I have not written my blog for a few weeks because i have been very busy cooking. At the beginning of March we held a pop-up cafe chez nous and then last weekend i celebrated a big birthday with a party for 65 guests.
Pop-up Cafe
Here is the menu for my first pop-up cafe;
Here is the menu for my first pop-up cafe;
2 oz butter
1 lb potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 onions, peeled and quartered
5 stalks celery, washed and sliced
1 1/2 pts chicken stock
Salt and pepper
1/4 pint of milk
nutmeg
1. Melt the butter and fry vegetables gently for 4 minutes.
2. Add stock and seasoning and bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 40 minutes.
3. Sieve or liquidize.
4. Add milk or some cream, reheat, adjust seasoning and grate in a little nutmeg.
Taken from 'Recipes from the Farmhouse Kitchen', Yorkshire Television, 1975
Mushroom Soup (serves 4-6)
50 grms unsalted butter
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tbsp chopped thyme
800 grms mixed chestnut and button mushrooms (or any type of mushrooms available), cleaned and chopped
800 mls vegetable stock
200 ml creme fraiche
sea salt and black pepper
1. Melt the butter in a non-stick pan, add the onion and garlic and fry until soft.
2. Add the thyme and the mushrooms and cook for another 6-10 mins.
3. Pour in the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 20-25 mins.
4. Liquidize, return to the pan and add the creme fraiche, gently reheat and season to taste.
330 ml water
1.5 tbsps/20 ml Sunflower oil
1.5 tsps/9 grms salt
1 tbsp/14 grms sugar
2.5 tbsps/14 grms powdered milk
600grms strong white bread flour
1 sachet/4.5 grms powdered yeast
2-3 tbsps fresh herbs such as thyme, sage, chives, basil, oregano
1. Put all the ingredients in the order shown into your electric mixer bowl.
2. Using a dough hook mix the ingredients until they form an elastic dough, add a little more water if the ingredients do not stick together or add a little more flour if the dough is too dry.
3. Turn into a large bowl and cover with silver foil, cling film or a clean tea towel and leave somewhere warm to rise.
4. When the dough has doubled in size, pre-heat the oven to 200c, Gas Mark 6. Remove the dough from the bowl, knead it again and divide into twelve balls, place these on a greased tray or in an oven tin. Cook in the oven for 25-30 minutes.
This is a pressure cooker recipe and it is available here;
900 ml/1 1/2 pts vegetable stock
175 grms/6 oz mixed mushrooms, sliced
Juice of 1/2 lemon
75 grms/3 oz butter
2 tbsps/30mls fresh chopped parsley
2 tbsps/30mls olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
275 grms/10 oz risotto rice
120ml/4 fl oz white wine
3 tbsps/45ml Parmesan cheese
salt and black pepper
Parsley to garnish
1. Toss the mushrooms with the lemon juice in a bowl.
2. Melt a third of the butter in a saucepan and fry the mushrooms, stir in the chopped parsley, cook for 30 seconds and then transfer to a bowl.
3. Heat the olive oil and half remaining butter in the saucepan and fry the onions until soft.
4. Add the rice and stir constantly until the grains are evenly coated with oil.
5. Stir in all the mushrooms, add the wine, and cook over a medium heat until the liquid has been absorbed.
6. Add the stock a ladleful at a time, making sure each is absorbed before adding more, and stirring regularly to ensure the rice doesn't stick to the base of the saucepan.
7. When all the liquid has been absorbed, remove the pan from the heat, stir in the remaining butter and the Parmesan cheese and seasoning.
8. Cover the pan and allow to rest for 3-4 minutes before serving.
Based on a recipe taken from the book 'Rice and Risotto' by Christine Ingram, 1999.
The recipe can be found here;
This makes a lot of cookies, you can split the biscuit dough into two and freeze half of it or reduce the ingredients to half to get 1 batch of 40-50 biscuits.
300 grms/10 oz caster sugar
140 grms/5 oz butter
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
2 tbsps milk
550 grms/1lb 4oz plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
200 grms/8 oz glace cherries, chopped
1. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and butter together until pale and creamy.
2. Gradually beat in the eggs, vanilla and milk.
3. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together in a new bowl, then add a few spoonfuls at a time to the butter mixture, stirring with each addition.
4. Fold the cherries through the dough, then shape into 2 logs. Wrap in cling film, freeze one and chill the other for at least 2 hours.
5. Heat the oven to 180c (fan 160c), Gas 4 and grease 3 baking trays. Unwrap the cling film and use a large knife to slice rounds the thickness of £1 coins. Lay the cookies on the tray and bake for 5-10 mins.
Recipe taken from BBC GoodFood magazine, December 2006, recipe by Jane Helm.
As I had to cater for so many and didn't want to be cooking on my bithday I chose recipes that could be made in advance and frozen, here are the recipes;
Pork Madras
This is a combination of two recipes, the first is for the Madras Paste and the second for the Madras Curry, you can find the recipes here;
1.25kg/2lb 12oz stewing lamb, cut into big chunks
4 tbsps olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
good pinch saffron strands
large knob or root ginger, peeled and grated
6 garlic cloves, chopped
4 tomatoes (fresh or canned), each cut into 6
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 cinnamon stick
250grms ready-to-eat apricots
handful of chopped parsley, to serve
clear honey, to serve
1. Season the lamb well. Heat 2 tbsps olive oil in a large casserole dish, brown the meat all over, then remove and set aside.
2. Add another 2 tbsps oil to the pan, then fry the onions, saffron and ginger over a medium heat until the onions are soft and golden. Tip in the garlic, tomatoes and spices, then cook for another minute.
3. Tip in the browned lamb, then just cover with cold water (about 600ml). Put the lid on, bring to the boil slowly and simmer gently for 1 hour (or put into pressure cooker for 12 minutes on 15 bar pressure).
4. Add the apricots, then simmer uncovered for another 30 mins until the meat is tender and the sauce has thickened slightly.
5. Season to taste, the scatter over the parsley and finish with a little honey trickled on top.
Recipe taken from BBC GoodFood magazine, January 2007, recipe by Paul Merrett.
Chicken Gumbo (Serves 8)
This recipe needs to be started the day before you wish to eat it.
For the Rub;
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp cayenne pepper (I used paprika instead)
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
For the Tomato Sauce;
50 grms/2 oz butter
50 grms/2 oz plain flour
1.2 litres/ 2 pints chicken stock
400 grm can chopped tomatoes
For the Gumbo;
4 skinless chicken breasts
8 skinless chicken drumsticks
8 skinless chicken thighs
(I used only chicken breasts and cut them into chunks)
50 grms/2 oz plain flour, for dusting
3 tbsps sunflower oil, for frying
2 eggs (I put these in my first version but didn't like it so left them out of the second version)
25 grms/1 oz butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 green pepper, deseeded and sliced
4 celery sticks, sliced
200 grms chorizo, thickly sliced
50 grms/2 oz cooked ham, chopped
small handful flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1. The day before, mix the rub ingredients together, then rub three quarters of it over the chicken pieces. Leave for up to 24 hours, covered in the fridge. Save the rest of the mix to finish the dish.
2. Next day, make the tomato sauce. In a small bowl, beat the butter and flour together until smooth. Bring the stock to the boil in a large saucepan, then whisk in the flour and butter, whisking until smooth and thickened to about the consistency of double cream. Add the tomatoes, then set aside.
2. Toss the chicken in flour and shake off excess. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large shallow pan, then fry the chicken until lightly golden all over. You may need to do this in batches, using 1 tbsp oil each time. Return legs and thighs to the pan, pour over tomato sauce, then simmer, uncovered, for 30 mins. Add the breasts, then simmer for another 20 mins. until the breast meat is just cooked and leg meat tender.
4. While the chicken simmers, boil the eggs for 10 mins, cool quickly under running cold water, then peel and quarter.
5. Melt the butter in another pan and gently fry the onion, pepper and celery for 10 mins until softened. Add to the chicken pan with the chorizo, ham, eggs, and parsley, also add the rest of the rub from the day before, heat for a few more minutes and then serve.
Recipe taken from BBC GoodFood magazine, January 2007. Recipe by Paul Prudhomme.
Vegetable Tagine
This recipe can be found here;
http://www.greenkitchenstories.com/moroccan-vegetable-tagine/
Last weekend my family came over for my birthday party so I cooked for them also, on Sunday we had Roast Lamb with Garlic and Rosemary, our own home reared lamb. On Monday I made Glazed Hams with Herby Potatoes and Cauliflower Cheese, again the hams were our own home reared, these ones had been cured in a salt brine.
To finish off my food extravaganza on Sunday I made Strawberry Jam with shop bought strawberries (we only planted strawberries last year so don't have enough to make jam). I then made a sponge cake with a strawberry jam and cream filling and some soda bread.
Hwph, need to have a sit down before I start dinner.
