Home-made Crumpets!

Making your own crumpets is one of those seemingly pointless Foodie things to do which usually produces the question “what’s the point when you can buy eight of them for a quid etc”. Well much like Everest because they are there! And well they taste much lighter and have moist airy bready texture and flavour.

I didn’t have any “crumpet rings” so made some out of greased tin foil folded into a strip and then into a circle; they worked well in a one off way.

And see I got all the way through without making any “Carry on” style jokes!




Adapted from Jo' Pratt recipes
Preparation time: 1-2 hours
Cooking time: 10 to 30 mins
Makes 18 crumpets (I made half these amounts and made 8½ ish with one for the pan!)

Ingredients
•450g/1lb plain flour, sifted
•½ tsp salt
•1 tsp sugar
•2 tsp/1x7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
•300ml/½ pint warm milk
•300ml /½ pint warm water
•vegetable oil
•4 crumpet rings or 7.5cm/3in plain pastry cutters, greased

Preparation method
1. Place the flour and salt into a large bowl and stir in the sugar and yeast making a well in the centre. Pour in the warm milk and water and mix to give quite a thick batter. Beat well until completely combined and cover with a tea towel or cling film.
2. Leave in a warm place to rise for about an hour until it's a light, spongy texture. Stir well to knock out any air and pour into a large jug. ( I put the bowl over another bowl of warm water)
3. Heat a non-stick frying pan over a very low heat (I had to turn up 2 to 3 on my electric hob) with a drop of oil. Wipe the pan with kitchen paper to remove excess oil. Sit the greased crumpet rings in the pan and leave to heat up for a couple of minutes.
4. Pour in enough mixture to fill the rings just over halfway up the sides. Leave to cook until plenty of small holes appear on the surface and the batter has just dried out. This will take about 8-10 minutes. I would make one first to get the heat right slightly hotter temp made them cook properly.
5. Remove the rings and turn over the crumpets to cook for a further minute or two on the other side. Sit the first batch of crumpets on a wire rack while continuing to cook the remaining mixture.
6. A light toasting brings out the flavour perfectly and cooks them through totally.

Gin & lemon granita

Gin & lemon granita
Originally uploaded by bltphoto

It's too hot so I made some frozen gin and tonic

Gin & Lemon Granita
Serves 4(ish)
What you need
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 ½ lemons
Pint of warm water
5-7 tables spoons of sugar
Large slug of gin (I used Hendricks)
To serve: Lemon or mint optional


What to do
1. Dissolve the sugar in water
2. Add the rest of ingredients
3. Taste and add more gin or sugar as appropriate
4. Freeze
5. Break up lumps of ice as they form repeat every 40-60 mins
6. Should form rubblely ice crystals
7. Takes 2-4 hours to freeze

new toastie flavour discovered possibly:

Just a quick one: Just made a spinach and feta toastie (recipe 1/2 block of feta, one tin squeezed spinach 1/2 onion found in fridge& blasted in microwave all whizzed  up, seasoned  and toasted to steamy loveliness makes about 4) do you get them in cafes if not why not it was delish.
Anyway has anyone spotted the same sort like Borek or similar?

meat balls like ma... well actually

meat balls like ma... well actually
Originally uploaded by bltphoto

We use have them out of a tin!
I was inspired by the recipe in the paper today.  I have made meatballs before and  I had most of the ingredients in so it seemed a nice idea . I didn't soak the bread just loosed the mixture with some of the pasta sauce (a tip I read about in a Scorsese's interview!) oh and I included some smoked bacon in the meatball mix which I cooked with the onions. It's a good   little recipe.
ps. Didn't have any Parmesan and I rather like cheddar.

In a Pickle

In a Pickle
Originally uploaded by bltphoto

Here's my first go at pickling my own. I salted them first to crisp them up, made sure to use cool liquid through out (keeps the crunch better)I did try boiling my own vinegar but it fills the flat with the worst fumes!
So use the ready made sarsons stuff. Oh and get a good film to watch while you peel the tiny onions.

Now I only need to make a loaf churn some butter and curdle some cheddar and I'll have urban(e) ploughmans (i've got some decent apples)

A Bit Parky!

Winter draws on
The wind seems to be determined to blow the all the leaves off in one go today and stick them with the greasy rain to the fogged up living room window, it's 10.30 in the morning and I've got the light to write this :(

Some ways to fend off winter: well I made some Parkin the other day, our S sent us this recipe from the WI baking book. I basiclly doubled up the recipe and it made 2 loaf tins worth (it's handier as this way as you just add a small tin off golden syrup and one of black treacle and don't have to weigh them out etc so everything doesn't get covered in syrup).

I used these oats because I couldn't get fine oatmeal also I like the pop art box!. Also one critism of Parkin can be that it's a mouthful of faintly gingery dry crumbs to combat this I added extra ginger and also add a splash more milk (basically if the batter not runny before it goes into teh oven it's not going to get any moister).

Also I tried to undercook it and also took it out of the tins quickly to stop it over cooking. Then all you have to do is wait at least a week for the spicey treat in it's silver foil shroud to mature and serve with some strong tea.

and because puns cheer me up he's Parky to with your Parkin.

Update:
Delayed posting this as I managed to "kill" my phone in the middle of getting the pictures off it :(  Thankfully while I was stomping round the flat looking for my old phone my new had a rest and decided to talk to me again!!! So :)

King 'O' Soup returns

Taking the beet route
They had some fresh boiled big beetroot in the greengrocers the other day so I bought them not knowing quite what I would do with them. Anyway today was grey so I made soup I’d hesitate to call it “Borscht”
so Ruby Red Beetroot Soup will do.





Feeds about 4
Cooking time about an hour (mostly 20 mins of simmering)
What you need:
Couple of pounds of beetroot peeled and cubed (mine was already parboiled by the grocer)
1-2 rasher of bacon chopped (probably didn’t need this)
2 small/medium turnips peeled and cubed
2-3 medium shallots chopped
3 stalks of celery chopped
3 cloves of garlic.
2-3 bay leaves
4-6 peppercorns
A big pan of stock (2 litres?) I used some cubes.
Splash of oil.

Garnish: all optional croutons, feta, lemon juice, oil, chopped herbs (I used sage)
What to do:
1.Heat the oil and fry the bacon (not sure I’ll bother with this next time my reading pointed to sort 2.beefiness to Borscht but don’t think it needed it)
3.Add the veg excluding the beetroot and garlic let it sweat down add enough oil so it doesn’t stick.
4.When things have started to sweat down 5- 10 mins add the beet root and garlic and then pour in the water and add bay leaves and pepper corns.
5.Cover and bring to boil and leave to simmer for 30-40 mins (the beetroot and celery need to be soft and cooked.
6.REMOVE THE BAYLEAVES (I FORGOT)
7.Then in batches whizz up in your blend etc.
Because I’d whizzed the bay leaves I had to sieve the pulp which gave it a nice texture.
8.Return to the pan.
9. And re heat then check the seasoning and because I was out of lemon I added a splash of vinegar for tartness and splash of Tabasco for heat.

10.Then serve with an artful arrangement of croutons, cheese and sage (which gave an intense
aromatic waft as you tucked in)

" I really love your dumplings"

"Money where my mouth is time. "
He’s my masterchef tea:
Saffron Chicken broth with Butternut squash dumplings.

This is sort of rough chicken soup made golden with saffron. The dumplings where just a last minute idea of a way to use up a bit of roast dinner they are very light and well who doesn’t like dumplings!

Here’s the ingredients:
The measurements are rough because well it’s not that sort of soup.
1 and half litres of stock (from the roast chicken)
A carrot, a parsnip, a small fennel bulb, 3-4 sticks celery diced small.
A quarter of a cabbage (shredded)
The remains of a roast cooked chicken.
Half a roasted mashed butternut squash (left over from the roast dinner)
2-3 dessert spoons on flour
Pinch of saffron.
Splash of olive oil

Here’s what to do:
Serves 3-4.
Preparation: about the length of Masterchef double edition!
1. Sautee the diced veg except the cabbage and the tops of the celery.
2. When the veg has softened add the stock and saffron and simmer for 10 minutes with the lid on.
3. While the soups cooking make the dumplings stir the flour into the squash to make a firmer paste you can season it a little as well. And roll into 2 cm balls (they swell a bit). Leave aside for later.
4. Next shred the cooked chicken and add to the soup and cook for a further 10 minutes with the lid on.
5. Stir in the shredded cabbage and celery tops into the soup
6. And then gently added the dumplings (make sure there’s some free liquid for them to float in so add extra stock or water if needs be)
7. Cover with lid and cook until the dumplings are cooked this depends on the size etc but is about 5-10 mins (I often slice one open to check they are done)
8. Check the seasoning and serve.

The dumplings would obviously go very well with a veggie soup perfectly

Coffee Granita

Coffee Granita
Originally uploaded by bltphoto

Credit crunch cooking

I only chose the title as it was alliterative as most good cooks are careful and thrifty with food whatever the state or the “markets” (wasn’t life simpler when the phrase “the market was bad to day” meant they’d sold out of the caulis on your usual stall and had to got to the pricey but not as good one near the bakers...).

Here’s an idea for a cheap, sophisticated and delish afters, pudding, sweet, dessert....

Coffee Granita.
I made a bit too much coffee yesterday, I could have blasted it in the microwave later but had a mind to make a granita. I made Campari one earlier in the year which was excellent.

I searched around for a recipe; Delia suggested one that used a pint of espresso, but having had loads of Campari granita last time I decided to drastically reduce the amounts involved.

Tip of the Day: when I’m making soup, ices (you know fluid based food) I often measure the initial water/liquid in the bowls I’ll be serving the finished dish in so as to make the right amount (I add a couple of spares for good measure)

Ingredients:
Fresh espresso half a pint 300 ml approx.
50 g of sugar to taste.
A 500 ml plus lidded plastic box for mixing and freezing

I think my cafetiere had about half a pint of java in it.
I was out of loose sugar and only had cubes left so I put a handful of cubes say 10-12 Delia suggests 110 g of sugar for a pint.

Sorry for being slap dash but what I did was taste the mixture to see how sweet it was when it was little too sweet I stopped with the sugar. (Remember cold food tastes blander)

I did add the odd spoon of instant coffee to pep up the flavour because I was using filter rather than espresso.
Next it was into the freezer. After an hour or so you need to check how it is setting and mash up the solid ice at the edge with a fork.

I think it took about 3-4 four hours to set and forked in the frozen ice crystals about 3 times during this time. It’s very simple much less bother than washing up an ice cream mixer actually.

I served it in espresso cups. Even a half pint made a large amount (ice is 9% bigger in volume than water thanks A) plenty in fact for at least 6 people as it’s delish but a strong flavour.

Alternatives.
If I was doing it for larger group I would have perhaps served it with spoon full of good vanilla ice cream or may be a small amount clotted or sweeten whipped cream.

You could swap some of the sugar for a few glugs of Tia Maria in the liquid. The alcohol in the Tia Maria will stop the ice from freezing like the sugar does, so don’t put too much in a couple of measures tops.

Like I say it’s an adult dessert that is easy to make; you could probably make it the day or night before and bring it out of the freezer 10 minutes before you need it and just loosed it up with a fork making it ready to serve.

Spanish food name of week:
Tia Maria is Spanish for “Aunty Mary”

Bitter sweet endings

I went out to eat the other day and had some very good food; well the starter and the main course were good. Unusually I had a pudding and as usual I was disappointed. The desert was so ridiculously sweet it could have come with squirty cream, 100’s and 1000’s, white chocolate buttons and in a sugar bowl and you wouldn’t have noticed. So I decided to try something a bit more grown up or perhaps just not as sweet.

Campari & Grapefruit Granita.
Campari like anchovies, olives, capers et al is one of those tastes you grow into but once you get it you can’t go back, maybe you do get bitter in your old age after all!

I’m not sure I actually made a granita as it was closer to sorbet but it was jolly nice and crucially not too sweet, I think even people who don’t like Campari might like it. Its wonderfully pink and sharp tasting. Its best eaten on the day but can be frozen for few days and left to melt a little and broken up with a fork before eating.

Weights and measures:
I got the basic recipe from here, I’ve never bothered to find the conversion table for American cups so I just used a mug. It made about enough for 6-8 to have a tasteful amount, I would just treat the amounts as proportions. I use boxed juice as I couldn’t be bothered to clean my juicer after squeezing a few grapefruits, I’m sure it would even better made from fresh. Using blood grapefruit would add to the pinkness!

Ingredients:
1/2 mug sugar
3 &1/2 mugs of Grapefruit juice
1/3 mug Campari (depending on how strong you like it)
Flat plastic box with lid

Method and changes:
The difference I made to the recipe was to use all juice, I didn’t heat up the liquid just stirred the sugar till it dissolved. Then pour in the Campari. I tasted it before freezing and added a splash more Campari for good measure. Bear in mind that it will taste sweeter before freezing, as cold food in general needs more seasoning; don’t add too much booze as the alcohol may stop the thing freezing at all! Then after 40 mins. you stir it to break up the ice crystals, keep doing this until it looks like frozen rice or grains hence the name.

Timings:
As to prep time it took 10 mins. to make and about 4-5 hrs in fridge to freeze to the loose texture I needed, I used a deep dish for space reasons; use a shallow bowl and it will take less time.

Enjoy!

The Cornershop cook

Gnocchi A la Deptford (via Austria).

Thought I'd share me tea with you!
One good blog I found lately is "Dinner for One" which is written by Gerda (?) who lives in Austria (but posts in excellent English). It's a good food blog chatty with excellent pictures, anyway she made some gnocchi and they looked good, so here's my attempt.

They are not as pretty as her's they should be finger sized and Gerda has finer fingers than me! I won't repeat the recipe here as her's works fine, mine where lovely and fluffy and I had them with some tomato and basil sauce, the basil a frozen remnant of last summer's crop!

One trick when making the gnocchi add the egg before any water to stop them getting too sloppy and you then having to add any more flour. The recipe makes stacks so I froze them on a baking sheet and then bagged them up for later (oh get me domestic Goddess sorry God!).

Anyway give them a go!