Archive for April, 2010

Summer Pudding Recipe

A true celebration of summer, an English summer pudding is a must for a Sunday lunch in berry season. Vibrant in colour, oozing rich purple juice, with the perfect tart/sweet balance, it is one of those traditional puddings that is still a jewel of British cuisine.

The traditional berries used are raspberries and redcurrants, but many people add blackcurrants for more sharpness, now that the other berries are sweeter than they used to be in the past. In autumn it can even be made with blackberries gathered from the hedgerow and eked out with apples, though this would probably make traditionalists cringe!

The important thing is to get the balance of fruit right. Berries that are very sweet will result in a bland and sickly concoction. You need the contrast of some tart berries to get the perfect balance.

Recipe for Summer Pudding

Ingredients
850g / 2lbs mixed berries – preferably about 600g raspberries and the rest redcurrants
about 8 slices of good quality white bread
3 tablespoons white sugar
3 tablespoons water

Prepare the fruit, by taking off any stalks and picking out any unripe or mouldy berries.
Put the berries in a pan over a low heat and add the water and sugar. Check the fruit for sweetness before adding the sugar. You may need less for very sweet berries and more if they are quite tart.
Bring to a simmer and cook briefly for 3-4 minutes over a low heat until the juice has run and the fruit is tender but still retains its shape. Remove from the heat.
Taste the juice for sweetness. It should still be a little tart but not mouth-dryingly so. Add a little more sugar if necessary.

Cut thick slices of bread and remove the crusts. It really is best to use a good quality loaf rather than cheap sliced loaves, as it absorbs the juice better and has a better end result. You can use slightly stale bread too with good results.
Line a 1 litre pudding basin with the bread. You’ll have to cut some of the slices to fill the gaps and make a well-fitting patchwork, so that there are no spaces for the juice to escape. Keep one or two slices to cover the top of the bowl.

Spoon the fruit and juice into the lined bowl until it comes nearly to the top. Put the last slices of bread on top and patch the gaps again. Put a small plate or saucer on top of the bowl so that it can compress the fruit and bread. Add a weight to help. You might want to stand the bowl on another plate to catch any escaping juice. The weight helps make the juice soak into the bread and compresses the fruit to a firm pudding consistency. Leave overnight in the fridge.

To serve, loosen around the edges of the pudding basin with a palette knife, then turn it onto a serving plate. Serve with plenty of thick cream.

Want to try out some other great British puddings? Book a table at The Fox at Farthinghoe restaurant in Northampton and indulge in the best of British cuisine.

White Bread Recipe

The welcoming smell of warm bread baking is only equalled by the wonderful taste of a fresh baked crusty loaf still warm from the oven. If you live close by to a great bakery then you can enjoy the aromas without having to start kneading dough, but it is actually very easy to make bread yourself at home. Wait for a quiet weekend when you are going to be at home anyway and try out this simple white bread recipe.

The making of the bread itself demands very little time: ten minutes of initial mixing and kneading, a couple of minutes to knock down and form the loaves and then half an hour to bake. It is the rising that takes the time, so bread making fits perfectly into a morning spent pottering around, reading the newspaper or doing the chores and you have the rewards of a perfectly baked loaf or two at the end of it.

Recipe for Crusty White Bread

Ingredients
1kg strong white bread flour
1 tablespoon salt
1x10g sachet instant yeast
670ml lukewarm water

In a large bowl mix the salt into the flour. Pour the instant yeast into a well in the centre.

Pour in the water and mix with a knife or with your hands, until it all comes together into a dough.

Tip it onto a lightly floured surface and start to knead. With one hand push the dough away from you as you hold one end with the other hand. Stretch it out and fold it over and repeat the process again and again. If the dough is sticky, keep adding a little more flour as you knead. After 10 minutes the dough should be smooth and elastic and when you push a thumb into it, the dough should rise quickly back up as the yeast starts to work.

Put the dough back into the bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Leave to rise in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size (about 1 ½ to 2 hours).

Knock the dough down, by pressing the air out of it and form it into two loaves. You can use loaf tins, lightly oiled, or form into a loaf shape on a baking tray.

Cover with a damp cloth again and leave for a second rise for ¾ to 1 hour until doubled in size again. Preheat the oven to 200ºC during this second rise.

Bake for 30 minutes until crusty. To test if it is done turn the loaf over and tap on the bottom. It should sound hollow.

Cool on a rack and enjoy the smell of new bread permeating your house. Ideally you should let it rest for at least 20 minutes, before slicing into the loaf, but it can be hard to resist!

Want to enjoy home baking without the effort? Visit Belle and Jerome in Beeston where the chefs rustle up cakes, biscuits and scones every day as well as a full café menu.

Mayonnaise Recipe

Mayonnaise has a fearsome reputation for being difficult to make at home. It can indeed be tricky, with the worry that it might separate and all your whisking be in vain. However once you have the knack, it is well worth while, with a much better flavour and consistency than any shop-bought brand.

You can make mayonnaise at home with any oils, depending on the flavour you want: a vegetable oil will give a mild mayonnaise, a walnut oil will contribute its nutty depth and an olive oil will give a rich and fruity flavour.

First of all the ingredients and the bowl should all be at room temperature or slightly warmer before you start, so take the eggs out of the fridge in advance. Then at the beginning an emulsion must be established by adding oil a drop at a time to the egg yolks, so that the mixture thickens. Once this has happened, you can add the oil more steadily. Once you’ve learned the trick you can experiment and make mayonnaise flavoured with all sorts of vinegars and herbs to lend interest to salads and cold meats throughout the summer.

Recipe for Mayonnaise

Ingredients
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar or 1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and white pepper
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (optional)
300 ml / ½ pint oil of your choice

In a small bowl put the egg yolks with half the vinegar or lemon juice, salt and pepper and the mustard. The mustard is optional but it does help the emulsion form, so makes it easier. Make sure everything is at room temperature. Whisk the egg yolks for a minute until they thicken.
Add the oil one drop at a time as you whisk constantly. By the time you’ve added 2 tablespoons of oil the mixture should be quite thick. Start to add the oil in a steady trickle as you whisk constantly.
Once all the oil is incorporated, taste the mayonnaise and add more vinegar, salt, pepper or mustard as required.
If the mayonnaise is too thick for your purpose you can thin it with a tablespoon of warm water.

Alternatives
For aioli replace the mustard with 5 cloves of garlic crushed to a paste with ½ teaspoon of sea salt.

Note
Always make mayonnaise with guaranteed salmonella free eggs and store no longer than 2-3 days in the fridge before eating.

Changed your mind about attempting mayonnaise today? Why not relax over a meal lovingly cooked for you at Langberry’s restaurant in Kettering.

Zabaglione – Italian dessert recipe

Zabaglione is a wonderful, rich custard flavoured with Marsala. In Italy it can be served on its own as a dessert, garnished with berries or chocolate shavings, used to dip biscotti into or layered in other desserts like the famous Tiramisu.

Zabaglione takes quite a bit of whisking to bring it to perfection, but its few ingredients means that it can be put together from store cupboard standbys as a last minute dessert, when you suddenly have a longing for something rich and indulgent or just want something delicious to dip some biscotti into after a good meal.

The authentic alcoholic flavouring is Marsala, but you can use other sweet fortified wines, such as port or Madeira if you prefer, or else leave the wine out altogether if you are making this for children.

Recipe for Zabaglione

Ingredients for six people
6 egg yolks
6 tablespoons sugar
125ml / ½ cup Marsala

Put the egg yolks into the top half of a double boiler, or use a bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure that the water does not touch the base of the bowl.
Beat the eggs yolks over the heat until fluffy. Keep beating as you add the sugar.
Add the Marsala still beating.
Keep whisking constantly over the heat until the zabaglione thickens. It should triple in volume and become a pale creamy colour. Don’t let it boil.
When it has thickened, remove it from the heat and keep whisking for another two minutes.
Serve it warm straight away spooned into individual glasses, or cool for 15 minutes and then fold in a cup of whipped cream and serve with berries.

Variations
You can flavour your zabaglione with the addition of spices or other flavourings if you like.
Try ½ teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of lemon zest, or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract for subtly different flavours.
You can also use zabaglione as a special custard or sauce to serve with another dessert, in which case remove the bowl from the heat as soon as it has reached the consistency you desire.

Want to taste other delicious Italian deserts? Visit some of the best Italian restaurants in Nottingham and indulge in a wonderful evening out.

Lamb Rogan Josh Recipe

Rogan josh is a popular dish in Indian restaurants in Britain for its thick nutty, spicy sauce and delicious aroma. Making it at home will fill your house with a gorgeous spicy fragrance, but it’s not a quick dish to make, so try it at the weekend, so that you can enjoy it in a leisurely fashion.

Although the ingredient list seems scarily long, it is well worth toasting your own spices and making your own fresh spice paste, which will give the dish the depth and complexity it deserves. You can use any boned lamb cut, including shoulder, leg or shank, cut into bite sized pieces.

Recipe for Lamb Rogan Josh

Ingredients
1 kg boned lamb in bite sized pieces
6 tablespoons vegetable oil or ghee (clarified butter)
10 cloves
1 chilli pepper, deseeded and chopped
12 peppercorns
6 cardamom pods
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 tablespoon desiccated coconut
3 tablespoons chopped almonds
6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2cm fresh ginger root, peeled and chopped
½ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon mace
2 medium onions, finely chopped
3 tablespoons plain yoghurt
½ tin tomatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon salt

In a large heavy-based frying pan heat the oil. When the oil is hot, add the cloves, chilli pepper, peppercorns and cardamom. Stir for a few seconds and then add a batch of meat in one layer, being careful not to crowd it. When it is brown on all sides, remove it onto a plate with a slotted spoon, leaving behind the spices and add the next batch of meat to brown. When all the meat has been browned, turn off the heat.

Find a small heavy based pan to toast the rest of the spices. Put the cumin, coriander, coconut and almonds in and toast over a medium heat stirring constantly for 5 minutes until they are browned and fragrant. Put these spices into a blender with the chopped garlic and ginger. Add the whole spices (without the oil) from the frying pan in which you browned the meat. Also add the turmeric, nutmeg and mace with half a cup of water. Blend to a smooth thick paste.

Now fry the onion in the same pan and oil that you used to brown the meat. Stir and scrape up all the spicy residue and cook for about 5 minutes until starting to brown. Add the spice paste from the blender and cook stirring for another 5 minutes. Add the yoghurt a little at a time and then add the chopped tomatoes, continuing to cook and stir for another 2-3 minutes.

Add 1 cup of water and simmer this sauce covered over a low heat for 15 minutes. Add the meat to the sauce, stir in the salt, bring to the boil, then simmer over a low heat for about 1 hour until the meat is tender.

Don’t have time to cook this tonight? Why not try the lamb rogan josh at one of Northampton’s finest Indian restaurants instead.

What to drink with a Greek meal Guide

As you’d expect from a Mediterranean cuisine, wine is the usual accompaniment to a meal in a Greek restaurant. Greece has been a centre of wine-making for its entire history and though there are few big name wines produced here, there are many very palatable wines perfectly suited to Greek food. An increasing number of modern wines from Greece are now starting to win international recognition and awards too.

Restaurants in Greece are more likely to offer carafes of house wine than the more expensive bottled wines. These can be good or not so great depending on the restaurant, but they are usually well matched to the cuisine and light enough to enjoy drinking throughout the meal without suffering any ill effects. Greek food doesn’t demand complex wines to complement it, so when you are at a Greek restaurants in Britain choose a dry, light Greek wine to go with your meal for the authentic Greek experience.

Greece is perhaps better known for two drinks which are definitely an acquired taste. Retsina is a dry white wine flavoured with pine resin. The resin used to be added to preserve the wine on sea voyages and the Greeks developed a taste for it which has lasted to this day. Aromatic and fresh, it can go well with any Greek food, if you develop the taste for it. Some do, some hate it, so if you’ve never tried it before start off buying by the glass rather than the bottle, just for the experience.

Ouzo is a potent aniseed flavoured spirit, distilled from the residue left from grape making. Clear when poured, as soon as water or ice is added it turns cloudy. If you are drinking ouzo throughout the evening, a recommended way of drinking is to add water to the drink and then keep topping up with water as the level drops, so it gets weaker and so that you can keep drinking longer without getting drunk. In Greece it is always served with an accompaniment of meze, snacks to help absorb the alcohol. Friends can sit all evening over a few glasses of ouzo, eating snacks as they talk long into the night. In a Greek restaurant in Britain you are more likely to try a glass of ouzo at the end of your meal to finish off the evening. The flavour is strongly aniseed, so if you don’t like liquorice you are unlikely to enjoy ouzo.

There is a stronger spirit distilled in Crete, and often home-made, called raki, (or tsikoudia). Like the Turkish raki, it is a strong distilled spirit usually without the aniseed flavour of ouzo and you should avoid drinking it on an empty stomach, and preferably not mix your drinks if you want to avoid a certain hangover.

So you can be adventurous and go all out for the more unusual flavours of Greece when you order your drinks, or be just as authentic with a delicious dry white or red wine from Greece to go with your meal.

Why not view a selection of Greek restaurants in Nottingham?

Italian Bean and tuna salad recipe

Cannellini beans and tuna (or tonno e fagioli) are a classic Italian salad combination for those summer months when you need something substantial and full of flavour but can’t bear to cook anything hot. The beans themselves provide a mild background to the zesty tastes of lemon juice, red onion and Italian parsley and a really good Italian extra virgin olive oil raises the whole dish to the heights of simple but good country cooking.

It’s much the easiest to use tinned beans, in which case you can use a mixture of beans, including white cannellini and brown borlotti. If you are cooking large quantities for a party though, it would be much cheaper to cook your own beans from dry.

Recipe for Italian Tuna and Bean Salad

Ingredients
1 tin cannellini beans
1 tin borlotti beans
1 tin Italian tuna in olive oil
a generous bunch Italian parsley washed, dried and chopped
½ red onion finely chopped
2 tablespoons capers (optional)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons good extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Drain the beans in a colander and rinse well in cold water. Allow to drain well.
Drain the tuna and put it in a bowl with the chopped onion, parsley and capers if using.
Add the beans and gently combine the salad.
Dress with the lemon juice and olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Mix well and taste to see if you need more of anything.
The flavours will develop nicely if you have time to prepare the bean salad a little in advance.

Variations
Italian parsley is the ideal and authentic herb for this salad, but you could try using fresh coriander and a little chilli as a spicy fusion version.

Feel like trying some other authentic Italian dishes? Head out to eat at San Marco restaurant in Derby for some great Italian cuisine.

Souvlakia and Greek Street Food

With so many cafes offering meze as snacks and light meals, Greece has less need for a variety of street foods than many countries. The Greeks like to sit over their food enjoying wine and conversation, rather than eat on the run and the meze tradition has grown up to fill the need for eating between meals. However there are some traditional Greek foods that are perfect for street food and which are a much loved part of authentic Greek cuisine, successfully defying the onslaught of hamburger chains in the cities of Greece.

Souvlakia are char-grilled kebabs of lamb, chicken or pork, grilled to tenderness over coals. You can find them on the menu in restaurants where they will be served on plates, with rice and salad, but the best way of eating them, if you are after some fast food, is bundled into a wrap of pita bread, along with some tomato and onion, parsley and some garlicky tzatziki.

To order this in Greece and make sure of getting what you want it is best to ask for pitta-souvlaki for pork, pitta-kebab for lamb, pitta-mpifteki for minced beef and pitta-kotopoulo for chicken. There are so many variations that if you just ask for souvlaki you could find that you are given a platter of kebabs or a bread sandwich with a kebab, depending on where you are in Greece. Warming your hands on a flavoursome bundle of pitta with succulent meat and plenty of garlicky sauce is a really authentic Greek street food experience.

A pitta -gyro (pronounce yee-roh) is a similar pita wrap but with meat sliced from the big rotating spit (like a doner kebab) and is usually pork or a mixture of pork and lamb. These are just as traditional as the souvlaki kebab and sometimes also called souvlakia just to add to the confusion!

Eating in a Greek restaurant in Britain, you can still enjoy the flavours of Greek street food, and souvlakia, but they are more likely to be presented on a plate with pitta bread alongside. Make sure you eat them with plenty of tzatziki for the real flavour of Greece and check that they are char-grilled, just as if they’d been barbecued at the side of a street in Athens itself.

Why not view Nicky’s Lounge -  a great Greek restaurant in Derby.

Hummus Recipe

Hummus has long made it into the mainstream as a dip. Its origins as a Middle Eastern and Greek dip are somewhat blurred in supermarket renditions that vary from good to bland. If you want a great flavour and texture to your hummus it is easy enough to make at home. All you need is a food processor and the ingredients and then you can adjust it to suit your own tastes: a little more garlic, more lemon? Just taste it and add as you go.

Soaking and cooking your own chick peas makes this a very cheap and cheerful dip for parties, but it is just as good and much quicker to use tinned chick peas. In fact it is so quick that you can rustle it up from your store cupboard at a moment’s notice if you have unexpected guests for lunch. Grab a packet of pitas from the freezer to toast and you have a tasty impromptu basis for a casual lunch in minutes.

Recipe for Hummus

Ingredients
1-2 garlic cloves depending on size
a 400g / 14oz tin of chickpeas drained or the equivalent weight of home-cooked chickpeas
4 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons tahini
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cold water
¼ teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Start the food processor running and then drop in the peeled garlic cloves. When they are finely chopped add the chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini, salt and cold water. Process until you have the texture you like best. Fairly smooth with a little texture is ideal. Taste and add a little more lemon juice, tahini or salt if necessary, according to your personal preference. You can also add more cold water it you prefer it thinner.

Scoop the hummus into a shallow bowl and then sprinkle with the paprika and drizzle over the oil just before serving.

Serve with warm pita bread or raw vegetable sticks to dip into the hummus. Or make it into a lunch dish and dollop hummus into the hollow pitas with a generous amount of salad.

Feel like an evening out with a whole variety of meze? Why not enjoy the traditional meze menus at Eviva Taverna restaurant in Nottingham.

Greek Meze Guide

The Greek lifestyle is a convivial one, suited to cheerful gatherings in cafes, where the night is whiled away in lively conversations and debate, maybe an outburst of singing when the mood takes one. Wine or ouzo is the lubricant of choice, but it is always accompanied by food, often included in the price of the glass. These snacks or mezedhes (the plural of meze) are a whole culinary department of their own in the Greek tradition. You can spend a whole evening eating small dishes or delicious little pastry parcels with your drinks and never leave the cafe to seek out an evening meal.

Like tapas in Spain, the meze tradition sprang up in a hot climate, where long summer evenings were perfect for sitting over a glass of wine with friends and light food was all that anyone wanted, to sustain the conversation and soak up the alcohol. In small village cafes the mezedhes could be a few olives and a piece of cheese, a tomato salad or some sardines. City cafés can offer a whole selection of mezedhes, from seafood: calamari, anchovies, octopus, shrimps and so on to filo pastry parcels filled with meat or vegetables, stuffed vegetables, salads and dips.

There really is so much variety in the types of meze that it easy to make a whole meal of them and forget about the conventional starter, main course, dessert format that we are used to. With dips like tzatziki and taromaslata, salad, stuffed vine leaves, meatballs, vegetables and so on meze can make up a very balanced and satisfying meal, with the advantage of spreading the food out through the evening so that you can savour each mouthful without getting too full.

If you want to enjoy the meze tradition in Britain, many Greek restaurants offer the whole experience. Meze menus are usually separate from the main menu, though some of the meze dishes may also feature as starters. Usually you decide to eat in the meze format and just order the same menu for the whole table, specifying whether or not you are vegetarian. Then you can sit back and relax with your drinks, as a variety of dishes are brought to the table in succession. Everyone serves themselves from the dishes in the middle of the table and plenty of lively conversation and laughter is all part of the Greek experience.

Why not try the wonderful Greek restaurant – Yamas, based in Nottingham’s city centre.