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.

To warm and cheer...

Yesterday, as I mentioned below was a grey damp November day.  I was cold when I came in and wanted something cheering.  Try this.  Oolong tea, a level teaspoon of sugar and a wallop of Gosling's Black Seal Rum.
It was so good that I had it twice.  The tea has a richness, almost chocolate-ey, that works really well with the rum!

Caraway Cabbage

I see that I have not given a recipe for the cabbage that we had last night.  Here goes.  Dry vermouth is a great kitchen standby for anything that needs white wine.  I actually used a 2003 good reisling spatlese which we were having before supper, which was very good.  If the wine is sharp, you may like to add 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar.  If you have butter roasted a chicken recently and kept the fat, use that, it is wonderful! 

For two:
A small cabbage, I prefer Savoy but anything will do
Butter
Salt, pepper, nutmeg and caraway seeds
White wine or dry vermouth

Put 1/2 oz of butter in a large pan with 1/2 a glass of wine, seasoning (careful of the salt, this is all going  to reduce to a coating) and 1/2 a teaspoon of caraway seeds.  Cumin seeds work too, but I think the result is a little coarser.  Boil fast for a minute or so to let the fat and liquid emulsify.

Shred the cabbage.  5 minutes before you want to eat (this will put up with hanging around once cooked for a very few minutes but not for long), get the fat/liquid mix back to a fast boil, drop in the cabbage and keep turning it over to that it all gets coated.  By the time that the liquid has evaporated, it should have become a brighter green and be ready.  Taste to see if it need more seasoning or more butter - we like lots!

This came I think, from a recipe in Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book.  If you don't have a copy, get Santa on the case!  The cabbage was quickly boiled, all the water squeezed out, finished with cream and served with a bowl of cinnamon sugar on the side for each person to sprinkle on to taste. 

 

I think that the recipe above could be finished with cream, but I'd want a very little flour in there to stabilise it.  A few pages on, there is a recipe for cabbage leaves stuffed with a curd cheese flavoured with caraway and paprika.  That's one for the "to try" list!

Yesterday was one of those damp November days, all blows and squalls.  We wanted a casserole, but I had to make a cake first and it was 7pm before I got to it, however.....I had bought an end piece of fillet steak, and we had some mushrooms, so I thought it should be possible to fake something.  This is quick and simple.  I use a small non-stick stir fry pan.

For two:
A piece of beef fillet say 6 - 8 ozs
1 long shallot
6 -8 Chestnut mushrooms
Butter and olive oil
Plain flour
Madeira
Soy sauce
Balsamic vinegar
Stock
Salt, pepper, nutmeg, dried thyme or tarragon. Sweet smoked paprika

Peel and slice the shallot, and cook it in a scant 1/2 oz butter with a twist of the salt grinder.  Slice the mushrooms thinly.  When the shallot is just on the edge of browning, add the mushrooms to the pan and give them several good shakes to mix well.  Add plenty of pepper, some nutmeg and a good pinch of dried thyme or tarragon.  I like to add a little paprika here too but be careful not to let it overpower.
Whilst the mushrooms are cooking, trim the fillet if it needs it, and cut into approx 1" cubes.  Put a teaspoon of plain flour into a medium sized mixing bowl and add some pepper. 
The mushrooms should be ready by now.  Add a small wineglass of Madeira, a very little soy and ditto balsamic vinegar to cut the sweetness of the Madeira, and boil to reduce by 2/3rds.  Add 3 or 4 ladles of good stock and reduce by 1/2 over a strong heat.  All this should take 10 minutes or less.
Put the shallot, mushroom and sauce mixture into a bowl.  Wipe the pan and add no more than a dessertspoon of good olive oil (or walnut if you have some, better still).  The pan should be no more than thickly coated; you don't want the meat to swim about in the oil but almost dry fry.  Let the pan get hot. 
Toss the cubes of meat in the flour and pepper so that they are all well coated.  Do not throw away the surplus flour.  Quickly sear them in the pan and keep tossing them for a couple of minutes so that the flour coating is cooked.   Remove them to a plate.  Add 1/2 oz butter or so to the pan, swirl it around to deglaze and add the rest of the flour - there won't be much.  Cook for a minute or two and add back the sauce mixture.  Taste and check for consistency.  It may need a little more reduction, but remember that the cooked flour on the cubes of meat will thicken it a little.  Add the meat, reheat and serve.

We had crushed roast new potatoes and caraway cabbage.  Just the thing for a November evening!  Mashed potato would be good too.