsp salt
300g dark chocolate, around 65-75% cocoa solids
150g unsalted butter
220g light brown sugar
150g caster sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g pecans, chopped (optional extra, half inside the brownie, half on top)

Method

I’m not going to make caramel today, and instead I’m using the jar – okay, stop shouting at me – I’m baking with the 4 year old and I don’t like making caramel when he’s climbing up the counters! If you want more information on the cooking temperatures for caramel, please have a look at my fudge post…
For the brownies preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan. Grease a 9×9 inch pan and line with a strip of parchment. Leave a ‘handle’ over the pan’s edge to ease removal. [The Lakeland foiled parchment is perfect for this!]
Pulse the butter and chocolate in the Thermomix bowl for 5 seconds / Speed 5, and scrape down the bowl.
Melt the butter and chocolate together for 4 mins / Speed 1 / 70° C
Add the eggs, vanilla, salt and sugar and mix for 10 seconds / Speed 3
Add the flour and cocoa powder and mix for 10 seconds / Speed 4. Scrape down the bowl (inevitably some of the flour will have been thrown up), and repeat for a further 10 seconds.
Pour half of the mixture into your prepared tin, and then pour the caramel over the batter, leaving a 1 1/2 cm border. Scatter the chopped pecans over the caramel if using… [I like the combination of pecans and salted chocolate, and I wanted some additional texture in the brownie.] Pour the remaining batter over the caramel mixture to cover it. Ed does this by piping it over, otherwise when you spread the second layer of batter you inevitably push the caramel out to the edge, where it can boil over the batter. Until I’ve perfected a cheats way, I suggest you pipe too…
Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, until a cake tester or skewer (just) comes out cleanly (you don’t want them overdone). Don’t forget, the caramel will be scalding hot, so allow the brownies to cool fully before cutting into squares.

Alternatives:

Scatter chocolate chips in on top of the caramel, and again over the surface before baking
If like me you have thousands of blood oranges in your kitchen – don’t waste the skin and oils – zest the oranges into the batter before using them.
You can use chopped salted Brindisa’s salted almonds – quite a grownup taste, but absolutely amazing. Pulse them for the briefest of moments in the thermo and set aside, before melting the chocolate and butter
If you’re a complete salt addict, you can use salted butter, but in that case, please remember to take the salt out of the other ingredients.

A couple of little brownie tips:

If you’ve managed not to scoff the lot straight away, you can revive your brownies for around 20 seconds in the microwave; and
A great little tip I spotted on the lovely Azelia’s blog, if you have any type of cake which hasn’t quite cooked through, you can finish them off for a few seconds in the microwave… As Azelia points out in her recent doughnut post, the microwave cooks from the inside out… Clever eh?

Now fend off your children and friends with a rolling pin…

Melting the chocolate and butter together

This is the batter once mixing is completed – it’s quite a thick batter

Spoon the caramel over the batter, and scatter with pecans

Cover with the remaining batter and bake

Yummy! And I like the pecans in it!

December 30, 2012 Eggs

Eggs Benedict and Heston Blumenthal’s Perfectly Poached Eggs

Hubby is mildy addicted to eggs Benedict – he frequently orders it for working breakfasts, and you can see from some of his comments that he has many, many criteria he applies to the dish. Consequently I’m often reluctant to cook it at home – but hey, it’s Christmas – the man deserves his favourite breakfast at Christmas surely?!

I’ve been working on Thermomix versions of Bearnaise and Hollandaise, made with home-made tarragon vinegar, and a reduction base for both sauces…

I’ve also been obsessing about Heston Blumenthal’s How to Cook Like Heston, and was watching his episode on eggs again. It seemed like the perfect excuse to combine techniques…

There are many variations on eggs Benedict – instead of the ham you can use blanched spinach for eggs Florentine, Eggs Mornay uses a Mornay cheese sauce instead of Hollandaise – you can play around with your favourite combination. Here I’m using Pata Negra, that perfect ham from Spain – made from the blackfooted pig who’s been fed a diet of acorns – amazing stuff!

The freshest possible eggs make the best poached eggs – the white is firmer, less watery, and holds together better in the pan. I had originally preferred Marcus Wareing’s method of poaching eggs, but having tried Heston’s, I think it just has the edge. In his method you drain off the watery bit of the white, before poaching at 80oC for four minutes. Reaching exactly 80oC on an induction hob was perhaps the most challenging aspect of the task – everything else worked exactly as he said…

Ingredients:
2 tsp salt
large eggs, as many as you require
Salt and black pepper

Method:

Fill a saucepan with approximately 15-20cm of water then add the salt. Place a plate upside down in the bottom of the pan then place the pan over a medium heat and bring the water up to 80ºC.

One at a time, crack each egg into a ramekin dish and pour it into a slotted spoon with small holes. Allow to drain any residual white for approximately 1–2 minutes.

Lower the slotted spoon into the warm water and slide the spoon out. Allow to poach for 4 minutes.

Remove with the slotted spoon and place on kitchen paper to drain the excess water. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

It’s important to toast your muffins to some semblance of brown – you need them to form a crisp and tasty base for your eggs, not a soggy waterlogged layer

: Jamon Ibérico di Bellotta, or Pata Negra – no matter what you want to call it, the ham of the Spanish Black-Footed pig, fed on acorns, is silky, pack full of flavour and melt-in-the-mouth texture

: Mid-way through assembly – you can see I have less white than normal – this is because my eggs were a few days old… However the yolks are perfect.

: I’m not massively keen on eggs Benedict, but I’m not going to miss the opportunity to put some of that Bellotta ham under my poached eggs

Eggs Benedict, with Hollandaise sauce

December 30, 2012 Baking

Thermomix Sauces: Béarnaise

There are conventionally five mother sauces, of which hollandaise is the probably the richest, with it’s combination of egg yolks and melted butter. I’m not always massively fond of hollandaise, as it often lacks flavour beyond the butter. However I absolutely adore a number of variations, especially blood orange hollandaise (Maltaise sauce), beurre blanc, and most particularly béarnaise sauce, with its fragrant addition of tarragon.

Béarnaise is generally made by reducing down a number of key ingredients common to Hollandaise (shallots, white wine vinegar, and tarragon stalks). However most restaurants make much better Béarnaise than we can at home, because they have the time to increase the intensity over a longer period of time. Where we’re reducing down those three key ingredients, most chefs I know actually use their own reduction which is made in batches in advance, and it often includes their own home-made tarragon vinegar – this really ups the flavour of the reduction.

With that in mind, I made some tarragon vinegar a couple of weeks ago, simply by heating some white wine vinegar and storing in a dark place with several sprigs of tarragon in the jar. After a couple of weeks, strain the liquid, and insert some nice new sprigs of tarragon.

A second consideration for me in developing this recipe is that I’m determined to make it in my Thermomix, as this is precisely what it’s so good at making!

One of my favourite chefs gave me his reduction recipe for beurre blanc, and this forms the basis of my Bearnaise recipe.

Reduction for Buerre Blanc, Béarnaise and Hollandaise
1 bottle of decent white wine (750ml)
500ml tarragon vinegar
1 bunches of tarragon stalks
1/2 bay leaf
Sprig of thyme
Peppercorns
7 sliced shallots

When you’re ready to make the relevant sauce, use approximately 200g of the reduction for six servings.

Thermomix Béarnaise Sauce
200g of the reduction
pinch salt
pinch black pepper
400 g butter
5 egg yolks

Preparation

Put the shallot reduction into the Thermo and pulse for a few seconds
Insert the butterfly and add remaining ingredients.
Process at 80C, speed 3 for 6 minutes.
Press through a fine sieve and serve.

You can keep the sauce at 60oC for over an hour on speed 2/3.

I prefer my Béarnaise a little acidic – if you prefer a more buttery version, just keep adding butter until you reach a suitable flavour – and don’t forget to season the sauce!

December 30, 2012 Heston Blumenthal

Heston Blumenthal’s Macaroni Cheese

Whenever I get a little bored, or I’m sitting in the bath, I delve into my i-pad espisodes of How to Cook Like Heston… I like the combination of science, technique and, ultimately, gastronomy – it always has my food brain working overtime… After a particularly late night hosting our annual Christmas quiz, I delved into the episodes again, and looking at my groaning cheese boards (yes, plural), thought I’d better get stuck into some of his cheese recipes.

Feeling slightly jaded, it was definitely the macaroni cheese which caught my attention… Not normally something I’d crave, but the thought of fat-laden carbs was definitely appealing to some bit of me! Mmmm…. Macaroni cheese – definitely comfort food! [There’s a bit more about the science of cheese melting at the bottom]

Ingredients
200g macaroni
½ tsp salt
15ml truffle oil
300ml dry white wine
300ml brown chicken stock, infused for 20 minutes with Berkswell cheese rind, keep warm
80g Spenwood cheese, finely grated [okay, I’m using Parmesan, a similar style]
10g cornflour [coating the cheese in cornflour prevents clumping together]
80g soft cream cheese
Black pepper
15g goat’s cheese, diced (I’m using the fabulous Fresco Angelico from Brockhall Farm!!)
Berkswell cheese, for gratinating (and this will be my Keene’s cheddar in this instance)

Method

Preheat the grill. Place 400ml of water, the pasta and the salt in a pan over medium-high heat. Cook until the pasta is done and all of the water has disappeared. Toss the pasta with the truffle oil. [This releases the starch into the pan, rather than rinsing it away in any drained water]
In a small saucepan, reduce the white wine over a high heat to 30ml. Add the warm chicken stock to the reduced wine. Mix the grated cheese with the cornflour and add to the pan. Stir until the cheese has been incorporated into the sauce, then add the pasta.
Cook over a medium heat until the pasta is warmed through, then stir in the cream cheese. Season with freshly ground black pepper.
Half fill an ovenproof baking dish with the pasta, sprinkle with diced goat’s cheese and add the remaining macaroni on top. [Heston bakes his inside a hollowed cheddar wheel]
Sprinkle some more cheese on top and place under the grill to melt and gratinate the cheese. Serve immediately.

What can I tell you? Feeling jaded? Reach for this ultra-rich, flavoured-packed, mac and cheese! It was everything I wanted it to be!

[Make sure you use the right macaroni – I happened to have small gluten-free macaroni made with maize and rise flour, which I’d bought in for my gluten-intolerant niece. It would have worked much better with a durum wheat, larger style macaroni.]

Coating the hard cheese in cornflour prevents it clumping together

You can see the starch released around the sides of the pan

Adding cream cheese increases the creaminess of the sauce

You can clearly see the unmelted goat’s cheese cubes in the gratinated mac

This dish is very rich, you wouldn’t want a huge helping!!

Lot of cheese to use up!

Part of the point of the show was to discuss the properties of different kinds of cheese, and their suitability for different dishes. Heston, Otto and Jockey each ironed a different type of cheese (yes, ironed), to test their melting points. The medium cheese melted on the lowest setting of the iron, but the fresh, soft goats cheese wouldn’t melt at all – the water merely evaporated and left a layer of cheese behind. The hard cheese did melt, but only after Heston moved the temperature up significantly.

The goal in most of his cheese recipes is to either release the fat and protein, or to impair that release. In this dish Heston coats the hard cheese in cornflour to restrict the release of the protein and fat – resulting in a much smoother sauce with no clumping. The sauce shouldn’t be boiled, as that would begin to release the fat and protein again, resulting in a less silky sauce.

The goat’s cheese was added in cubes to the dish precisely because it didn’t melt like the others – and the resulting pockets of spiky goats cheese enhance the overall cheesiness of the dish.

If you’re reading this outside of the United Kingdom, I think you can watch the relevant section on You Tube – but the copyright is protected inside the United Kingdom, sorry! You can find more of the recipes from the series here >

December 26, 2012 Bread

Black Olive, and Caraway and Onion Rolls

I have several, no, many bread books, which get used to varying degrees. However when I need a basic do-ahead recipe which will be transformed into a variety of uses, I head straight for Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day.

I’ve made any number of variations of this recipe – sun blushed tomato bread, cinnamon and raisin, but my favourites are onion and caraway, and olive bread. The joy of this recipe is that the dough can sit in your fridge until you’re ready…

I like to speed the process up further by cheating – we all know I like a good cheat! The olive bread is made using half a jar of these olives kneaded into the dough.

The onion and caraway contains onions softened in olive oil, and about a tablespoon of caraway seeds. You will need to add a little additional flour to the dough to compensate for the olive oil. The onion adds a warmth to the front of the palate, and the caraway breathes cool fragrance onto the back – my personal favourite…

You can add anything you like – and as you can use the dough in batches, you can take out as much as you need, and varying according to what you fancy. I keep meaning to try blue cheese and walnuts for example. Have a play – let me know your favourite combinations…

French Bread Recipe

Ingredients:
5-1/3 cups (24 oz / 680 g) unbleached bread flour
2 teaspoons (0.5 oz / 14 g) salt, or 1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
2-1/4 teaspoons (0.25 oz / 7 g) instant yeast
2 cups (16 oz / 454 g) lukewarm water (about 95°F or 35°C)

Ahead of time:

Combine all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl. If using a mixer, use the paddle attachment and mix on the lowest speed for 1 minute. If mixing by hand, use a large spoon and stir for 1 minute, until well blended and smooth. If the spoon gets too doughy, dip it in a bowl of warm water. The dough should form a coarse shaggy ball. Let it rest, uncovered, for 5 minutes.
Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium-low speed for 2 minutes or knead by hand for about 2 minutes, adjusting with flour or water as needed. The dough should be smooth, supple, and tacky but not sticky.
Whichever mixing method you use, knead the dough by hand on a lightly floured work surface for about 1 minute more, then transfer it to a clean, lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, then immediately refrigerate overnight or for up to 4 days. If the dough feels too wet and sticky, do not add more flour; instead, stretch and fold it one or more times at 10-minute intervals, as shown on page 18, before putting it in the refrigerator. (If you plan to bake the dough in batches over different days, you can portion the dough and place it into two or more oiled bowls at this stage.)

On Baking Day:

Remove the dough from the refrigerator about 2 hours before you plan to bake. Gently transfer it to a lightly floured work surface, taking care to degas it as little as possible. For baguettes and batards, divide the cold dough into 10-ounce (283 g) pieces; for 1 pound boules, divide the dough into 19-ounce (53 g) pieces; and for freestanding loaves, use whatever size you prefer.
Form the dough into batards and/or baguettes (see pages 21 and 22) or boules (see page 20). Mist the top of the dough with spray oil, loosely cover with plastic wrap, and proof at room temperature for about 1-1/2 hours, until increased to 1-1/2 times its original size.
About 45 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 550°F (288°C) or as high as it will go, and prepare the oven for hearth baking (see page 30).
Remove the plastic wrap from the dough 15 minutes prior to baking; if using proofing molds, transfer the dough onto a floured peel.
Just prior to baking, score the dough 1/2 inch deep with a serrated knife or razor. Transfer the dough to the oven, pour 1 cup of hot water into the steam pan, then lower the oven temperature to 450°F (232°C).
Bake for 12 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for another 15 to 25 minutes, until the crust is a rich golden brown, the loaves sound hollow when thumped, and the internal temperature is about 200°F (93°C) in the center. For a crisper crust, turn off the oven and leave the bread in for another 5 minutes before removing.
Cool the bread on a wire rack for at least 45 minutes before slicing or serving.

Variation:

By simply varying the method so that the shaped loaves undergo cold fermentation, rather than the freshly mixed bulk dough, you can create a spectacular loaf with a distinctive blistered crust. After the dough is mixed and placed in a clean, oiled bowl, let it rise at room temperature for about 90 minutes, until doubled in size. Divide and shape as described above, mist with spray oil, then cover the shaped dough loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate it overnight, away from anything that might fall on it or restrict it from growing.
The next day, remove the dough from the refrigerator 1 hour before baking. It should have grown to at least 1-1/2 times its original size. Prepare the oven for hearth baking, as described on page 30. While the oven is heating, remove the plastic wrap and let the dough sit uncovered for 10 minutes. Score the dough while it’s still cold, then bake as described above.

Black olive rolls

Onion and caraway rolls

Glazed knot rolls

There are lots more excellent recipes in Peter’s book – you can buy it here >

December 19, 2012 Beetroot

Beetroot and Kummel Cured Salmon, with a cucumber salad

I was at a shooting party recently and was served beetroot and vodka cured salmon as a starter – it was absolutely delicious. Light, tangy, the cucumber salad adding a refreshing bite. I found a number of variations on-line which I’ve adapted to produce my perfect variation – it’s a bit more Scandinavian than the original, and a little more fragrant.

For the salmon
500-600g (1lb 2oz-1lb 5oz) side of salmon, boned, with skin left on
1tbsp coriander seeds
1tbsp fennel seeds

1tbsp caraway seeds

1tbsp cumin seeds
½tsp black peppercorns
2tbsp coarse sea salt
1½tbsp granulated sugar

3tbsp Kummel
zest ½ lemon
150g (5oz) raw beetroot, peeled and grated (wear gloves)
3tbsp grated horseradish
2 sprigs flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

For the cucumber salad 1 cucumber, peeled, deseeded and ribboned
Handful of breakfast radishes, finely sliced (optional)

A few candy beetroot, finely sliced (optional)

For the salad dressing

3tbsp white wine vinegar
1tbsp caster sugar
3 sprigs dill, roughly chopped

Preparation:

Check the salmon for any small pin bones, and remove with fish tweezers if necessary
Mix together the spices, grinding to a not too-fine powder in a pestle and mortar or spice blender
Add the remaining ingredients and mix together until evenly distributed
If using a chamber vacuum packer, distribute a small amount of the mixture on the bottom of the bag, and put in the salmon fillet, skin side down. Put the remaining mixture into the bag and seal at normal pressure. The salmon can remain like this in the fridge for several days.
If you don’t have a vac-pac, line a baking tray with cling film, and place the salmon fillet onto it, skin side down. Cover with the marinade, and wrap fully in cling film. The cure will draw out some of the fish’s moisture, and result in a firmer flesh. To enhance this, you can place another baking sheet on top of the fish and weight it down. The mixture needs to be left for at least 24 hours, and the colour will develop the longer you leave it. On colour, you could also consider using golden beetroot at this time of the year, which will give the salmon a brighter colour.
Open (or uncover) the fish, and clean off the marinade under cold water… Try to avoid getting too much water into the grain of the fish, and then pat dry with kitchen paper.
Prepare the cucumber by slicing it finely on a mandolin. Pop it into a colander and sprinkle it with 2tsp of salt. This will crisp up the cucumber and draw out any excess fluid… Rinse of the cure and dry the cumber (I usually spin mine gently in a salad spinner, rather than squeezing it).
If using the radishes, slice them to a similar thickness on a mandolin or by hand. They accentuated the pepperiness of the horseradish, and echo the pinkness of the salmon cure
If using the candy beetroot, keep them away from the other ingredients until the last minute, as the colours can leech from the candy stripes
Mix together the dressing, and when you’re ready to serve, dress the cucumber (and optional elements) with the dressing and leave for 5 minutes.
Slice the salmon finely with a salmon knife – do not put your hand on the salmon, and cut the pad off your finger, as I did one Christmas morning! Serve the salmon and salad together. You could also grate chilled horseradish over the dish at the last minute – Alain Passard did this on one dish we had, and it made a delightful addition!