That sinking feeling...

For a treat with our morning coffee at the flower course last week, we got served a delicious cake which Rachel said was a River Cottage recipe and she was thrilled to tell us it used honey from her own hives.  I always bake for my craft ladies on a Tuesday evening and so having the book decided to give them a honey wholemeal cake too.

Looks nicely risen in the photo above, doesn't it? Not the case... as soon as I took it from the oven it sank before my very eyes and dramatically at that!

It was almost as if it got sucked down!  After the suggested cooking time, I thought it still looked a little wobbly, but having four eggs in it I wasn't that surprised.  Nevertheless I gave it another 10 minutes.  Very frustrating, especially when you are all set to share with what are now almost professional cake-tasters!

The recipe said that the middle would be a dense, honey-filled sensation but I would say it was a soggy mess.  I wasn't too proud to offer a trimmed cake and it was delicious.

I'm curious though, as to what went wrong.  The recipe link above is from an article in The Guardian and I have noticed that there are a few dissimilarities from the recipe in the book.  It uses more butter  (and I thought 300g of butter was a lot, but this version says 350g!), more sugar and the oven temperature is 10 degrees lower.  Oh, and the tin size is 1cm bigger!  I'm tempted to try out this version and see what happens.

Any thoughts on that sinking feeling?  Answers in the comment box please.

Ugly duckling…

Abel and Cole introduced me to celeriac last year when it turned up in one of my vegetable boxes and it has now become one of my favourite winter vegetables.

 

 

It is probably the ugliest of vegetables but looks can be deceiving.  I have tried it mashed but wasn’t that keen and I have also grated it raw into a coleslaw, which was very nice.  But my favourite way to cook it is as a creamy, garlicky dauphinois.

 

 

Having peeled it, I use my mandolin to slice it finely.

 

 

Then I layer it in a shallow dish, sprinkling it liberally with garlic and salt and pepper between the layers. 

 

 

Lazily, I like to use this chopped garlic.

 

 

Then I add the cream and milk mixture, dot with some butter and grated nutmeg and cook it slowly for 1 1/2 hours.  I use this Delia recipe, substituting the potato.

 

 

It is transformed into a true swan of a vegetable dish and it is just delicious with roast lamb.

For pudding, I made Petit Filoux’s mincemeat strudel with the leftover mincemeat from Christmas.  It too, was delicious.  Another Sunday passes with food being the main theme to the day.

5 a day...

My family like to come to lunch with me on a Sunday because they love the vegetables!  I love that they are in season, local and organic.  I love that they are things that, unless they were delivered to me, I perhaps wouldn't necessarily buy.

Acorn squash and sweet potatoes will be roasted in olive oil, with a sprinkling of herbs.

Carrots and the most photogenic cauliflower will be steamed.

Green cabbage plus a few curly kale leaves left from last week, will be lightly cooked in boiling water.

And the onions?  Three of them will go into the pot of goulash that is cooking slowly in the oven.

After all that goodness, I think we deserve a sticky toffee pudding...

Happy Sunday!



Forever Summer...

...is one of my favourite cookery books.  There are now plenty of recipes I use that summer just doesn't seem complete without now. 

Today we had the best Greek Salad, although I left out the fennel because I was trying to feed us all economically and just use what I had in the fridge.  It was a shame really, because the fennel adds a nice freshness to the salad.  I didn't have a Romaine lettuce either but the one that came in my veg box was nice and crispy anyway.  I also had 2 bags of baby spinach so I made Jamie Oliver's Italian spinach and ham flan from this book and I can report that it was absolutely delicious.  Add to that a potato salad, a raw courgette salad and some freshly cooked beetroot and it was a wonderful al fresco lunch.

Oh, and there was bread.  Freshly baked this morning from the Ottolenghi Cookbook.  Cut up into chunky wedges and dipped in extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, it was good.  Very good.  It requires you to start it the day before you want to bake it, but is so worth the wait and all being done in my KitchenAid, there is no arm-aching kneading.

For pudding it was Vanilla Shortbread with strawberries and some thick Jersey cream.  As a treat for the children, I also made Sophie Dahl's Clover's Carnation Milk Jelly but the truth is, the adults didn't really let them get a look in!  It was dead easy, just melt a jelly (I used strawberry flavour) with some hot water then when it has cooled add a large tin of Carnation evaporated milk and allow to set.  I absolutely love evaporated milk!

 I love leisurely summer lunches outside...

And another thing...

...that I have learnt in the last few months is... wait for it... courtesy of Rachel Allen, rolling pastry out between pieces of cling film!  I know, thrilling, isn't it?  But it has been a revelation.  No more flour everywhere.  No more uneven, odd-shaped pastry.  Just perfectly rolled pastry.  Goodness knows why I had never thought of it before!  This recipe for lemon tart is well worth making.

I usually make my pastry in my food processor.  Just a few quick whizzes and it's done.  I then tip it out into cling film, pat it down into a round, then wrap up and put it in the fridge for a while to chill.  After half an hour or so, out it came with the flour shaker and hence the mess.  Not any more!  I think it's always been said that the less you handle pastry, and the cooler you can keep it, the better it will be.  This method seems to tick all the boxes.

Rachel also said that you can bake the pastry blind with the cling film using your baking beans rather than foil or baking paper.  She was very reassuring that it wouldn't melt and that it would leave a lovely smooth pastry case.  Of course, she was right!

This year I want to keep on learning stuff like this.  It's important stuff.  Stuff I can pass on down my family and share with others.  Do let me know of any important stuff you think I may need to know!

Seriously good cake...

If you've got a couple of sad looking apples in the fruit bowl that nobody wants to eat, here's just the cake.

It is Seriously Good Cake.

From this book. My copy is now well used, particularly in the loaf chapter.

The recipe suggests making it the night before you want to bake it, just leaving it in the fridge, but I'm not really sure why this is! Any suggestions? It is delicious eaten when still warm with a big mug of tea or coffee and stays nice and moist for a good week. I used a mixture of flaked almonds and chopped hazelnuts - it's great to use up any bits and pieces in the baking cupboard and the last bits of jam that seem to always seem to be lurking in the back of the fridge in spite of new jars being opened.

I didn't really need any more baking books, but I was powerless to resist this:

Check out the malted cupcakes for Fathers Day - YUM!

Biscotti...

Every morning, at about 11am, I like to have a mug of coffee and a biscotti. Home-made, of course. So I thought I would share the recipe that I have used for the past couple of years or so. They are a complete doddle - they probably takes less than 5 minutes to make - there is no fussy weighing, just American cup sizes to measure out with.

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
  
• 3 eggs
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
  
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
  
• 2 cups plain flour
  
• 1 cup nuts - I usually use almonds or hazelnuts or both!

Turn oven on to 150°C/Gas Mark 2 and use a piece of parchment paper to cover a baking tray.

Mix the sugar and eggs in a free-standing mixer and beat until thick. Add flour, salt and baking powder and mix in slowly. Add the nuts. It should have the consistancy of sticky cookie dough (that's very sticky!). Spoon out onto baking tray into a long oval shape and bake for 1 hour.

Remove from the oven and turn oven down to 140°/Gas Mark 1. Leave to cool slightly for 10 minutes.

Cut up into rougly 1/2" slices and place back on baking tray, cut side up. Toast back in oven for 10 minutes each side.

Find a jar big enough to put them in - this one is from Ikea and is the perfect size, even if you do have to break a couple to get them all in snugly...

...display on kitchen windowsill as a reminder that they are a fat-free treat to have daily!

First Harvest...

Having left my wheelbarrow out in my garden on Saturday, fresh from lugging bags of compost from the car, I reckon we have had 6 or 7 inches of rain in the last 2 days, as it is full of water. My garden was in desperate need of a thorough soaking instead of the half-hearted spray from the hose that it gets most evenings, if I can be bothered.

Yesterday I set out to collect my first harvest of the year in the form of broad beans. I sowed the beans last autumn and planted them out in March. Having pinched the tips out to try and prevent black fly (thanks, Jamie Oliver, for the tip!) I collected a colander of pods, plus my morning eggs.

Nestled inside the velvet-lined pods were these little beans.

Exactly what was needed for a radish and broad bean salad from my new favourite cookbook - Ottolenghi, the cookbook.

It was delicious, made with just simple ingredients (although I had to omit the preserved lemon) - radish, broad beans, red onion, coriander, lemon juice and olive oil. Nice and colourful too...

Feeling blue...

When boys make marshmallows, surely they have to be blue?

The KitchenAid came up trumps and we have a box of delightfully squidgy marshmallows.

Seville Orange Marmalade...

When I spotted Seville oranges in Waitrose last week, I knew I had get marmalade making. I used Sarah Raven's recipe from her Garden Cookbook. I made 1 and a 1/2 times the recipe, which made 15 jars of scrummy marmalade.

So, I scrubbed 2.1kg of Seville oranges and put them in a HUGE pan with 3.6l of water and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt and let them simmer away for an hour while I did some ironing...

Saving all the liquid, I then halved the fruit and scooped out all the pith and pips and boiled it with 450ml of water for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, I coarsely sliced the orange peel and added it to the reserved liquid in the HUGE pan. Then, strain the pith/pip mixture, adding all the liquid to the HUGE pan along with the juice of 3 lemons and 4kg of sugar.

Bring slowly to the boil, stirring to ensure all the sugar dissolves and then boil rapidly until setting point is reached... This took nearly an HOUR!!!

Allow it to rest for 20 minutes...

Then pour into warm sterilized jars.

Enjoy the following morning with warm croissants and orange juice...

I also finished the Diamond Cushion for my bedroom.

I took the colour inspiration from the pile of cushions gracing my bed.

So, it's all highly co-ordinated in my bedroom now!

Rock buns...

No 2 has been pestering me for some time to do some cooking. Although I do a fair amount of cooking, his interest to date has been...non-existant!

So, rock buns it was to be. Courtesy of this book. Surprisingly, a good while was spent browsing through it's beautifully photographed pages by him. He was highly impressed by all the photos of sweeties! Of course, the marshmallows are on his to-do list and strangely, a friend left her copy of this book on my kitchen table yesterday, complete with necessary recipe!

I got through a stack of ironing and left him to it. One egg dropped on the floor later and these little lovelies were produced. Of course, we had to have a hot one...de-licious.

They were just what were needed to take in a bag with a flask of coffee to the allotment this morning to have dig. Maybe I need to have another to relieve my sore and aching back ...