All posts tagged recipes

Comfort and Spice by Niamh Shields

by Andrew on August 31, 2011 in Books For Cooks with 2 Comments

A new cookbook from reknown blogger Niamh Shields has just been released. Comfort and Spice draws on some recipes that Niamh used to great success on a Covent Garden fresh food stall, while others have appeared on her blog, Eat Like A Girl.

Blogging since 2007, Niamh states in the introduction that she is largely a self-taught cook and not a ‘chef’. “I am an enthusiastic home cook… I adore spices and flavour, comfort and fun, food that zings and sizzles. Quick week day recipes and long weekend ones, where my oven does the work while I drink some wine, or often while I sleep”

She also advocates using your spice box as a paint palate. “With a £10 investment in fresh spices every six months, you can change the way you eat and the way you cook”. She advocates the use of a simple palate of spices, those she uses most in her kitchen: sumac, cumin, coriander, cloves, turmeric, and cinnamon and herbs such as sage, parlsey and bay.

While many of the recipes draw on Niamh’s Irish ancestry – Irish Soda Farls, Black Pudding Croquettes, Blaas – others draw on cultures from around the world, Bircher Muesli from the antipodes for example, Chinese noodles with tofu and green tea, Beijing Dumplings Chorizo in Cider, Beef, Beetroot and Horseradish burgers and so on. Most recipes are savoury dishes with a few desserts, mainly fruit based, making it to the final chapter. These include such delights as Elderflower and Gooseberry Fool and Rhubarb and Blood Orange Meringue Pie.

Comfort & Spice (New Voices in Food) by Niamh Shields is currently available from Amazon for £7.94.

Niamh will be ‘doing a demo’ at the Abergavenny Food Festival on Sunday 18th Sept at 11am, with fellow New Voices in Food author, James Ramsden. Tickets available now.

The French Country Table by Laura Washburn

by Andrew on November 18, 2010 in Books For Cooks with 1 Comment

The French Country Table: Simple Recipes for Bistro Classics

Is it the evocative photographs – all nick-knack laden white dressers, French rusticity, market scenes, and sun-dabbled patio tables that make this book so ‘delicious’ or simply the ease, simplicity and freshness of the recipes?

It is a touch of both of course. Any cookbook that imparts such a strong identity of place with superb photos like the fresh salad leaves in a white colander, the one of a corner of a room with wooden kitchen utensils in an earthen-ware jar or the two French sticks on a magnificent old butchers block has my heart from the moment it is flicked through. Add in a selection of recipes that produce near effortless delicious results and you have a near prefect recipe book.

The recipes are relatively simple, as one would expect with bistro style foods. It is one of the few cookbooks that I’ve returned to several times – the Beef and Potato gratin is on tonight’s menu, last week it was the pork chops with piquant sauce and the chicken with tarragon that tantalised the palate. The Braised Red Cabbage with chestnuts and apples with accompanying sausages is to feature with a wine match on spittoon as soon as red cabbages make it back to the Waitrose shelf… and I can’t wait to try out the Walnut Cake either.

“Traditional bistro fare is the essence of French country cooking. For the4most part, bistro menus often mimic the kinds of meals prepared in homes, using local ingredients and seasonal produce – it’s not expensive or complicated and it never goes out of style. Laura Washburn’s recipes for classic French country dishes offer home cooks simple ideas for good, honest food.”

The French Country Table: Simple Recipes for Bistro Classics is available from Amazon.co.uk for £11.04.

New Cake Recipe By Jane Asher Launched To Celebrate Agatha Christie’s 120th Birthday

by Andrew on September 14, 2010 in food, On The Web with 1 Comment

A bit late for this one – for Agatha Christie’s birthday was on the 8th September 2010, but a special chocolate cake recipe by Jane Asher has been launched on www.agathachristie.com to celebrate her 120th birthday.

The Delicious Death recipe gives chocolate lovers a novel way of celebrating Christie on her birthday, 15 September, when they can either make their own Delicious Death or enjoy it in venues across the country.

Jane’s recipe is inspired by a passage in Agatha Christie’s 50th novel, and a Miss Marple classic, A Murder is Announced (1950), in which Delicious Death is the victim’s “last supper” before she is poisoned to death. Baked by Miss Blacklock’s housekeeper, Mitzi – an émigré with a horror of English cooking – the cake is dubbed Delicious Death because it is so rich. It becomes an apt name when Dora Bunner is found dead in her bed after her birthday tea.

This is the first time the recipe has been officially created and Jane Asher describes the cake as follows, ‘It has an intense, forbidding dark Belgian chocolate centre which is lifted by the unexpected sharp zing of its brandy-soaked cherry and ginger filling. The glorious assault on the senses doesn’t end there: the cake is decorated with flecks of pure gold, sprinklings of crystallised rose and violet petals, and swirls of ganache piping. This paragon of a cake is as beautiful to look at as it is delicious – and deadly? – to eat.’

Jane based her recipe on the original ingredients mentioned in the book: a tin of butter sent from America, some raisins saved for Christmas, ‘a slab of chocolate’ and ‘a pound of sugar’. Jane has herself appeared in numerous TV productions of Christie and, most recently, in ITV’s Poirot Three Act Tragedy.

She comments, ‘Together with the brilliant team of bakers at my shop, I had such fun creating this special recipe. As a long time Agatha Christie fan (as a teenager, it was her books and those of Conan-Doyle that got me hooked on reading and that gave me a life-long love of fiction), I was delighted when I was approached to bring a cake from one of her books to life. I think we’ve done her proud and that she’d be thrilled with the taste and texture of Delicious Death: a cake that is worthy of the sensuous and evocative description in the original story.’

Those fans that don’t bake will have the chance to sample the cake during Christie Week (12–19 September 2010) at a number of Agatha Christie haunts across the country. Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair – said to be the inspiration for At Bertram’s Hotel – will be serving Agatha Christie Afternoon Tea, whilst the annual Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay will be serving the cake at its opening fête (alongside film screenings and tea-dances) and the Chiswick Book Festival will hold a Crime Fiction Tea, celebrating Agatha Christie and Val McDermid, winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger 2010. It will also be on the menu at Greenway – Christie’s holiday home in Devon, now a National Trust property.

The cake recipe is detailed here

Queen Of The Cupcakes Lily Vanilli Shows You How To Get Your Boys Into The Kitchen

by Andrew on February 17, 2010 in Television, Radio, Video, Film with No comments

Think of all the famous chefs you know. Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Marcus Wareing, Heston Blumenthal, Marco Pierre White. Notice a trend? They’re all men. And traditionally, all the best bakers are male too. Recent research has shown that 46% of dads would rather BBQ than bake, but there is no reason why they would not excel in the kitchen.

The majority of baking at home is done by women, and there are also thousands of toys targeting young girls to help teach them to bake, even if it’s mud pies or a batch of imaginary muffins, however this is not the case for boys.

Now a new campaign is launching to show how easy it is for men and boys alike to express their creativity in the kitchen while retaining their masculinity. ‘Baking for Boys’ is an initiative coinciding with Fairtrade Fortnight – the Big Swap (Monday 22 February to Sunday 7 March), who are encouraging people to swap their usual products for Fairtrade ones. This could be switching to Fairtrade bananas or Tate & Lyle Fairtrade sugar which doesn’t cost you a penny more.

The research also shows that 47% of dads find baking with their child stressful. Well help is at hand. In the following video, cupcake queen Lily Vanilli and her godson Alfie prepare some simple and fantastic edible delicacies as she passes on her craft to an eager helper who shows men can bake.

To view the video directly in your browser click this link.

After the fold the recipes for Lily Vanilli’s Fairtrade Bacon and Banana Cake and Fairtrade Devil’s Food Ale Cakes…

Continue reading →

Two Valentine’s Day Recipes

by Andrew on February 2, 2010 in food with No comments

Valentine’s Day gives us the perfect opportunity to treat that special someone to a romantic dinner at home. And this year, impressing the other half will be a doddle thanks to two of the UK’s finest chefs – Ainsley Harriott and Simon Rimmer.

The chefs have teamed up with Tabasco to develop some fantastic recipes demonstrating the versatility of the famous pepper sauce, and it just so happens that the following recipes have the perfect ingredients for ensuring a little romance.

With the renowned aphrodisiac qualities of shellfish, chocolate and, of course, chilli these delicious recipes will certainly turn up the heat!

AINSLEY HARRIOTT’S BAKED MUSSELS ON CHERRY TOMATO AND TABASCO RISOTTO

350g cherry tomatoes
1 red onion finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
300g risotto rice such as Arborio or Carnaroli
150ml white wine
750ml hot vegetable stock
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon Tabasco + extra to serve
1kg live mussels, cleaned
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pre-heat the oven 200c/400f gas mark 6. Place the cherry tomatoes in a large roasting tin and scatter over the onions. Drizzle with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and stir in the risotto rice, wine, stock, rosemary, teaspoon of Tabasco then return to the oven for 20 minutes until the rice is almost tender and the liquid has almost all been absorbed. Scatter the mussels over the top of the rice, cover tightly with foil and put back in the oven for a further 15 minutes. Take out of the oven, lift the foil and check the mussels, discarding any that have not opened. Scatter over the chopped parsley. Serve at the table immediately with a bottle of Tabasco for those who like an extra kick.

SIMON RIMMER’S TABASCO CHOCOLATE FUDGE PUDDING

450g/1lb dark chocolate, minimum 70 per cent cocoa solids
200g/7oz unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
10 free-range eggs
3 tbsp soured cream
300g/10½oz caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, split, seeds scraped out
200g/7oz plain flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp baking powder
10ml of Tabasco Pepper Sauce

For the sauce
250ml/9fl oz whipping cream
60g/2oz unsalted butter
100g/3½oz cocoa powder
100g/3½oz caster sugar
100g/3½oz soft dark brown sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
100g Strawberries and whipped cream to serve
Method
Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over simmering water. Whisk the eggs, sugar, soured cream and vanilla over simmering water for 5 minutes until fluffy and voluminous. Stir in the chocolate mixture. Sift the dry ingredients together, fold into the chocolate, together with the Tabasco. Spoon mixture into a lined ovenproof dish and bake at 160c/g3 for about 1 hour. Sauce – put it all in a pan and stir for 4-5 minutes until gooey and yummy. Serve a piece of pudding covered in sauce and a few delicious strawberries and cream.

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