The Cheating Truffled Madeira Sauce

1/2 oz butter
1 long shallot or a small onion, peeled and chopped fine
1 small carrot, ditto
1 stick celery, ditto
3 - 4 brown mushrooms - about 1 1/2 ozs, sliced fine
A splash of oil (walnut or truffle are good)
small teaspoon of plain flour
about a wineglass full of Madeira (not dry)
half a glass red wine
dried thyme or oregano
1 dessertspoon dried porcini
1 tin beef or chicken consomme (Waitrose is very good)
less than 1" squeeze of tomato puree - or, better, sundried tom puree
2 teaspoons truffle paste

Cook the shallot, carrot and celery with the butter, oil and black pepper in a smallish pan till beginning to brown a little.  Be careful about salt at this stage - better to do it at the end.  Add the sliced mushrooms, cook three minutes or so and add the flour, stirring it in well.  Cook the flour for three minutes or so.  Add the Madeira and wine and boil fast for 3 or four minutes till all the alcohol has gone and the liquid has reduced by about 1/3rd.  Add the dried porcini, a good pinch of dried herb and the consomme.  Adjust the heat to a rolling simmer - no bubbles but plenty of movement - and leave to reduce by 2/3rds.  It should be thick enough to coat a spoon. Pour through a conical sieve into a bowl and stir in the truffle paste, taste, add salt and you are done.  Sometimes I fry a few sliced mushrooms and add them back at this stage, sometimes add double cream or creme fraiche, or both.  Occasionally if I want quite a rich sauce, I cut 1/2 oz butter into thin (3/8"?) slices, cube them, put them in the freezer on a plate at an early stage.  Reheat the sauce in a clean small pan and whisk in the frozen butter till it melts and the sauce goes glossy.

Very good over steaks or chops.

Parkin

I had been given Delia Smith's recipe, but, as usual with something I've not made before, looked at several others before starting.  Mine finished up as mostly Mary Berry's, but using Ed Kimber's idea of draught Guiness instead of milk.  MB uses a 7" square tin - mine is 9" so I upped the quantities.  It looks a bit thicker than I expected.

10oz  Black Treacle (or 2/3 treacle and 1/3 Golden Syrup)
8oz    Unsalted butter
6 1/2 oz dark muscovado sugar
10oz   Plain Flour (I used self-raising)
3 good teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 level teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
16oz  Medium oatmeal
2 medium eggs
8fl oz Guiness - I used a tin of draught - creamier and not as sour as bottled Guiness
1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda

Set a deep roasting tin on a medium heat.  When hot but not simmering, sit the treacle tin in it for 5 minutes - this makes it much easier to handle.  Put the oven on to 160C Fan and grease and line the cake tin.
Put a medium saucepan on your scales and set to 0.  Pour in the treacle.  Add the butter and sugar and set onto a low heat until the sugar has dissolved.  Beat the eggs.  Sieve the flour into a large bowl with the bicarbonate and mix the oatmeal with it.  Pour in the treacle/butter/sugar mixture, the eggs and the Guiness.  The mixture should be just about pourable - pour it into the tin and bake.  I was a little surprised that it was done in 45 minutes, most recipes suggest much longer.  Cool in the tin and turn out.  Wrap in greaseproof paper and store for at least 3 days before eating.   In between the turning out and the wrapping, i wentinto the cellar for another bottle of cooks refreshment, and found a bottle of Black Seal rum with a couple of inches left.  It seemed like a good idea to pour this all over the Parkin before the wrapping.  We shall see!

A traditional pudding is apparently Parkin served smothered with stewed apples, so I wonder whether it would be good (and a bit lighter) with cubes of peeled, cored apple folded int the mixture.  It would make the cut slices look better too, I expect.

This was rather dry and crumbly.  I'd love to hear of improvement ideas!

Orange Cake

I have made this many times with lots of variations.  The recipe started from Diana Henry's in Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons, though I think that the original source is Claudia Roden.  The Roden version is just 2 boiled oranges, 8oz each of ground almonds and sugar and 6 eggs.  I've not yet tried it.  Here is mine, for a 34cm rectangular loaf tin.  This will make about 16 slices

2 medium oranges, boiled for an hour or so
2 medium oranges for zest and juice
8oz blanched almonds, ground in a food processor (much better than shop bought ground almonds)
3oz self raising flour
1 level teaspoon of baking powder
4 eggs at room temperature
12oz golden caster sugar
1 1/2 oz semolina (or use more almonds)
a pack of dried cranberries (optional)
butter to grease the tin

For the filling - a 250gm tub of Marscapone, 2 tablespoons good honey, I like to use Acacia, 1 or 2 tablespoons of good, full fat yoghurt and either a teaspoon of ground cardamom or 8 or so crushed amaretti biscuits.

Take the eggs out of the refrigerator to bring them to room temperature. Boil 2 oranges for an hour or so and if possible allow to cool.  If using the cardamom filling, make it now as it improves if it is allowed time for the cardamom to permeate.  If using the amaretti - last minute to keep the crunch of the biscuits.  Grind the almonds in the food processor, and put them in a bowl. Remove the green stalk end of the oranges, split into 1/4s, remove seeds and central pith and whizz in the food processor.

Put the oven on to 160C fan.  Grease and line the baking tin.  In a large bowl (mine is about 18" diameter) beat the eggs and sugar till pale and thick.  Add the zest of another orange.  Sieve the flour and baking powder.  Delia Smith says to do this from a good height to get plenty of air into it - this leaves my kitchen with a thin flour coating everywhere.  I prefer to sieve it two or three times as Dan Lepard suggests.

Fold the almonds, orange pulp, semolina and cranberries if using them, into the eggs and sugar.  Lastly, quickly, lightly and thoroughly fold in the flour.  Pour into the tin and put it in the oven for about 45 minutes, until softly springy.  I let it cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning it out.

Last time I made it the day before which seemed to help the texture which became pleasantly chewy rather than crumbly.

As close as possible to serving time, split the cake horizontally and fill with the marscapone.  I usually ice it as well with the juice of rather less than 1/2 an orange and the zest of the last one.

This cake also works well as a pud, in which case I'd serve the marscapone cream on the side

Zesting - if you don't have one, buy a microplane.  Useful for all sorts of jobs around the kitchen.  

Emma's Ginger Cake

Emma, my niece, is brilliant at lots of things and her Ginger Cake certainly is one of them.  Here is here recipe, verbatim.  I have tried to do it as well as she does and have nearly got there but not quite.  Suggestions at the bottom.

• 175g / 6oz unsalted butter
• 1 large cooking apple (about 230g / 8oz)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 125g / 4oz black treacle
• 125g / 4 oz golden syrup
• 175g / 6 oz dark muscovado sugar
• 350g / 12 oz plain flour
• 1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
• 2 medium eggs
• 150g / 5oz preserved stem ginger in syrup (thinly sliced)
• 3 tablespoons of ginger syrup from the jar above
• 2 teaspoons of ground ginger

1. Preheat the oven to 170C (150C fan).
2. Grease and line the tin (I'd say a 2lb loaf tin or an 8" round tin).
3. Peel and core the apple and put it into a bowl of cold water with the lemon juice.
4. Put the treacle, golden syrup, butter and sugar into a pan and heat gently until the butter melts. Allow to cool slightly.
5. Sift the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl (sifting twice is always a good idea).
6. Grate 3/4 of the apple into the bowl.
7. Beat the eggs well and add with the melted butter / syrup / sugar / treacle mixture and 3/4 of the ginger pieces to the bowl.  Mix well.
8. Pour the mixture into the tin.
9. Thinly slice the remainder of the apple and scatter it with the rest of the ginger pieces over the mixture.
10. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes to one hour 40 minutes.
11. Remove from tin and drizzle over the ginger syrup

Comments.  

a)   Slicing stem ginger is a messy business.  I use Sainsbury/Waitrose chopped ginger and only do enough stem ginger for the top.  Whenever I have made this cake the topping always sinks so recently I have taken to making the slices very thin indeed and putting them on after the cake is cooked.

b)   I would put the syrup on whilst the cake is still in the tin and turn it out later, once it has soaked in.

c)   I find the apple is tricky and that two or three tinned pear halves pureed in a food mixer is as good.  If you want to use fresh pears, then they need to be hard before they are grated or they will go to mush.

d)   If you have some, substitute 1 oz of the flour for 1 oz oatmeal, which adds another texture.

e)   This cake keeps well. Try feeding it with a tablespoon or two of dark rum daily and or some ginger wine if you have some.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Jane Grigson’s Stuffed Mushrooms - 31/12/12

Casting around for something different for new year's eve supper, I found a number of stuffed mushroom recipes in "Mushroom Feast" - the source of the chicken croquettes that are easy and brilliant, but nothing quite seemed to fit, so I stated looking elsewhere.  Several indexes later, I opened another Jane Grigson - "Good Food", and there it was.  Mushrooms stuffed in the style of Berry.  I made a few alterations, culled from some of the other recipes in Mushroom Feast, so this isn't quite exactly as she wrote it, but it is very good.  It looks hard work but really it isn't.

Tips:

·        I have done this several times now, and I think that you can use the shallot or onion raw, which is one less job and it is somewhat better.  I didn’t dare use the garlic raw, but if you cook them for longer as I now do, it should be fine.  I only use Parma ham if I happen to have some in the fridge, and the hard boiled egg is optional too.

·        Try to top up the liquid with porcini juice (or stock) so that you have a small amount of well reduced juice left at the end to pour over the mushrooms before you serve them.

·        I usually put them on to a bed of something – creamy mash into which some well browned leeks or onions have been mixed, or leeks cooked in cream, even, last night, some left over sprouts well chopped and fried in butter and nutmeg.

·        Adding the extra chopped mushrooms lightens the mixture but, again, I would only use them if they were hanging about in the fridge waiting to be used up.

For two quite hungry people:

Four medium or two very large open mushrooms.I used chestnut, but anything will do.

2 good sausages with a high meat content, say Toulouse or Cumberland.

1oz or so of shallots or onion

2 or 3 cloves of garlic

4 or 5 small cornichon/gherkins
2 thin slices of Parma ham (optional)

1 egg (optional)

1/2 oz dried breadcrumbs and milk to moisten

Dried parsley &/or oregano &/or thyme - or fresh parsley if you can get it.  I used a teaspoon of Persillade bought in Arles market.

3 or 4 smaller mushrooms (optional)

Butter. Salt. Pepper. Milk and maybe a touch of cream.

Dry white wine or, better, Dry Vermouth

Half a dozen dried porcini.

Soak the porcini in a cup of boiling water and set aside.  If you can do this an hour ahead, so much the better.  Turn the oven on to 180C to 160C fan.  Our oven needs the higher setting, yours may not.  Hard boil the egg.  Add the dried herbs to the crumbs and moisten with milk.  You probably need three tablespoons.  It will get very solid after a minute or two - don't worry.

Peel the shallots and slice.  Peel the garlic, discarding any brownish bits and splitting the cloves to remove any green shoots, which are bitter.  Slice it finely.  Roll the Parma Ham into a tight cigar and slice as thin as you can.  Carefully remove the stalks from the large mushrooms and add the stalks to the chopping board.

Now chop all these for as long as you can stand it; ideally the mixture should have no piece bigger than a peppercorn.  Heat a generous 1/2 oz of butter in a saute pan and fry over a gentle heat.  After two or three minutes, add a splash of wine/Dry Vermouth, raise the heat and cook till there is little or no liquid left.

Chop the hard boiled egg.  Strain the porcini, keeping the liquid and chop very finely.  (I left them out, most of the flavour is in the liquid).

Chop the cornichons as finely as you can be bothered.  They give a pleasant acidic balance to the richness of the pork. Put the sausage meat in a medium bowl (split and skin sausages if using those) with the egg, the chopped porcini if using them, the cornichons and the mixture from the pan.  Add a little cream or more milk to the crumbs so that they are just workable and add about a well heaped old style tablespoon - I doubt you will need all of them - use your judgement.  They are there to soften the final mixture.  Season with salt and plenty of pepper and mix all together very well indeed with a wooden spoon.

Wipe the pan of any bits, add another 1/2 oz butter and let it get gently hot.  Put the destemmed large mushrooms in the pan and cook slowly for about two or three minutes, then add a good splash (1/2 a wineglass?) of white wine or dry vermouth and turn up the heat.  The idea is that the mushrooms are about 1/2 cooked, so turn them a few times and remove.  Add the porcini liquid to the pan and boil fiercely till reduced by at least half.  You need to be left with about a wineglassfull, say 150cls.

Put the mushrooms gill side up into an ovenproof dish with sides of at least 2".  Divide the mixture and pile it neatly into the mushrooms.  There may be some left over, which is good!  Melt a tablespoon of butter and carefully drizzle it over the mixture.  Put the dish on the oven shelf, and carefully add the liquid, pouring it so that it surrounds the mushrooms but does not touch the stuffing.  Bake for about 20 minutes and have a look.  I put mine under the grill for ten minutes to brown - you may feel that it is not necessary.  The sausagemeat needs to be completely cooked so not less than 30 minutes overall, I think.  You could also cook them for longer and slower, but watch that the liquid does not evaporate completely and burn.

Whilst the dish is cooking, you have a little treat.  Very lightly grease a nonstick pan, get it hot, roll any remaining mixture into cakes about 1" across and half as high, and fry on a high heat till browned.  Very good indeed.  I am going to do some for our 12th Night Party, I think!

Serve, pouring the buttery dark juices over the mushrooms.  We had mashed potato with butter, cream and a little nutmeg in the seasoning, and cabbage cooked in butter, Dry vermouth and cumin seeds.  The recipe is in an earlier post I think.  Mas de Daumas Gassac 1998 which had been opened four hours before and decanted for an hour, which was a magical treat!

It seems long now that I have written it out, but it really is not at all fiddly or painstaking and is well worth the effort.

Chicken Stock

It seems very strange to me that every instruction for stock making suggests that you should bring the liquid up to a simmering temperature.  I use stock a lot, and used to find it rather a chore.  Now it is easy because I cook it very slowly indeed for a long time.  No need to skim or clarify, and you get a beautiful, deep flavour.  

We have a roast chicken for Sunday lunch about every other week.  Once the cats have eaten the legs and thighs (actually cheaper than cat food, and they actually eat it rather than the disdainful sniff that most pet food gets), the carcass goes into a big saucepan with the saved leg and thigh bones.  An onion, with any papery skin removed but the rest of the brown outside left on will give some colour.  A stick of celery and a peeled carrot are both important.  I am probably wrong but I think carrot skin can be bitter.  A dozen whole peppercorns and a couple of bay leaves complete the pot. Pour in cold water to within 1/2" of the top.

I put it on at the lowest possible heat on the smallest gas burner which is the one inside the big ring on our hob, with a heat diffuser under the pan, without a lid.  There should be no bubbles whatever, and the only  movement being slight swirls of oil, if that. This can be left overnight, but it needs 8 to 10 hours.  Strain it and you will have about one and a half pints of stock.  I usually remove all traces of fat with a piece of kitchen paper towel laid gently on the surface and then reduce this by half over a low gas.  Once the bones are out and there is no fat, there is nothing to make it cloudy.

Alternatively a low oven, say at about 80 to 90C, would work I guess but I have never done it that way.

Bingo!

Courgette tian, a simple, easy lunch or supper dish

1 courgette

1 leek

½ oz butter, or a little more

3oz Pecorino Romano, Gruyere, Comte, Manchego or similar

Salt, Pepper, nutmeg, Tabasco

4 eggs

Parsley and or chives if you have them - optional

Heat the oven to 160°C fan.  Butter a tian or similar ovenproof shallow dish.  Melt the butter in a frying pan.  Slice the leek thinly and add it to the butter.  Grate the courgette, add to the butter and leek and season well.  Cook until most of the liquid has gone.  There should be less than a tablespoon.  Beat the eggs till frothy.  Grate in 2/3rds of the cheese, add the courgette and leek mixture and stir well.  Pour it into the tian and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.  Bake till set, about 25 minutes.  Carefully loosen the bottom with a palette knife.  Turn out and serve.

This is also good cold and makes excellent picnic food.