Category: food

It is one of my biggest regrets at this point of my life that I didn’t copy down the cannelet recipe that a German guy posted on a forum in the early noughties, because now it’s gone.

So I will have to attempt to recreate it from memory and other people’s recipes.

I go through a large amount of vanilla beans (my stock of 35 bought 15 months ago is long since gone), so because my blender is not up to cutting up the vanilla beans to make vanilla sugar I just store the beans in a bottle of decent quality rum, which is excellent in cocktails and of course, cannelet!

Cannelets

500mL milk
30 g semi-salted butter
1 vanilla bean, split, or 1 teaspoon vanilla essence, the husks of 3 vanilla beans which have already lost their seeds or just use vanilla rum
100 g plain flour
180 g sugar
3 eggs
80 ml rum

Yields about 20 medium cannelets.

Heat the milk, butter and vanilla (scraping the seeds out first & adding them to the mix) in a medium saucepan (or a pyrex measuring jug in the microwave), to 87 – 90 degrees. In the meantime, combine the flour and sugar in a medium mixing-bowl and break the eggs into the middle.

Pour the milk mixture (which should be at the above temperature still) into the flour + eggs, and whisk until well combined.  This temperature is very important for getting the elements to bind together & the butter to not separate out – I think it has something to do with heating the flour enough to activate it’s properties without cooking the eggs.

Add the rum and whisk well. Let cool to room temperature on the benchtop, then cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours and up to 3 days.

When you are ready to bake your cannelet (or cannele or canele, but imagine the accents in this spelling variants), preheat the oven to 250° C. Remove the batter from the fridge: it will have separated a bit, so whisk until well blended again. Pour into the prepared molds using either a drip free jug or a ladle, filling them approx 2/3 full. Put into the oven to bake for 20 minutes, then (without opening the oven door) lower the heat to 200° C and bake for another 40 to 60 minutes, the exact time is experiential depending on how cooked you like your cannelets, your oven and of course your mould size – if you have the mini moulds which are something like 30 cannelets to a sheet I give them 15mins on 250 then another 20 on 200. The cannelets are ready when the bottoms are a very dark brown, but not burnt (the bottoms being the bit on top when they are in the moulds).

Unmold onto a cooling rack (wait for about ten minutes first if you’re using silicon molds or they will collapse a little) and let cool completely before eating.

I use a silicon mould for this which I had a friend bring in from France, they appear to be surprisingly tricky to find.  You could try other shapes, if possible something substantially taller than its diameter, if you can find a tall muffin tin that may be appropriate, just keep an eye on the cooking times.

Two days ago I had a slice of the most amazing lemon & almond cake – moist, delicious, so here begins my search to recreate it. Luckily there were a lot of great recipes on the web, my main source was:

http://lucullian.blogspot.com/2006/02/almond-and-ricotta-cake-gluten-free.html

2 duck eggs (or 3 chooken eggs)
2/3 cup sugar
100 g almonds put through the blender until fine
75 g salted butter, melted
125 g oz ricotta
zest and rind of 1 lemon (or two if you like it really strongly lemony)

100mL flour

-Whisk eggs and sugar until smooth, add the ground almonds then butter.
– Break up ricotta and add, beat. When the batter is smooth, beat in the flour.
– Pour it into a round 20cm springform cake tin and bake it in a pre-heated oven (180° C) 30 minutes.

I think I baked mine a little too long (as I added an extra 10 mins, but this is probably also because I can’t justify to myself heating up the whole oven for one little cake so I just do it on the oven setting on our microwave.  Next time I will probably make a little syrup with grated rind of a lemon maybe 50g sugar, 20mL water, then add the lemon juice when it has boiled, prick the warm cake all over & pour over the syrup before taking it out of the tin.

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup flour
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 – 1/2 cup chopped cashew nuts (optional)
——————————————–
1/2 tsp bicarb dissolved in 2tbs boiling water
125g butter, melted
2 tbs golden syrup

Preheat oven to 160 deg. Combine first section of ingredients, then mix in the wet ingredients. Place in teaspoonfuls on a greased baking tray. Bake for 15mins or until golden brown.

I’ve been meaning to test the recipe for curing salmon in Charcuterie by MIchael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn for ages but as with all ideas I thought it might take too long. Well we went to Billingsgate fish market with friends recently & I cured it in 5 minutes whilst chatting to them. It tasted fantastic & was so easy! To cure a smaller amount reduce the amount of cure.

1 side of salmon (1-1.5kg), skin on
125g sugar
180g soft brown sugar
175g salt
60mL limoncello / grand marnier / cointreau / other triple sec / extra orange juice
Zest of 2 lemons & 2 oranges
A squeeze of juice from lemon and orange
a pan just big enough to fit the fish

Mix sugars, salt & zests, spread half of the paste on the bottom of the pan
place salmon fillet in pan and sprinkle with liqueur, cover with remaining sugar/salt paste
cover with plastic wrap and weight down with another pan / loaf tin with 2-4kg tins in it
refrigerate for 48h, basting with cure half way through
the salmon should now feel firm to the touch
if not cure for another 24h
when cured rinse well and dry
wrap in butchers paper or greaseproof paper and store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks
this is lovely in sandwiches with creme fraiche & lettuce, on its own as a starter, in salads or with eggs for breakfast

we finished the 1+kg in a week (2 people)

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.

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!

This is my version, adapted from a Gourmet Traveller article found on the net. I made it last night & LOVED it!

I used scallops as well – which is not ideal. With the fish mix, remember that the history of fish soups/stews is that the fishermen used whatever fish couldn’t be sold (too small, unfashionable etc.), so make your own mix of reasonably priced fish. I’m tempted to add green beans to the fish stew, but it’s up to you!

Langostinos al all-i-pebre
6 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
1/3 cup olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
Pinch of cayenne
1 teaspoon smoked hot Spanish paprika (in little tins in the supermarket)2 dried bay leaves
6 ripe, large tomatoes, chopped
1 red capsicum
5 cups fish or vege stock
1 slice woodfired or rustic-style bread, crusts removed
60g pinenuts, roasted (or substitute whatever nuts you have – I used a mix with pistachios)
½ cup flat-leaf parsley leaves
Large pinch of saffron strands, soaked in ¼ cup warm water for 10 minutes
400g (2 cups) Calasparra (paella rice) or arborio rice
800g soild white fish fillets, skinned, pin-boned and cut into 3-4cm pieces
(that said I used a mix of a whole small snapper – the head & bones became my fish stock & trim from a huge tuna fillet)
24 large green prawns, peeled and cleaned, leaving tails intact
Method
Garlic Oil: Cut a slit through skin into each garlic clove. Place in a small saucepan with olive oil and cook, stirring frequently over low-medium heat for 10 minutes or until golden.
Stew part 1: Pour half the garlic oil into a heavy-based saucepan & heat, keep the rest of the oil & cloves separately, add onion, sliced capsicum, cayenne, paprika and 1 teaspoon salt and cook for 5 minutes, then add bay leaves and half the tomatoes and cook, covered, for another 8 minutes or until tomatoes are pulpy. Add 2 cups fish stock, bring to the boil and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes, then set aside.
Rice: Chop 1/2 the garlic from the garlic oil and set aside. Heat remaining garlic olive oil in flameproof casserole, add saffron mixture, reserved chopped garlic and remaining tomato and cook for 5-7 minutes. Stir in rice, add remaining fish stock and 1 teaspoon salt and bring to the boil, cover and cook on a low heat 20-25 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and stand, covered for 5 minutes.
Garnish: Meanwhile, brush bread with a little garlic olive oil and toast on both sides under a hot grill until golden. Cool, then break into pieces. Peel reserved garlic and combine half with bread, pinenuts and parsley and process in a food processor until coarsely chopped.
Stew part 2: Five minutes before rice is ready, bring tomato mixture to a simmer, stir in fish and cook for one minute, add prawns, cover and cook for another 3-5 minutes or until seafood is just tender.
Serve: tomato rice divided among bowls, spoon over fish stew and scatter with nut mixture. Serve immediately with lemon wedges.

Note: For fish stock; heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan, add 1 chopped carrot, 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped leek and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, add any fish bones or prawn shell water to cover & 125ml white wine (if you have & feel like putting in your food) and bring to a simmer, then add 2 litres water, bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes. Strain through a muslin-lined sieve. Makes about 1.8 litres.
I watched Heston Blumenthal recently & he recommends clarifying a stock by freezing it & then letting it defrost into a muslin lined sieve – if you have the time & the frozen stock it could be worth trying! Also Noilly Prat or other vermouth is a traditional thing to put in a fish stock and might be more appropriate for the wine component than your best riesling!