Plumbrillo

After a chaotic couple of months, we are installed in our new house and settling into our new village. Now that I'm feeling a bit better (thank you for all the good wishes) and have unearthed the kitchen equipment, I'm back to the stove and cooking away.

I was a little sad to leave the fabulous garden at our rental property complete with its many fruit trees. The plums were just ripening as the time came to leave and I hated to leave them on the tree for the next tenants. No need to worry though. As fortune would have it, I share an office with someone currently faced with a serious glut of plums. Last week I came home laden with four bags full of the little beauties and with a head full of ideas for transforming them into delicious treats. Four kilos of plums is quite a few to deal with. Especially considering that I'm not especially fond of stone fruit (odd, I know - it is a textural thing). I do love the flavour of plum though so I was keen to preserve the flavour whilst losing the fleshy texture I'm less fond of.

First up was this superb accompaniment to cheese. Plumbrillo is a fruity take on the superb membrillo which is often served alongside Manchego cheese. It is essentially a fruit 'cheese'. A thick, almost jelly-like confection which slices neatly and goes well with lots of cheeses.

It is easy to make and looks very impressive with its gleaming plum-red colour. The only hard part is pushing the cooked plums through a metal sieve. Next time I think I'll invest in a mouli which would make this job much less time-consuming! Whilst this looks best set into small moulds and turned out onto the cheese board, I actually poured most of mine into sterilised jam jars. This way it will keep for up to 6 months and will make nice presents at Christmas time. If you can find small, ramekin-shaped jars, these would be perfect.

I found the recipe on the BBC Good Food website, a great favourite recipe source.

Plumbrillo

Enough to fill approx. 7 small jam jars

Ingredients:

2kg ripe black or red plums

1kg jam/preserving sugar

1. Wash the plums. Quarter and stone all fruit and place in a large preserving pan along with 500ml water.

2. Bring to boil and simmer for around 45 mins until the plums have completely cooked down and are pulpy and dark.

3. Now for the hard bit! Pour the plums into a large bowl. Rinse out the preserving pan and then push the plum mixture through a nylon sieve (or use a mouli) into the cleaned pan. Try to extract as much of the pulpy flesh as you possibly can.

4. Stir in the sugar and heat, stirring all the time until the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat and bring to the boil. Bubble for approx 25 minutes until you have a thick puree. The mixture is ready when a wooden spoon leaves a trail along the bottom of the pan for a second before the puree floods the gap.

5. Pot into sterilised pots or jars and seal. Leave to set and cool before labelling. Keep in a cool dark place for up to 6 months. 

Mincemeat and marzipan cake

I was going to call this cake 'leftovers' cake seeing as it is made with Christmas leftovers but it struck me that, as a title, it didn't sound too appetising. But appetising it is in a 'slice with a cup of tea' sort of way. Loaf cakes are my favourite kind of cakes to bake, largely because there is minimal margin for error and no need for artistic decoartion. It is in the nature of a loaf cake to look pleasingly plain. This doesn't mean that it need taste plain however. This little loaf is packed with fruity, almondy flavour - all the more welcome now that we're somewhat distanced from the onslaught of such things in December.

Like many of my favourite recipes, this one is from BBC Good Food. It doesn't seem to be on the website - I found it in a little book that I have called '101 Cakes and Bakes'. It is a handy little book with sections on 'fresh fruit cakes', 'tray bakes' and 'muffins and cookies' amongst others. This, from the 'loaf cake' section, is an easy cake to make and you don't need any special equipment - two bowls, a whisk, wooden spoon and loaf tin. The smell as it bakes is particularly tempting and once it was out of the oven, I have to confess that I didn't manage to wait until it was cool to try a slice. I should have waited though as the marzipan was a little chewy whilst still hot - it had a better texture when cool. My only criticism would be that the chunks of marzipan sunk to the bottom of the cake. Next time I will cut them slightly smaller perhaps. Otherwise, this is a definite 'bake again' cake. It would be good spread with a little butter too, like a tea-bread. I made one minor alteration - the recipe suggest sprinkling with flaked almonds prior to baking and then dusting with icing sugar whilst still warm. I didn't have any flaked almonds (and, truth be known, don't really like them) so I simply sprinkled the top with demarara sugar which gave a nice crunchy crust to the loaf. My version is here...

Mincemeat and marzipan cake

From '101 Cakes and Bakes' by BBC Good Food

Ingredients:

200g self-raising flour

100g cold, diced butter

85g soft brown sugar

85g marzipan

2 large eggs

300g mincemeat

2 tbsp demarara sugar

1. Pre-heat oven to 170C. Butter and line a 1kg/2lb loaf tin or use a handy loaf tin liner such as these ones from Lakeland. Love them!

2. Tip flour and butter into a large bowl and rub together until you have the consistency of fine crumbs.

3. Cut the marzipan into small cubes, approx 1cm square (no bigger). Stir these into the crumbs, along with the soft brown sugar.

4. In another bowl, lightly whisk the eggs and then stir in the mincemeat. Pour this mixture into the flour mix and stir gently until combined. The batter will be quite thick.

5. Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin. Level the top as best you can and sprinkle with the demarara sugar. Bake for 1 hour, or until the loaf is golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.

6. Place tin on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes and then tip out onto the rack until completely cool.

Notes: this teabread keeps well (4-5 days) as long as it is tightly wrapped.

Happy New Year!

 

Boxing Day

I hope that everyone enjoyed the Christmas break. Despite my reservations about Christmas without 'my' family, we had a wonderful time and I'm pleased to report that it all went without a hitch. For the turkey, I used Nigella's brining method. I'm a total convert - I really think it results in a juicier bird, even if you cook it for longer than she suggests. We also pushed the boat out and went for a bronze turkey as we were a small gathering and the flavour was superb. It was equally good cold and sliced like a dream and the various dishes we made afterwards were superb, the slightly stronger flavour of the bronze turkey shining through. As well as a delicious turkey hash (Nigella again), an indulgent turkey and ham pie and a reviving thai green curry we also boiled up the carcass to make stock which is now all sitting happily in the freezer. I'm looking forward to the soup that will follow in the weeks ahead. Truth be told, I've never enjoyed a turkey so much and, whilst the initial outlay was eye-wateringly high, the number of meals it has provided makes it a very economical bird.

Enough about the turkey. We've all moved on, right? I was a little lax about taking photos of food over Christmas (mainly due to the fact that I was busy getting it ready for and serving it to guests who thought my camera habit a little odd). I was particularly pleased with our New Year feast though. We were just a small group of four which meant we could really enjoy cooking a special meal. My husband has suddenly got into making canapes and made an impressive trio on the night. We then served up oriental steamed seabass, followed by Persian slow-roasted shoulder of lamb and a very moreish chocolate and chestnut roulade.



Oriental Steamed Seabass



Chocolate Chestnut Roulade

Of all the nibbles that I've been offered this Christmas, the platter that enticed me the most contained these very simple cucumber canapes (please excuse the lack of accents - I can't seem to work out how to do them on blogger). Nothing fancy, but they really are very visually appealing (the less romantic could choose a star design instead) and surprisingly tasty, especially if you use on of those wonderfully nobbly, crunchy organic cucumbers whose skin you have to peel.

Cucumber Cream Canapes

Recipe from 'Canapes' by Eric Treuille and Victoria Blashford-Snell

Makes 20

Ingredients

1/2 cucumber (or a whole small nobbly, organic one)

200g cream cheese

10 thin white bread slices

3 tbsp finely chopped parsley (either type will do, we used flat-leaf as we had it to hand)

salt and pepper (recipe specifies white, we used regular black)

You will also need two cookie cutters of the same shape, one slightly larger than the other.

1. Cut the cucumber into slices - around 0.5cm thick, 1/4 inch.

2. Stamp out 20 hearts (or stars etc...) with the small cutter.

3. Spread cream cheese on the bread and then stamp out 20 hearts/stars with the larger cutter.

4. Place parsley in a small dish and dip the edges of the bread hearts in parsley. Top with cucumber hearts and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Notes - we thought these were best served chilled. They can be made 3 hours in advance. Simply cover in cling film and pop in the fridge.

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Finally beginning to feel a little Christmassy. All the last-minute preparations are well underway and we are awaiting the safe arrival of my in-laws. I've mentioned before that it will be strange having my first Christmas away from 'my' family but I've really enjoyed planning our own festivities and deciding what we'll eat over the next few days. On the other hand, we've be fairly shocked at how the shopping bills have added up and I now look at my mother's Christmasses with a whole new level of appreciation!

I iced my Christmas cake last night and, have to say, am quite pleased with the results. I've probably only iced one or two other cakes in my life so I don't think this is too bad for an amateur! It is a very simple yet bold design. I can't find any subtle pins, so you'll have to excuse the safety pin that is currently holding the bow in place in these photos.

Here's how I did it...

I turned my mature cake upside down onto a cake board to give me a flat surface on the top. I then filled in the gap at the bottom with 'sausages' of marzipan. Using warm apricot jam as the glue I then filled in any major 'holes' in the surface with little balls of marzipan which I then smoothed to give and even-ish surface. Next I rolled out a large piece of marzipan and covered the whole cake, trimming the edges to fit.

I left the marzipan overnight to dry out a little and then covered with fondant icing, glued on with warm apricot jam. I used my handy 'smoothing' tool to smooth over any cracks in the surface (thought there are still a few on the corners!). Next I rolled out red fondant icing and cut out the snowflake shapes which I stuck in position with a little water. A piece of red ribbon completed the cake!

I'm looking forward to reading about everyone's Christmas feasts over the next few days and wish you all a very Happy Christmas!

And just because I can't resist, here is a snowy picture of my rather handsome little furry friend. He's wishes you a Happy Christmas too (he told me so!).

Heston's Christmas Pudding

What a month! There has been vitrtually no time for blogging (or cooking for that matter). I've been hard at work assisting with the organisation of the Cirencester Christmas Market, a spectuacular German-style Christmas market which took place in my home town. Hours have been long and I have been completely exhausted upon returning home each day having spent nine hours each day outside in the freezing conditions.

I'm so pleased to finally be 'on holiday' and am looking forward to sharing all the festive treats that I'll be cooking over the next few days. Like many, we have vast amounts of snow preventing us from getting out and about - the perfect excuse to spend time in the kitchen.

Before I get onto the things that I've been cooking recently, I must post a very overdue review of the spectacular Christmas pudding sent to me by the kind people at Waitrose. I'm a huge fan of Waitrose in general and, as it is my local supermarket, am seen there fairly regularly. The partnership with Heston Blumenthal is one I've been following with interest. To be honest, Heston's style of cooking isn't one that I'm naturally drawn in. I adored a meal at his pub the Hinds Head in Bray I have to admit, but The Fat Duck wizardry just doesn't appeal to me. I do enjoy watching his culinary experiments on television too but I prefer to view cooking as art rather than science.

However, I was intrigued by the sound of the Christmas pudding he has developed for Waitrose. Being Heston, this is no ordinary pudding. It looks like one from the outside, but it hides a little secret! In the centre of the pud is a whole, candied orange. The notion reminds me somewhat of a Sussex Pond pudding which houses a whole lemon and wonder if perhaps this is where he got his inspiration.

Anyway, I did consider buying one of these myself out of curiosity. But, as always, I have made my own pudding so there was really no need. Imagine my delight to be sent one to review. The pudding is smartly packaged and cooking instructions suggest steaming the pud for best results or microwaving if time is short. At first I was unsure with whom to share this treat - my husband does not like orange and the pudding is large enough for at least eight hungry people. In the end I served it for dinner when my parents came to visit - a pre-Christmas celebration seeing as I won't see them over the next few weeks.

We all looked at the pud with a critical eye - it certainly looked and smelt fantastic. We couldn't wait to dive in and sample Heston's work. We were not disappointed. The pudding was absolutely divine. It was fantastically moist and juicy - I imagine juices from the orange seep out into the pud whilst it is cooking. The candied orange looked very festive in the centre and tasted good too. Even my husband enjoyed the pud although he wasn't a fan of the actual orange, unsurprisingly. The flavour was excellent - a nice balance between fruit and booze with the orange flavour more subtle than you might expect. It is quite a nutty pudding, something that I wasn't so keen on (I prefer nuts chopped very small rather than in big chunks) but others enjoyed. Heston suggests serving with Cointreau butter but I stuck to traditional brandy butter which worked very well too. Leftovers heated up well in the microwave over the next few days and were very much enjoyed too. 

All in all, a thoroughly glorious pudding. My mother found it so good that she raced out and bought one for Christmas Day, despite having already made her own! I might well have considered doing the same but our Waitrose (along with many others) has sold out. I was amused to see that they have managed to secure 5 further puddings and have decided to raffle these off to customers, such is the popularity of Heston's twist on the traditional favourite. This pudding worked for me as it remained true to its roots whilst also being innovative and different. It won't dissappoint the traditionalists but will please those looking for something new. If only I could get hold of another!

My favourite Christmas cake

Christmas Cake in disguise!

It is with a mixture of apprehension and excitement that I await Christmas this year. It will be my first Christmas as a married woman and the first that I will be the one hosting the festivities. It will be the first Christmas I will spend with my in-laws. It will also be the first Christmas I have spent away from my parents and family.

My mother has always played the most integral part in my Christmas. She is the sort of woman who does Christmas properly. She is the sort of woman who has five sets of Christmas placemats. The sort of woman who, over the years, has amassed a collection of 'special' dishes which come out only once a year. There is a special platter for the turkey, bowls featuring a Holly design for holding the brandy butter, a festive plate for the Christmas pudding and glasses etched with reindeer to delight her grandchildren (...and children for that matter). This may all sound rather kitsch, but I can assure you it is not - my mother's Christmas manages to be both artistic and tasteful whilst also being great fun.

My mother has been 'doing' Christmas for around fifty years so it is hardly surprising that she has perfected the art. Her tree is always beautifully decorated (red, silver and green only), there will be a lovely wreath on the door, a festive swag running up the staircase and a stunning flower arrangement in the centre of the dining table. Each year is the same and this is what I love. The familiarity of annual traditions, our Christmas Day routine (stockings, church, Champagne and smoked salmon, present opening, lunch...) and the joy of being with the people who know you the best.

The idea of a Christmas without all of this is quite alarming . Even more alarming is the fact that I want 'my' Christmas to be equally glorious yet I have none of the experience (or Christmas accessories) that my mother has accumulated over the years. Despite this level of alarm, I am actually looking forward to Christmas is my own home. I'm looking forward to staying put, not having to travel and just enjoying spending time with my husband in our new home. I'm looking forward to decorating the house 'our' way (though the red and silver theme is fairly ingrained) albeit on a very limited budget. And fortunately, my mother is willing to spare one of the sets of placemats!

I'm not entirely in the dark. I have cooked the Christmas lunch before and with some success. I have also been in charge of the Christmas pudding for the past few years - this has been made and is safely stored away maturing ahead of the big day. For my foolproof recipe, please see this link. I've also made a Christmas cake before - I followed Delia's recipe and enjoyed the results but (guess what) it didn't quite match up to my mother's cake. To be fair to Delia, I actually prefer a slightly lighter-coloured cake to the traditional very dark fruit cake. The recipe that my family swear by is actually taken from an old wedding cake book. My sister is a professional wedding cake maker and this is the cake she uses for her cakes. It really is the nicest fruit cake I know of - beautifully moist, sticky and reasonably boozy yet quite pale rather than treacley-black.

The cake is best made at least three weeks in advance and left to mature nicely until ready to ice. An important part of the maturation is the addition of a soaking mixture which is drizzled over the cake sporadically whilst it matures.

The recipe is for one quantity of cake mixture. Underneath the ingredients I have listed the number of quantities according to the size and shape of your cake tins. This is also useful if you are making several tiers of a wedding cake. I made a 9 inch square cake and used 6 quantities of mixture. Unless you have digital scales, you may find it easier to use pounds and ounces to measure the ingredients - I give both!

My favourite Christmas Cake

Ingredients for one quantity of cake mixture. See below for guide to cake sizes.

2oz/57g plain flour

2oz/57g brown sugar

2oz/57g butter

2.5oz/71g currants

2.5oz/71g sultanas

1oz/28g seedless raisins

1oz/28g glace cherries

1.5oz/42g mixed peel

3/4 oz/21g ground almonds

2 tsp brandy or rum

1 large egg

pinch nutmeg

pinch mixed spice

pinch salt

1/4 lemon zest and juice

For 8 inch round, use 4 quantities of mixture and cook for approx. 3.5-4 hours

For 8 inch square, use 5 quantities and cook for approx. 4 hours

For 9 inch round, use 5 quantities and cook for approx. 4-4.5 hours

For 9 inch square, use 6 quantities and cook for approx. 4.5 hours

Soaking Mixture:

Equal quantities of rum, sherry and glycerine (or spirits of choice!). Glycerine is available from the chemist or, in small bottles, in the baking section of larger supermarkets. Add 1 tablespoonful per 1lb of cake when cooked.

1. Pre-heat oven to 140C. Line cake tin with a double layer of buttered greaseproof paper.

2. Clean the dried fruit by tipping onto a clean tea-towel and sprinkling with flour. Roll up in towel and agitate to release any bits of stalk/grit.

3. Halve the cherries then mix all the fruit together with lemon zest. Sift flour, spices and salt and set to one side.

4. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add eggs, beating after each addition. Stir in ground almonds and then fold in the flour and spices.

5. Add brandy or rum, fruit and lemon juice. Give everything a great big stir to combine ingredients thoroughly.

6. Transfer to prepared tin and place in center of oven. Below the cake place a roasting tin containing one pint of water. This will create sufficient humidity to keep the top of the cake moist and ensure level results in baking. Remove water after half the baking time (mind had evaporated by this stage!).

7. If the cake is browning too quickly, protect the top with a layer of foil or baking paper. Every oven differs and the timings are only a guide. My mother and sister tell me the cake usually takes much longer than the specified times in their ovens. In my oven, the timings seemed about right. Test the cake with a skewer to see if it is done.

8. When cake is ready, remove from oven and leave in the tin for 24 hours. After this time prick the top with a skewer, cocktail stick or knitting needle and sprinkle with appropriate quantity of soaking mixture (see above). Wrap cake in waxed paper for at least 3 weeks, topping up with soaking mixture if required.

As for decorating the cake... You'll just have to wait and see!

An ode to Nigella: brine your turkey (...or else)

I've got to hand it to her. Nigella came up trumps.

I bought her glossy, shiny Christmas book and loved browsing through the gleaming pages. But I didn't actually think that I'd cook that many things from it. After all, I thought, it is almost more lifestyle magazine than cook book. Don't get me wrong, a huge part of me wanted to be the person who made edible Christmas presents and tied them up with perfect ribbons. I wanted to lay out a 'Welcome Table' for hoards of glamorous guests. I even considered buying a silky red negligée so that I could waft round the kitchen in a similar state of seasonal undress. But in reality, I knew that food-splattered apron and furrowed brow are more my style when catering for the masses.

In all honesty, I also wasn't sure that I liked the sound of that many of the recipes. They were all just a bit too.... Christmassy!

Whilst I'm all for festive kitsch (plastic holly on top of the brandy butter is a MUST), I'm just not sure that I want cranberries with everything. I'm not certain that I want my gravy to be flavoured with festive spices or that a rib of beef really needs Stilton gravy in order to make it more... seasonal. Just call me Scrooge.

But I'm taking it all back. I've made at least six things from this book and I've loved them all. First there were the Christmas tree biscuits. Brilliant. Next up were the mince pies. Or rather the pastry for her mince pies. Perfectly crisp and lovely. Then there were the sprouts with chestnuts and pancetta. Finally, sprouts that I was happy to eat. I even had seconds. Please note: this has never happened before! There was also the superb turkey hash that I cooked up with some of the leftover turkey. A messy medley of turkey, onions, olives, red peppers, almonds and other bits all bound together with a creamy sauce - it sounds a bit... unlikely, but it was a huge hit. We all had seconds.

However, the biggest hit by far was the turkey. I don't think that I'll ever cook turkey another way now that I've discovered brining. In her red-and-green-themed tome, Nigella does insist that this is the very best way to deal with turkey. In fact, she even goes as far to say that she will not rest until she's convinced every last one of us. Consider me one of her little messengers.

I was skeptical as I filled the huge bucket with water, salt and festive spices. I launched the turkey into its colourful sea, popped the lid on and set it outside overnight.

There is one major downside to this brining method as far as I can see and it is this: there is work to do on Christmas morning. I usually like to get the turkey oven-ready on Christmas Eve so that all that needs doing in the morning is pop it in the oven, leaving us time to open stockings, go to church, drink Champagne and open other presents before lunch. You'll note that all those handy time-plans found in food magazines at this time of year leave no time for any festivities other than cooking. In our household (especially with young children around), things simply can't work this way! So, I set the alarm a little early and snuck down to the kitchen with my mother to haul the bird out of its brine, dry it off, stuff it, cover the breast with bacon and lay it on top of a bed of chopped vegetables.

You may think that you don't want this extra hassle on Christmas morning. Now that I've tasted a brined bird, I'm certain that I don't give a hoot. The meat was wonderfully succulent and juicy. My (extremely particular) father even declared it the best he'd ever eaten. Anyone reading who happens to know my father will know what this means. 'Extremely particular'? I'm being polite.

Anyway, not only was our bird tasting good when it had just been cooked, but it was even delicious and moist when cold.

I didn't follow her cooking method post-brining, choosing instead to go with the method that worked well last year. I pushed butter under the skin of the breast and then covered with streaky bacon. I then sat the bird on a bed of chopped onions, carrots and celery and roasted at a high temperature for the first half hour. I then poured half a bottle of white wine into the roasting tray and covered to lot with a foil tent. At the end I removed the tent to brown the skin. The juices, mingled with the wine and vegetables made for an excellent base for the gravy along with giblet stock.

Alongside the bird, we had all the trimmings. Two kinds of stuffing, pigs in blankets, liver wrapped in bacon, bread sauce, cranberry sauce, sprouts with chestnuts and pancetta, roasted parsnips, roast potatoes and peas (a perversion peculiar to me). We all agreed that my mother's lovely plates are too small. It couldn't possibly be that we are just too greedy.

Would you believe that I ate all this and managed to squeeze in seconds?!

After all of this, it is amazing that I had space for Christmas pudding. But, of course, I did. I used my usual recipe and made it back at the start of November to give it time to mature.

Slight disaster this year in that it was less set than usual and didn't turn out too well - I think that some water might have got in whilst I was steaming. My brother insisted that it was all-the-better for its gooey texture. I wasn't convinced but it did taste fairly good. My brother was in charge of flaming the pudding and did a startlingly good job - something to do with making a well in the top and pouring an alarming quantity of vodka over the already very boozy pud! Needless to say, we were all fairly snoozy in the afternoon.

So there we have it. Our Christmas feast. All over for another year. A successful feast I think. And thoroughly enjoyed by us all. I hope yours was just as sumptuous!

My thanks to the Domestic Goddess herself; Nigella!

I'm still enjoying being home with family on the Isle of Wight. After a couple of days of serious excess, I finally braved the bitterly cold wind for a walk by the sea. Purely to make room for more food, you understand! As the sun started to set soon after setting out we had to turn back and warm ourselves up with cups of steaming tea. And slices of Christmas cake of course!

I hope you are enjoying the final days of 2008. I'm currently plotting and planning exciting kitchen adventures for 2009.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve is here. It has rather taken me by surprise. Despite being frightfully organised earlier in the month, two weeks with barely a night in means that half my presents are unwrapped, two haven't even arrived and I'm feeling rather... unready.

However, fortunately all seems under control on the food front. I'm down on the Isle of Wight with parents and family - as I drove off the ferry it was good to be greeted by Father Christmas. He's there every year, waving people off the ferry.

My journey was slightly disappointing due to the lack of Chris Rea on the radio. 'Driving Home for Christmas' is surely a must.

The turkey is happily sitting outside in Nigella's festive brine. True to her words, it does look rather lovely bobbing around with the spices and oranges. I'm quite excited about this method and will report back on how it turns out! My brother has been busy cracking jokes about how I should be wafting round in red silk nightwear and that my Domestic Goddess impression is just not up to scratch!

We've had our first slice of my mother's fantastic Christmas cake. She's decorated it beautifully, as you can see. A talent that I simply don't posses sadly.

We've made two types of stuffing - 'green' stuffing and a more traditional pork and sage and the potatoes and parsnips are peeled and ready.

We are about to sit down to a festive ham and then Christmas will truly have begun.

I'd like to wish all my kind readers a very Happy Christmas. I hope you have a wonderful and delicious time with plenty of food, glorious food!