Our family holiday to France this year was our first attempt at camping and it went really well! No rain and six happy campers! As I’m sure you’ll know by now, my biggest consideration was what to cook with such limited resources!
After an eventful shopping trip, which yielded a selection of food stuffs any chef would love, Mirabelle plums, greengages and some heavenly scented nectarines; One product stood out for me and that was Ebly(http://bit.ly/3eoOjv). This is polished & tenderised durum wheat. It resembles pearl barley but you don’t need to soak it, giving it the added advantage of only requiring ten minutes cooking. When you consider that risotto rice takes 15 to 20 minutes to cook, its a great substitute, and perfect for the camping stove!
So tonight for our supper (which had to be quick as it is getting late) is yellow courgettes out of the garden with shallots and young sprouting herbs.
Ingredients
2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
200g Ebly
6 Large shallots, peeled and sliced thinly (this helps you extract the sweet flavour)
1 Diced yellow courgette
1 pint of good chicken stock or a stock cube
Salads leaves to garnish
Method
- Place the oil into a heavy bottomed pan and heat.
- Add your shallots and courgettes and cook over a low heat for around 5 mins until soft and tender. It’s ok for the shallots to have a bit of colour.
- Add the Ebly and your chicken stock, bring to the boil and cover. Simmer over a low heat for 10 minutes or until the liquid has nearly evaporated.
- Serve immediately with a freshly washed salad out of your garden or windowsill.
Enjoy with some chilled cider!
Chefs Top Tip: Make sure your stock is boiling hot this will speed up the cooking process
The 1st September seems just like any other day of the month, but to a chef it’s the start of the best ‘free range’ time of the year…..the GAME Season! The Glorious twelfth (the start of the Grouse season) is so widely published resulting in the real game season (pheasant, wild duck, deer, to name a few) being sidelined.
So as the month progresses all the top restaurant menus across the land start to change.You’ll notice an autumnal feel to the dishes which, along with the colder mornings, indicates that the seasons are changing. This season is my favourite, as all the food stuffs come into full bloom with all their rich flavours.
One of the simplest game birds to cook with is pheasant. With its mild game flavour and delicate texture it’s a perfect bird for all; but be sure not to over cook, as the flesh dries very easily, and cover your bird with bacon to ensure the right balance of salt and also protects it from the harsh heat of the oven.
My following recipe is blissfully easy to make and uses the delicious flavours of bacon, cider and caramelised English apples to complement the gamey flavour of pheasant.
Ingredients
1 Large oven-ready pheasant (get your butcher to portion the bird up for you)
250g Diced streaky bacon
1 Bottle of cider (preferably a medium-dry)
100g Butter
4 Small peeled and cored English apples (preferably Cox’s Orange Pippin)
1 Large shallot, finely diced
1 Leek, finely diced
2 Sticks of celery, peeled and finely diced
100ml of sherry
2 Whole eggs
6 Slices of crumbled white bread
100ml Double cream
Freshly chopped parsley
Chopped sage leaves
Olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste
Method
- preheat your oven to 160 c
- Place a pan on the heat, add the oil and seal the pheasant portions getting a good colour all over.
- Place the pheasant into a oven proof dish
- In the pan add the celery, leek, shallot, and 150 g of diced bacon. Cook over a low heat until softened. De-glaze the pan with cider, and add the vegetables and cider to the pheasant
- Make sure that the pheasant is covered with the cider. If not covered add some water.
- Place the bread, sherry, eggs and cream in a bowl and mix together. Add some chopped parsley and sage leaves, season, and finally add the remaining bacon. Roll into small balls and add to the pheasant.
- Cover the oven proof dish with foil and braise in the oven for 1 hour at 160 c
- Place a pan on the stove top, add the butter and a dash of oil (this will prevent the butter from burning). Now add the apples and slowly caramelised for around 10 minutes. Place the pan in the oven for the last 5 minutes of cooking for the pheasant.
- Remove the pheasant and apples from the oven.
- Drain the liquid off the pheasant taking care not to burn yourself.
- Place the liquid in a pan and reduce until you have enough to make a sauce, add a knob of butter and the liquid will thicken slightly.
- Place your pheasant, dumplings, vegetables, and caramelised apples onto warmed plates,
- Pour over your sauce with some chopped parsley. Serve immediately.
Enjoy and savour the taste of this cheap free range food
Chefs top tip : Pheasant dries out very easily, so this method of cooking lends itself nicely to most game dishes.
Well I’m back ! after a few weeks across the channel in sunny France, having returned with some great blog recipes and ideas scribbled down on my memo pad! I don’t know where to start
I thought the first blog would have to quick and easy to do,the French have just that recipe a simple “Sable biscuit” which would be a great way to start off.
This biscuit recipe was firstly baked in Northern France , (which just happens to be where i was on holiday). Some of the finest butters in Europe come this part of the world and this is why i use French butter in my recipe, French butters are readily available in most supermarkets, go for the best money can buy, you will notice the difference in the finished biscuit.
Equipment
1 large flat baking sheet
floured rolling pin
round biscuit cutters
large round to mix your biscuit crumb together
kitchen scales
grease proof paper
cooling rack
pre-heated oven 170 c
Ingredients
500g plain flour
400g chilled diced french salted butter
200g fine caster sugar
1 whole free range egg
Method
- Firstly place the flour into the bowl, add your diced butter and sugar.
- This part is important, the smaller the butter is cut, the less time you will handle the biscuit dough, less time = better biscuits.
- Rub your butter, flour & sugar until you have fine crumbs, place the mixture into the fridge for 10 minutes to relax.
- Remove your mixture from the fridge, add your egg and mix until incorporated.
- Wrap the mixture in cling film, press down to spread the mixture out in the cling film to around 1cm thick,this will help in the rolling out later, chill for an hour.
- Next roll your dough out on a floured surface,if you refer to my blog on “How to make perfect pastry” you will get tips on how to roll the dough out and stop it sticking to your work surface.
- Cut the biscuits out and place on your baking sheet now chill again for around 15 minutes.
- After this final chilling place in your pre-heated oven and cook for 12-15 minutes,or until golden brown ( may be a little less for a fan assisted oven).
- Remove from your oven, and allow to cool on your baking sheet for 5 minutes this lets the sugars in the biscuit set, them you can transfer your biscuits to a cooling rack
- best to consume that day, which definalty will not be a problem once you’ve tasted them.
Enjoy with a nice strong cup of very English tea, what could better!
happy cooking
What is it about making pastry that many people are fearful of? It’s actually quite easy and can help create professional looking desserts. Only four simple ingredients are required for the perfect pastry, and if you follow my simple, but essential rules, your pastry will never be too short/wet again!
1. Make sure your butter is cold.
2. Ensure the flour is sifted.
3. Work quickly with every stage to prevent the mix warming too much (the colder the pastry the better!).
4. Let your pastry rest, this will prevent it from shrinking in the oven.
We are going to do this backwards for a change, with the method first and then the recipe, this will enable me to discuss the problems you might encounter at each specific stage.
Method
Place the sifted flour and icing sugar into a large bowl with plenty of room to move the mixture round in.
Add the cut butter to the flour mixture and rub between fingers and thumb to incorporate the fat into the flour. This will give you a fine bread crumb consistency when completely mixed. Let the mixture rest for ten minutes before you continue.
Add the egg to the mixture bringing the dough together, don’t over work the pastry, it hates being handled too much! Wrap the finished pastry dough in cling film and chill for at least an hour before use.
Ingredients
250g Flour
125g Chilled unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
125g Icing sugar
5 Egg yolks
So now you’ve gotten to this stage, have a look at the video below on how to roll your pastry and line a pastry ring for baking.
Enjoy Cooking!
I Know you are going to ask why would I be creating a coconut ice cream recipe in the middle of the summer? The season with the largest bounty of fruit Great Britain has to offer! Well there are two reasons, firstly a client has requested a recipe and secondly, I’ve some left over coconut puree in the fridge from a party.
Also, it’s a refreshing ice cream for this time of year, and by adding natural yoghurt, it is a healthier, but still delicious, option to normal ice cream. Teamed up with strawberries, it’s just perfect for these hot summer nights!
When I make ice cream, I always purchase frozen fruit purees. It seems like cheating, but the flavours from the purees are more concentrated making for a superb end result. Arguably, the best purees on the market are produced by a french company named Boiron. You can find their range at http://bit.ly/cDvoKJ. Have a look and let me know what you think.
Now a little bit of science before the recipe, when making sorbets or ice cream, you need to freeze them as quickly as possible. This makes the ice crystals short, thus making the ice cream smoother. The longer it takes for the ice cream to freeze, the larger the ice crystals are, resulting in a rougher texture that spoils the finished dish.
The next tip you need to know is, that by adding various additives (sugar, egg, cream, gelatine, alcohol just to name a few) you stabilise the ice cream. This holds the ice and puree together and prevents the ice cream from solidifying in the freezer.
This recipe is nice and simple. For best results, use an ice cream machine.
Healthly Coconut & natural Yoghurt Ice cream
250g Boiron Coconut puree or a similar puree
1 tbsp Caster sugar
250g Natural low fat yoghurt
Method
- Mix the natural yoghurt and the caster sugar together with a whisk until dissolved.
- Add the coconut puree and whisk together.
- Place the ice cream mixture into the machine and allow to freeze for approximately 20 minutes. Remove when still soft enough to scoop.
- Place in the freezer for about a hour before serving.
- If you wish to serve alot later, remove about 10 minutes before serving to slightly soften.
My greatest critic of
all has just had a taste and thinks it’s delicious (that being my wife)!
Smoked ham pressing with soft white garlic and mustard dressing
A tongue in cheek question…who invented weekends? What a brilliant idea, two whole days off! No work, get up when you want and go to bed when you want! Unless you’re a chef, we all start early!
I find that I get so much more done between the hours of 6am and 9am, than any other time of the day. Why is this ? Yet another question!
Well this morning was no different, up at 6 and straight into the kitchen. I’ve had a ham soaking for the last 24 hours and was looking forward to making a flaked ham pressing for a party happening in the next few days.
First job of the day, boiling the ham for a few hours (should be cooked by 9.00am). I added a selection of root vegetables to get some good earthy undertones into the ham. I found some fragrant garlic at my local greengrocers, to add to my ham emulsion. I blanched the garlic five times in milk until tender and super soft, this will make the perfect base for the ham dressing. I then gently cooked some small delicate red lentils to use as a simple garnish. Also I plucked some crisp salad leaves out of the garden to finish it off (these were washed and placed fridge to keep them fresh).
Below is the recipe for the Ham dressing. You can use it with a variety of dishes, and you can substitute the ham stock for chicken if you prefer a lighter dressing.
Smoked Ham and white Garlic emulsion (dressing)
4 Cloves of garlic
1 Pint of milk
1 tsp English mustard
1 large ladle of smoked ham cooking liquor (or chicken stock if you wish for a lighter dressing)
200ml Grape seed oil
Method
- Place the garlic clove in a small pan and cover with milk.
- Bring to the boil and cook for one minute.
- Rinse the milk out of the pan and refresh the garlic under water.
- Add more milk to the pan and repeat the previous procedure another three times.
- The final time, allow the garlic to cook a little longer, until super soft. Add more milk if necessary (this will remove the bitterness of the garlic, and leave’s the sweeter taste of the bulb)
- Drain the garlic, and once cool, split the garlic cloves in half and remove the skin and core (sometimes this is green in older garlic clove).
- Blend the garlic with the mustard, slowly adding the ham stock. This should begin to emulsify.
- While still blending, add the oil in a thin stream until all of the oil is incorperated.
- The dressing should now be a thick consistency.
- Chill until required. This should last for approximately five days if stored below 5C.
Try this on all your salads! It tastes better than mayonnaise any day of the week!
I had to try incredibly hard to refrain from eating all those gorgeous plums over the last 12 hours! So I was pleased to make it into the kitchen with all of the plums intact!
So, after a little consideration, due to the size of these plums (similar size to damsons) the idea ended up being a classical German dish called “Pflaumenkuchen”. I had some spare bread dough leftover from this mornings bread batch, and also some vanilla oat crumble mix in the fridge ready to go, so the ingrediants were done!
If you use my bread recipe (you’ll find it in my blog pages) for this recipe, use around 1/3 of a recipe for this dessert.
German Plum cake recipe
1kg Hedgerow plums or 500g shop plums
My bread recipe
200g Flour
50g Jumbo oats
100g Cold butter
200g Brown sugar
Method
- Roll the dough into a round shape about 0.5cms thick and place it onto a large baking, (This dish is really rustic and quick if you have all the bits to hand!).
- De-stone the plums and place on top of the rolled out bread dough in halves.
- Rub the butter, flour and 100g of sugar until you have a bread crumb texture.
- Add the oats, and spread the mixture evenly across the top of the plums, then coat the top with the remaining sugar.
- Preheat your oven to 180 c. In the time it takes for your oven to reach the correct tempreture, the dough will slightly raise, which will make the finished dish lighter.
- Bake your dessert in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes or until the dough is golden brown.
- Once cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack for 20 minutes. Serve with thick cream, while still warm.
What a perfect way to use these little purple gems! Enjoy!
What could be better? free food!
What could be better than free food? I love this time of the year, there is so much free food to be had, all you need is a little bit of knowledge of what not to pick!
Have just been out for a walk with the family and spotted some lovely ripe plums in the hedgerow, perfect! The birds hadn’t found them yet,which was even better! So after a few minutes picking we managed to collect around 2kg of plums and then off home with natures Summer bounty.
When you are out and about have a look at what is around you. You could find anything from wild strawberries to free setting raspberry canes all for the taking! I have even found pumpkins! but don’t forget to leave a few for the birds.
As we walked home I was thinking up some great ideas of how to put these sweet little purple gems to good use. You will have to come back tomorrow to get part two of this blog….
What happened next to these little gems?
There must be something about mayonnaise, when you see one of the largest companies in Europe (Unilever) buying Hellmans! I bet, if you go and have a look, you’ll always find a jar of mayonnaise sitting somewhere in your fridge or dry cupboard!
I’ve always pondered, what is it that makes this rich, eggy sauce a classic British condiment? Is it it’s thick consistency or it’s tartness perhaps? No I believe it’s none of these! I think it’s because it is such a great accompaniment to a range of dishes! What would the classical egg & cress sandwich be without it!
So why do we all buy it from the shops when you can make a delicious mayonnaise in a matter of minutes at home? It will keep in your fridge for at least a week and is superb with salmon or a cold meat selection and, of course, all the summer salads you could think of! But don’t forget the classical tuna mayonnaise, simple but brilliant!
So here’s my recipe, quick and easy and finished in less than 3 minutes. How’s that for speed!
Homemade mayonnaise
3 Free range egg yolks or pasteurised egg yolks
350 ml Grape seed oil
1 heaped tsp of English mustard
1 good tbsp of White wine vinegar
1 Lemon (juice of)
some Capers for an extra kick! (optional)
Method
- Firstly place your egg yolks, mustard and vinegar into a round bottom bowl and whisk together.
- Slowly start to add your oil in a thin stream, once it starts to thicken you can add the the oil more quickly.
- If you watch the video below I’ll show you how to bring the mayonnaise back if it splits.
- Once all the oil has been added, add the lemon juice into the mayonnaise
- add handful of chopped capers, these give the mayonnaise a great flavour and cut its richness.
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