August 2013 – Scaredy-Cat Kitchen

Honey Creme Brûlée with Rosemary Shortbread (and Slow Cooked Lamb!)

28/08/201329/11/2013Posted in Biscuits, DessertsTagged brulee, creme brûlée, honey creme brulee, lamb, mint, Pomegranate, rosemary, rosemary shortbread, Shortbread, slow cooked lamb2 Comments

My flatmate and I love playing the grown up and hosting mock-sophisticated dinner parties. On the rare occasion that we both have a weekend at home we’ll invite a few friends round (not too many, owing to our tiny dining table) and the deal is, Jess takes charge of savoury and sweet is my territory. This bank holiday was just such an occasion.

Jess whipped up her party piece of slow roasted lamb with (as Nigella always says) jewel-like pomegranate seeds and fresh mint, taken from the marvellous book, Kitchen by Nigella Lawson.

Here she is, beating the crap out of a pomegranate, before dropping it on the floor and showering the kitchen in pips. This flat is no stranger to pomegranate mishaps. Last time we made this dish I somehow managed to get pomegranate juice roughly 7 feet up the kitchen wall. Skills.

With the lamb, we feasted on a simple, yet effective quinoa and broad bean salad from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty and some chargrilled baby courgettes with feta. Absolutely perfect for an unusually sunny summer bank holiday.

So then it was my turn. This time I opted to try my hand at a honey creme brûlée and some rosemary shortbread.

The inspiration for the rosemary shortbread came from my friend Emily of Lady Cycle, who recently thrashed me in a bake off with just such a buttery treat. I would claim that I was robbed, but her shortbread was utterly gorgeous!

Using a food processor to whip up these biscuits results in a ridiculously crumbly texture, which, most likely, can be credited to the butter staying nice and cool. This shortbread is the very definition of ‘short’.

The rosemary is pretty subtle, more of a fragrance really and it will make your kitchen smell so good!

This wasn’t my first foray into the world of the blow torch, but I’m pretty sure mine has been gathering dust in a cupboard for the best part of 10 years. (Man, I feel old!) But after watching a recent episode of Celebrity Masterchef, which featured a scrambled egg like disaster of a creme brûlée, I was a little worried about overcooking mine.

I needn’t have worried, it turns out that it’s incredibly easy! I don’t know if it’s the fact that the custard was made using honey instead of sugar, but the resulting dish was soooooo smooth! I was super proud of it, I don’t think I’ve ever made a dish this nice before! Please, please, please give it a go next time you want to pretend to be a grown up!

Honey Creme Brûlée with Rosemary Shortbread
Serves 6 with a few biscuits to spare

The shortbread
Adapted slightly from Chrissy Carter

Apologies for the mixture of old school and American measurements, I just can’t get my head around tablespoons of butter!

Ingredients:
4 oz cold, unsalted butter
1/4 cup caster sugar, plus a little extra for topping
1/2 tsp of finely chopped fresh rosemary
pinch of salt
1 cup of plain flour

In a food processor blitz together the butter, sugar, rosemary and salt until nicely combined. Add the flour a little at a time, turning on the processor between each addition, until you have a sticky dough.

Turn the dough out onto a piece of cling film, roll it into a fairly smooth log and pop it into the freezer for 20 minutes to firm up.

Preheat the oven to 190 C / 170 C Fan / 375 F and line an oven tray with baking paper.

Unwrap the dough and slice it into 1/4 inch rounds. Put the rounds onto the baking tray and sprinkle each one with a little sugar.

Pop the tray into the oven for 20 minutes, until the shortbread is lightly browned.

The creme brûlée
Adapted slightly from Romancing the Bee

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups double cream
1 tsp vanilla paste
1/4 cup of good quality set honey (none of that cheap squeezy bottle stuff that tastes of nothing!)
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup of sugar

Put the cream and vanilla paste into a saucepan over a medium heat and bring them to the boil. Immediately remove the pan from the heat, pop a lid on and leave it to cool for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 150 C / 130 C Fan / 300 F.

In a medium sized bowl whisk together the honey and egg yolks until they start to lighten in colour. Add the cream a little at a time, whisking the whole time.

Pour the mixture into 6 ramekins (I had a little left over for a tiny additional one as my ramekins were pretty small). Put the ramekins into a high sided roasting or cake tin and pour enough boiling water into the tin, around the ramekins, to come halfway up their sides.

Bake until the custard is just set and still a little wobbly in the middle. For me this took just under 40 minutes, but it could take as much as 50 minutes, depending on the size of your ramekins.

Remove the ramekins from the tin, leave to cool to room temperature and then pop them in the fridge for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days, covered in a little cling film.

Now for the brûléeing! Remove the custards from the fridge at least 30 minutes before you want to brûlée them. Divide the sugar between the ramekins, sprinkling it nice and evenly over the top. You may not need all of the sugar, I only felt I needed a large teaspoon full per ramekin. Use a kitchen blow torch to melt the sugar and create a crispy top. You can do this under the grill if you don’t have a blow torch, just keep an eye on them!

Leave the creme brûlée to sit for 5 minutes before scoffing with the shortbread biscuits!

Best served with good company.

A late summer barbecue

18/08/201329/11/2013Posted in Out & AboutTagged Barbecue, lobster, salmon, smoked salmon, summer3 Comments

This weekend I had the great privilege to attend a glorious late summer barbecue at the home of the lovely Jodie and Toddy. Jodie’s family own a fishing business, a traditional smokehouse and a fabulous fish restaurant (The Butley Orford Oysterage), so we knew right off the bat we were in for a treat!

As well as the usual barbecue fare, we were utterly spoilt with Pinney’s amazing smoked salmon, Pina Coladas (there was a cuban theme and Todd makes a mean Pina!) and more lobsters than I could count!

As if that wasn’t enough, Jodie and her mum had prepared not one but 3 desserts! A highly alcoholic Rum Baba (my absolute favourite! How did you know Jodes!?), creamy Lemon Posset and some gorgeous little Raspberry and Almond cakes, which looked just as perfect as they did in the What Katie Ate cookbook.

It was agreed by all that none of us could ever compete with a barbecue of this standard, so we’re giving up and all barbecues from now on will be Jodie and Todd’s responsibility.

I’ve put together a selection of pictures from the evening, I hope they inspire your next shindig!

For more info on Pinney’s of Orford or to find out where to get their fabulous smoked salmon, click here!

Tom Cruise at work

Our wonderful hostess

You’ve got to have a foot selfie, am I right?

By the way, this post wasn’t sponsored and all opinions are entirely my own!

Beetroot Soup with Feta

11/08/201311/08/2013Posted in LunchTagged beetroot, beetroot soup, chilled soup, feta, soup, summer soup, vegetarian11 Comments

What would I give for a roof terrace, covered in deck chairs the colour of beetroot, with a matching beetroot awning… well that’s not going to happen in the near future, given central London property prices and my refusal to become a suburbanite, but a girl can dream. (Honestly, how dull a dream is that? My imagination is seriously lacking today)

When I saw these beautiful beetroots (is that the plural of beetroot? Not the slightest idea, sounds weird) I knew that beetroot soup was in my future.

I’m a relative newcomer to the world of beetroot love. My mum grew it (them?) in her fabulous veggie garden when I was little and pickled huge batches, making the house smell slightly odd. But I would never touch the stuff, until a few years back when I realised that the combination of battered cod, chips, mushy peas and beetroot, always favoured by my family, was actually heaven on earth. I don’t know where this revelation came from, but now I can’t get enough. Strangely though, until today, I had never cooked a beetroot from it’s raw state.

In researching recipes for the ultimate pink soup, I came across this one from the absolute genius that is, Mr Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. There are a couple of things that made this recipe stand out for me. Firstly, the fact that the starting point of this recipe is the creation of a garlic and tomato slush. This intrigued me and although I’m still not entirely clear on what it added to the soup (due to my incredibly poor taste buds) I entirely trust that it’s a key part of making this soup so utterly delicious.

The other interesting addition was a sprinkling of feta cheese. Beetroot and feta are a beautiful combination and the saltiness of the feta sets off the sweet beetroot amazingly well. Adding a further topping of raw beetroot matchsticks adds a little freshness and crunch. If you don’t like your soup crunchy, feel free to rebel, I’m sure a gloriously garlicy crouton would be utterly fantastic here. Although thinking about it, that would make your soup crunchy too…

This recipe is simple, tasty and healthy. You can serve it hot or chilled, making it the perfect summer soup. Does that convince you to give beetroot another go?

Beetroot Soup with Feta
Serves 6
Taken from BBC Food

Ingredients:

3-4 medium sized beetroot, chopped into small dice
500g ripe tomatoes, halved
1 clove of garlic
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
500ml of strong beef stock (I used one of those stock pot things)
Salt and pepper
Feta and raw beetroot sticks for garnish

Preheat the oven to 190 C / 170 C Fan / 375 F.

Put the halved tomatoes into an oven dish, cut side up and sprinkle over the garlic and half of the olive oil. Pop them in the oven for 25 – 30 mins until they are nice and soft. Push the tomatoes through a fine sieve to create a puree and remove the seeds and skins.

Heat the rest of the olive oil in a large saucepan and cook the onions until they are soft and translucent but not browned. Add the beetroot and stock, bring to the boil. Add salt and pepper to taste and simmer for 10 mins until the beetroot is soft.

Stir in the tomato puree and use an immersion blender to blend the soup until completely smooth. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.

You now have 2 options, either reheat the soup and serve it warm with little feta chunks and some fresh bread, or alternatively chill the soup in the fridge and then top it with the beetroot sticks and some crumbled feta.

Nectarine Crumble Muffins

04/08/2013Posted in Cakes, SnacksTagged crumble, crumble muffins, muffin recipe, muffins, Nectarine, nectarine crumble, nectarine crumble muffins, Nectarine muffins, yoghurt4 Comments

If it wasn’t for muffins, I don’t think this blog would exist. Muffins got me into baking. More than that, they made me obsessed with baking.

A simple Christmas (or was it birthday??) present of a muffin recipe book, a quick visit to John Lewis (the best department store in all the world) to pick up a couple of muffin tins and the course of my life was changed forever! Melodramatic? Moi? Never!

Muffins are just so simple, any baking novice can make them, and I definitely was a bit dense when it came to the kitchen. They can also be super impressive and are always a popular choice, I don’t think anyone has ever refused one when I’ve taken a batch into the office.

For a long time I baked muffins almost every weekend, ploughing my way through the book, always coming back to banana for obvious and delicious reasons. But man cannot live by muffin alone, the time came to branch out into biscuits, cake, tarts and cheesecake and the humble muffin became sorely neglected.

So now it’s time for a revival! Given that summer fruit is still utterly fantastic right now, I thought I’d go with nectarines again. Sorry to be repetitive, following my nectarine frangipane tart, but I love, love, love them and always have them in the fridge in the summer time. So deal with it.

These little guys are a cut above your average muffin. Supremely moist, with a crumbly top and occasional, insanely sweet, little bursts of nectarine. There is nothing here that couldn’t be described as utterly gorgeous.

To make these muffins look as special as they taste I decided to dispense with the usual muffin wrappers, this helped give a nice, smooth, brown underside and avoid those ugly crinkled edges. A non-stick muffin pan will help with this, as will a good brush of melted butter.

Nectarine Crumble Muffins
Adapted from Cupcakes and Muffins
Makes 12

Ingredients:

85g melted and cooled butter (plus a little extra for greasing your tins if you’re not using paper liners)
280g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder (yes a tablespoon, don’t be scared!)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
115g caster sugar
2 eggs
250ml natural yoghurt (I used low fat greek style)
1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste
2 ripe nectarines, diced

Crumble topping:
50g plain flour
35g butter
2 tbsp caster sugar

Preheat your oven to 200 C / 180 C Fan / 400 F.

Start by melting the butter for the muffin batter. Once melted, if not using liners, brush a little onto the base and sides of your muffin tins and put the rest to one side to cool.

Now put all of the ingredients for the crumble topping into a bowl and rub them together with your fingertips until they resemble chunky breadcrumbs.

In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. I personally don’t go in for this sifting malarky but feel free to sift it if you’re that way inclined.

In another large bowl, lightly beat the eggs and then stir in the yoghurt, vanilla and cooled butter.

Make a little well in the middle of your flour mixture, poor in the liquid mix, add the nectarines and stir it together just until the flour is no longer visible and then stop! Don’t over mix, this is the secret to a nice, light muffin!

Spoon the mixture into the muffin tins, filling them up pretty much to the top. Scatter the crumble topping over each muffin and press it down lightly.

Pop the muffins into the oven for 20 – 25 minutes until they are golden brown and firmish to the touch.

Leave them to cool in the tins for 5 minutes until removing them and either tucking in while they’re still warm or leaving them on a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Ciambelline al vino

01/08/2013Posted in Biscuits, Drinks, SnacksTagged biscotti, biscotti al vino, Biscuit, ciambelline, ciambelline al vino, cookies, Fennel, fennel biscuits, fennel cookies, fennel seeds, Olive oil, Wine, wine biscuits, wine cookies5 Comments

As you may have guessed from the name of this blog, I’m a somewhat timid cook. Rarely one to experiment or stray from a recipe. Sticking to the rules like the accountant/dork that I am. But the whole point of this blog was to force me to go against my instincts, fight my cautious nature and ultimately become a better cook.

So when I read a recent post from the beautifully written blog rachel eats, I knew I’d found the perfect place to start, my first challenge!

Rachel’s blog focuses on simple, delicious, predominately italian food. The type of food that bursts with bold flavours and showcases quality ingredients. In the post that inspired me, she discussed ‘quantobasta’ or ‘how much is enough’. In a lot of italian recipes, rather than giving precise measurements, the quantity is simply given as ‘q.b.’ and then it’s up to you to get the balance right. (Rachel describes this so much better than me, you really must read her post)

For a scaredy cat like me this concept is fairly terrifying. I couldn’t bear the thought of a kitchen disaster (especially not after the chocolate macaroon debacle, which I can’t bring myself to discuss right now) and I didn’t know if my baking experience would be enough to get me through.

Thankfully this recipe was a fairly gentle introduction, with little scope for an appalling result!

Ciambelline al vino, otherwise known as wine biscuits, are an absolute revelation to me. They feature one of my favourite flavours, the aniseed like punch of fennel seeds. They have a crunchy, sugary top and their texture is reminiscent of shortbread which is ideal as they are designed for dunking. But rather than dunking them in a lovely cuppa, the idea is to dip them in wine.

However, their name isn’t just due to their wine dunking abilities, these babies are also made with wine. Yes, dipping wine in wine, what an fabulous idea, the italians are absolute geniuses! Genii?

The wine imparts a beautiful flavour to the biscuits, but the main selling point is definitely the fennel seeds. In estimating my quantities, I went with 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of fennel seeds, but personally I could have taken a little more, I wanted to be punched in the face by aniseed. However, if you’re not such a big fan you can rein it in.

I really recommend that those of you clinging to recipes and exact measurements like me, give these biscuits a go. And even if you’re not, these bad boys are bloomin’ gorgeous so try them anyway! Who could resist a lazy evening with friends, chatting round the table and dunking biscuits in a nice glass of red? I rest my case.

Ciambelline al vino
Taken from rachel eats
The amount of biscuits made from this recipe will vary wildly based on the size of glass you use, I went with a glass that holds 250ml and I made 25 biscuits.

Ingredients

1 glass of sugar
1 glass of wine (I chose white wine, but red will do just as well)
1 glass of extra virgin olive oil
Salt q.b. (I went with a pinch)
Fennel seeds q.b. (I went with a 1 1/2 tsps, but I would up it next time)
Plain flour q.b.
Sugar for topping q.b.

Start by mixing together the sugar, oil and wine in a large bowl. Add the salt and fennel seeds and then start adding the flour. Stir in a little flour at a time, getting your hands involved in the mixing as it starts to become less liquid. Continue to add flour until the dough comes together into a soft ball that cleans the sides on the bowl.

Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave it for about an hour.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180 C / 160 C Fan / 350 F and line a couple of baking sheets with baking parchment.

Flour a clean work surface or chopping board and also coat your hands with flour. Take a walnut size piece of dough, roll it into a log and join the ends together to make a little donut.

Dip one side in sugar and pop it, sugar side up, onto the baking tray. When you’ve used up all the dough, put the baking trays into the oven for 25 – 30 minutes, until the biscuits are lightly browned and crispy.

Turn off the oven and open it a crack (use a wooden spoon handle to stop it closing fully if needs be) . Allow the biscuits to cool fully in the oven.

Pour yourself a glass of wine, dunk and enjoy!

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