Drinkies and Petit Fours

We had drinkies with the neighbours on Friday, for which I offered to bring something dessert-ish for us all to nibble on. And just to make sure that nothing goes simply the host is also wheat and dairy intolerant, not the easiest person to make a dessert for. I struck upon an idea to make petit fours that way avoiding baking which is of course so often laden with butter and flour.

I made Caramel Custard Squares from Good Housekeeping’s, Step-by-Step Cook Book. Which were fine but not a recipe I would particularly recommend, just not enough wow factor for the faff that went into making them. To accompany the squares I went a bit nostalgic and decided to make every 7-year-olds favourite, peppermint creams. I also thought it would be a good idea to experiment with different flavours and recruited my lovely fiancé to join in.



Lovely fiance's 'builder's grout'

In a matter of minutes, we had beautiful peppermint creams rolled in very dark chocolate shavings to make them a bit more adult-friendly. We did however also have a kitchen-full of various bowls of creamy paste in a myriad of colours including something that looked like builders grout and something yellow with crunchy bits in. Maybe we had been sampling a bit too much of the ridiculously sweet mixture but our flavours of choice were: limoncello (crunchy – fiancé had fun trying to reduce it down to improve the texture), crème de mures (bloody nice actually), elderberry vodka (made no difference apart from making it runny).

Needless to say only the non-embarassing ones (peppermint choc and crème de mures) ended up being offered to the neighbours and they were all finished which is a good sign, though we did get through a truly impressive amount of wine and rum so judgement may have been impaired.

Lesson of the day: cooking with fiancé dearest is huge amounts of fun, and better yet I have no fear of being rivalled for the role of cook in the relationship!

August's Column

I have just posted my first monthly column, just in the nick of time as August is nearly over.  For my first column I am tackling the subject of supermarket shopping.


August 2010 - Supermarkets

A perfectly pleasant looking sixty-something year old woman was in front of me in the checkout queue in Waitrose yesterday. Indeed the same woman and I seem to be keeping to the same shopping clock and have been in the supermarket at the same time at least twice a week for the last fortnight. I am very ashamed to admit I have developed an impressively intense hatred for this stranger. And she is by no means the first person to fall victim to my prejudice, any poor soul who I encounter in a food shopping environment could be subjected to the same fate; because I am a food bitch and she is my latest IFB, or Inferior Food Buyer.

I love supermarket shopping, not in my local Sainsbury’s mind you where they are constantly running out of essentials like milk, the aisles too close together and there are never enough people working on the tills. And the one time I found myself in Lidl’s scarred me for life; less said about that the better. Of course I would rather a farm shop, but needs must and my supermarket of choice is Waitrose. I’m sure some of you are thinking ‘Marks and Spencer’s surely, if you are such a snob about these things’ but no, M and S is good for people who don’t actually cook; try buying a selection of ingredients for a proper dinner and you will be hard fetched to find anything that isn’t already prepared for you in some way, shape or form.

Long have I played the game with myself whereby I survey a fellow shopper’s selection as it sits upon the conveyer belt and try to work out what meals they are planning to cook. Never have I taken this to the extent of asking them in order to ascertain whether I am correct mind you, but it is a good way of thinking up different meals. Try it, good way to kill time at the checkout. Latest IFB’s basket was full of all the things that I resent most: pre-chopped onions, ready prepped veggies, steaks that come complete with a little sachet of sauce -heaven forbid you bother to make your own. I know I am being harsh, surely many such people are very busy and have very long working-weeks and such people I can forgive (if I really, really try) for cutting corners, but I know this woman is free to go to Waitrose at about three in the afternoon multiple times in the week, so she can’t be that hard working.

It makes me wonder what my fellow shoppers make of me and my selection. My trolley is never without a small mountain of greens and carrots so I must look like a very healthy soul, in fact said veggies are actually for my two pet bunnies, but I do like how virtuous it makes me look. An example recent basket of mine contained: pork tenderloin, apples and onion to stuff it, cider for the sauce and potatoes for a lovely creamy mash; proper ingredients, no pre peeled potatoes to be found in my basket. Invariably there is alcohol of some description is always a feature; which is a pain when all the people on the checkout are less than 18 and look they have just walked off the set of Skins and have to do that annoying waving the offending liquor in the air until their supervisor types in a code, having glared at me in a quizzical manner.

I try to give pleasant looking sixty-something year old woman and other IFBs the benefit of the doubt, but as much as I try and tell myself they may dedicate their lives to looking after sick and dying children or trying to cure cancer it is of no use.

So it is with regret that I warn you that if you are out shopping and you are suffering from IFBism, watch out for a woman trying to hide her sneer; or you may just find when your back is turned that that bag of pre chopped carrots batons you had selected has transformed into a bunch of whole carrots, with the greens still on the end and covered in soil.

Throw-it-Together Tapas

Tonight is going to be a ‘throw it together dinner’ sort of night. In short, I need to curb my spending on food or this blog will be sure to bankrupt me. So, I had a rummage in the cupboards last night to see what tasty delights I could make without yet another trip to the shops. The king of all throw together meals in my opinion is Tapas.

I had a sizeable chunk of Chorizo in the fridge which I have been marinating in wine over night and am defrosting some raw prawns to be cooked in a garlicky sauce would should be great with some fresh bread to mop up the juices (meaning I will have to break my rule and go buy some bread but I think I can allow myself that). So the menu tonight: Chorizo in red wine, garlicky prawns, bread, meats and cheese and a nice big salad. With a nice bottle of red wine I reckon we’ll be most content. That said give me red wine with anything and I’ll be grinning inanely before too long.


Chorizo in red wine (2 people as part of tapas platter)

200g Chorizo cut into inch long chunks
Enough red wine to cover (I’m using Spanish wine as it seems in-keeping with the theme, maybe that’s not really necessary)
1 Garlic clove, crushed

Pop chorizo in a bowl with the garlic and pour on your wine until the sausage is covered, season, pop in fridge and leave for at least 12 hours. Then pour yourself a glass of wine for a job well done.

When ready to cook strain (reserving the wine) then fry for about 5 minutes, turning regularly, in a frying pan (no need for oil, chorizo is plenty fatty enough). Then pour over the wine mixture and quickly heat through, when hot, serve with bread.


Garlicky Prawns (2 people as part of tapas platter)

300g Raw tiger prawns, defrosted if frozen
2 Garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
Juice of half a lemon
Parsley and lemon wedge to serve

Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok to medium-high temperature, toss in the garlic and chilli and cook for a minute, until the garlic is cooked but not coloured. Chuck in your prawns and cook for 4 minutes on a high temperature until pink and cooked through, then throw in your lemon juice. Serve with a sprinkling of fresh parsley and a lemon wedge. If you want more sauce I would chuck in some white wine towards the end of cooking, but maybe I’m just in a wine-y sort of mood today.

Flavoured Oil and Pontack (elderberry) Sauce

Well, hello, I told myself that today I would write my first proper blog entry so got up this morning with great aspirations of the things I would create today and write all about them. However, I wasn't expecting that my first adventure into blogging would be one that resulted in my kitchen being covered in olive oil.

The ill-fated oil, fig 1

I was in the mood for some preserving this morning so was inspired to use up some chillies that were hanging around after I made a curry at the weekend. (Said curry included my own naan bread which although tasted fabulous took a hell of a lot of work for a meal that I’m afraid to say we gobbled in 15 minutes). I decided to make a flavoured oil with the chillies, a little garlic and some peppercorns. Very quick job, looks jolly pretty in the bottle, done. Then, I thought ‘my, my what a pretty bottle I will photograph this for my first blog entry’. Long story short - in trying to get the perfect angle and balancing the bottle upon various kitchen items the bloody thing fell to the floor, covering the table and kitchen floor in oil as the (evidently not sealed tightly enough) lid had come off. Today I learnt a valuable lesson that I am very bad at photography but on a plus side the oak table got a nice oiling.

Pontack Sauce, fig 2

Thankfully the Pontack Sauce went a bit more smoothly. Yesterday I went out for a walk on the hunt for elderberries for the sauce. Turns out although elder trees seem to be ruddy everywhere, they all seem to scuttle off into hiding the second you actually go looking for the things. So after much trudging about in the damp weather trying to find those purple clouds of berries hanging in the trees, nothing. But of course as I said these things are only around when you’re not looking, so low and behold the second I gave up the hunt I found an abundance of the things.

So after stripping them from the stalk they were popped in the oven with white wine vinegar (circa 500g berries needs 500ml vinegar) to cook on a very low temperature overnight. Having strained off the liquid they were cooked with spices (ginger root, peppercorns, mace, cloves - see fig 2) making a stunning coloured sauce which I reduced down and bottled. Smells and looks beautiful, folklore says Pontack Sauce shouldn’t be used for seven years….sounds mildly excessive but I’ll leave it a few months at least.


Chilli Oil, 250ml

250ml decent quality olive oil (not worth spending a huge amount on)
A 250ml sterile bottle
3 – 4 chillies, fresh or dried

Cut the chillies in half, lengthways, and pop in the bottle. Heat your oil in a pan to about 40 degrees centigrade. Then pour over the chillies and seal. Leave to infuse for about a fortnight then strain and rebottle.

Pontack Sauce, 250ml

700g elderberries stripped from the stalk (you can use a fork for this)
700ml white wine vinegar
250g shallots, peeled and roughly sliced
An inch of ginger root, bruised
8 cloves
1 blade of mace
1 tbsp peppercorns
1 star anise

Put the berries in a oven proof dish with the vinegar and cook for 6 hours in a very low oven, about 120 degrees centigrade. Leave to cool then strain through a sieve using the back of a spoon to press out as much juice as possible. In a saucepan put your liquid and all remaining ingredients and bring to the boil and keep at a gentle boil for 20 minutes. Strain through the sieve again and if you would like it thicker return to the pan and reduce. Bottle in a sterilised bottle and if you can resist, keep it for seven years!