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Lemon Delicious

I’ve been struggling with the recipe from my PWMU cookbook, so I was happy to find this one works well!  (Makes a lot)

50g (1 ½ oz) butter
1 cup castor sugar
finely grated rind of 2 lemons
4 eggs, separated
1/3 cup self-raising flour, sifted
juice of 3 lemons
1 ½ cups milk
Method:

Preheat oven to 140-160°C and boil as much water as you can.

Beat the egg whites until stiff, then beat in 1/2 the sugar until the mixture is glossy.
Cream the butter with the remaining sugar and the lemon rind. Beat in the egg yolks and then the flour, lemon juice and milk.
Gently mix the lemon preparation into the egg whites and pour into an ovenproof dish.
Stand dish in a water-bath coming half way up the sides. Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes until set and lightly browned.

Serve straight away with cream or ice-cream.

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food recipes

Cassoulet

Cassoulet can be as quick and easy or as long drawn out and complicated as you make it. Ditto for the costs! Everyone makes it differently, below is my preferred method/mix. Confit duck legs are a traditional part ingreditent. If you want to confit them, recipe follows, but you need start 2 days to 2 months in advance. Apparently they improve with age. I’m a bit unsure about that, as I’m not sure of my skills at providing a cover fat cover thick enough to keep all mould at bay. So I would start about a week in advance. If you forget completely you can either buy confit duck legs (very expensive) or just slow fry them in their own fat for about 2h whilst you’re putting the rest of the cassoulet together.

I have to admit using tinned beans is much quicker & easier…

To make the enough confit duck legs for 2 cassoulets (takes 2 days): 4 large duck legs
50g rock salt
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4-6 thyme sprigs
5 broken bay leaves
10 crushed garlic cloves
750g extra rendered goose or duck fat (in a tin, I don’t bother though)
48h before you cook mix the above except for fat, rub into the skin & meat of legs of duck & put on a tray in the fridge for 24h, then remassage. After 48h scrape off the seasonings & put to one side.
Heat a frypan to moderate, put the legs in skin down & brown, then turn & brown. I then return the seasonings, turn them back on their skin (to render out the fat) & shallow fry in their own fat at a low heat with a lid on for about 2h, turning occasionally.
Alternatively after browning, put the legs in a preheated oven (150 deg C) with the extra fat & seasonings & cook for about 2h. To preserve them place in a large jar with lid, & pour over enough warm liquid fat to cover completely. Let fat go hard & cover with lid, keeps for months in the fridge. If you don’t have enough fat, smear them in fat & wrap in clingfilm

The cassoulet itselt:

2 confit duck legs
500g – 700g shoulder of lamb (or leg if you prefer), deboned & diced to about 3cm pieces
3 Toulouse sausages (or other coarse garlicky sausages
if you like 500g fresh pork belly in 3cm cubes (I don’t usually use it)
1 large onion chopped
6 garlich cloves, chopped
5 large tomatoes, chopped
150g breadcrumbs

The Beans:
600g dried beans soaked overnight (I use a mix with lima, haricot, borlotti, haricot is traditional)
1 large onion, peeled & stuck with 4 cloves
2 peeled garlic cloves
1 bouwuet garni (bay, thyme, parsley stalks)

Drain the beans, cover them with fresh cold water about 3cm higher than bean lever, add the other bean ingredients, bring to the boil & simmer until beans are tender but retain their shape (1.5-2.5h). Add a little extra water if they start looking dry, but allow the liquid to thicken & become saucy at the end of the cooking. Season, remove & discard the onion & bouquet garini.

Whilst the beans are cooking melt 2tbs of duck fat & brown all the meats one after the other, sausages last & set them aside separate to the other meats. Cut the duck legs into chunks & the sausages into 4 chunks. Then add the onion & garlic to the pan & cook on low until softened. Add the tomatos & a little water & simmer ~ 20min until you have a rich & pulpy sauce.

The cassoulet will be cooked in an around 3L crockpot (we’ve got an IKEA Le Creuset imitation), so if you think your beans & other ingredients won’t all fit in your pot, reserve some of the beans (you can freeze them for next time). When the beans are cooked stir in the tomato sauce & check the seasoning (don’t forget the meats are salty, esp. the duck), stir in the meats (except for the sausage). Sprinkle over a layer of breadcrumbs (no more than 1/3 of them) & then drizzle some melted duck fat over them & place uncovered in a preheated 140-150 deg oven for 2-2.5h. Check occasionally & break teh crust & add more crumbs. If the mixture becomes too dry, make a hole in the crust & pour in some water. Before the final layer of breadcrumbs (1/2h before it is finished, press the sausage chunks into the beans surface so they become crusty too, then add the last layer of crumbs. The beans should be melting & creamy & the meats tender, the crust deep, crisp & golden. Serve with a rustic red wine – something strong & tannic e.g. a nice ‘black wine’ from Cahors or Madiran would be appropriate.

I like to make servings slightly smaller & have heaps of broccoli on the side.

Categories
food recipes

Our Ideal Chilli con carne

the chilli con carnage made with my friend’s roadkill wallaby was good, but this is better!

This is a pretty simple recipe, just start a good 2.5h in advance & don’t forget to soak the beans overnight if you’re using dried ones. (Or cover them with heaps of boiling water about 4h before intended use if like me you forget!)

Quality of ingredients is paramount, try to get your cooking chorizo from a spanish specialist & ask for one that is best suited to stewing. We got our meat from Riverford (organic) & it tastes superb, maybe it is what made the difference so I’d recommend a quality organic if possible (from the producer rather than a supermarket).

500g beef mince
500g beef stewing steak diced
250g cooking chorizo (probably 3-4 sausages depending on size)
I used approx 250g each of haricot & lima beans soaked overnight in heaps of water
+ one tin of kidney beans (400g)
2 large onions, chopped
4+ cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tsp spanish hot paprika (smoked) – I used El Ruisenor brand (yum)
2 tbs vinegar of your choice
2 tsp dark brown sugar
2 x 400g tins of nice tasting tomatoes
6 chopped prunes
2 bay leaves
scant 1 tsp oregano
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Drain & rinse the soaked non-tinned beans and put them in a large pan of fresh water. Bring to the boil, boil hard for 10min then simmer gently until soft (time depends on size can take up to 2h), drain, reserving 500mL of the cooking liquid.

Whilst the beans are cooking brown the meats in batches, transferring the browned meat to a large saucepan. Then sweat the onions & garlic in the oil left in the pan (adding a little water if necessary) until transparent. Add to the meat along with all other ingredients except for the beans. Bring to the boil & simmer gently, stirring regularly. If it begins to look dry use some of the water from the beans. Cook for around 1 – 1.5h until the meats have softened & mixed with the sauce. Add the beans for the last 20+ minutes of cooking, season.

I served it with toasted pittas and creme fraiche.

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food recipes vegetarian

Pasta with pumpkin, sage and mozzarella

Pasta con zucca, salvia, e mozzarella

I found this great recipe book in my local bargain basement bookshop, the thing I really like about it is that the recipes are regional and authentically Italian: not just the standard dishes found in every Italian restaurant! The measurements used are mine, as the recipe book uses ounces….

Ursula Ferrigno’s Trattoria: A passion for Italian Food

I have been contemplating using ricotta rather than mozzarella & butter, but my friends say it was perfect as is, so don’t meddle with it!

Serves 4
Olive oil
~ 600g pumpkin
1 bag of mozzarella in brine (220g I think?), drained & diced
30-40g butter (i.e. a lump a little bigger than the 25g marking on your pack)
2 garlic cloves, peeled & crushed
12 fresh sage leaves, plus extra to serve
juice & zest of 1 lemon
400g pasta (conchiglie or orichette, as per below)
grated parmesan

Put the mozzarella, butter, garlic, sage, lemon zest & juice, salt & pepper into a food processor & blend to a coarse paste. Make into a roll in cling flim & wrap with alfoil & chill.

Chop the pumpkin into small pieces (I leave the skin on, but it’s up to you!) season with salt & pepper, coat in olive oil & roast until tender & golden-brown – I use the vegetable roasting function on my combination microwave oven which is very quick, easy & tastes just as good as pure oven roasting.

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, cook the pasta according to the manufacturer’s instructions, or if you’ve made the pasta yourself until it rises to the top – usually 3 mins.  Drain well.

Add the pumpkin to the drained pasta and slice in the mozzarella roll (crumbly texture), toss until the cheese has melted and it’s well mixed and divide the mix between 4 bowls, topped with parmesan and the reserved sage.

Categories
food recipes

Making orichette

Last night I thought it would be easier (& nicer) to make my own orichette than to buy commercial conchiglie.  Well it definitely tasted good.  Making pasta is pretty simple really – as always start with good quality ingredients – I used 00 organic ‘pasta’ flour from my local online retailer (Ocado) which had a grittiness different to normal flour & really worked well, & of course free range organic eggs.

Take  one medium egg to each 100g of flour, add some olive oil if the dough doesn’t form a mass hanging off the dough hook of your mixer after about 5 min.  Room temperature eggs would definitely help!  Some recipes suggest that adding salt to the dough causes it to take up water so I don’t do this.  After the dough is mixed (it should be really stiff, don’t add too much oil or water!) wrap it in cling film and leave it to relax in the fridge for an hour or so.

After struggling making little thumb hats for about an hour Julian came to my help with an array of YouTube videos which he played sequentially so that I could watch them whilst making (the advantage of being in a tiny appartment).  The problem though is that the Nonna’s are so fast that it’s hard to track what they do!  So below is my description of how it worked best for me, refer to said videos to get a graphic impression!

Roll a piece of dough out into an approx 1cm diameter roll.  Using a sharp flat bladed knife (I used my Santoku knife) slice a 3-5mm thick slice off the end, then turn the knife on its side to smear out the pasta, as the pasta appears from under the knife (I needed to use quite a lot of pressure) put your thumb on it and as more pasta is extruded, move your thumb onto the new part (this gives the dough it’s typical hat shape).  When the slice has been completely smeared, turn the hat inside out & there you have your orichette!  It took me 2.5h to make 400g of flour worth of pasta, but the result was worth it and I expect to get quicker.

N.B. on one of the videos the nonna said she mixed the flour with a couple of tbs of boiling water, rather than egg, each egg being approx 60g & if we assume it has a slightly greater density than that of water, I would expect maybe 50ml per 100g of flour????  I would however be cautious and test it out with half the amount first up!

Also I estimate 100g of flour per person, though I used only 2/3 of the 400g pasta for 4 people – the exact amount depends on how many men are eating and how hungry people are!