Lemon Cakes

My mum always has something delicious baked for when I visit home, and these lemon cakes were no exception! I ate three in one sitting, but luckily there were enough left to take out into the garden to photograph. You can find the recipe in the misc recipe section of the blog - I can’t promise they’ll be as good as when my mum makes them, but we can but try….

Nairns Oatcakes Photo Shoot

I was very excited to assist with the food styling on this advertising photo shoot by Marc Millar last week. The lovely Dawn from cookery school painstakingly made all the oatcake toppings, then we alternated styling the photographs, adjusting garnishes with tweezers & choosing props. Brilliant experience! 

This is such a lovely spring like risotto. I made a batch for tomorrow’s arancini, but couldn’t resist ladling out a small bowl for myself. To make this, follow the standard risotto recipe on my ‘Recipe’ page, adding a generous pinch of saffron to the stock, and chopped ripe vine tomatoes after the wine has been absorbed. Add plenty of parmesan just before serving, and more stock if needed to get that wonderful oozy consistency.

White Chocolate & Stem Ginger Bavarois, Rhubarb Jelly & Rhubarb Syrup

This photograph was styled by me, and taken by photographer Eddie Phillips as part of our food photography project this term. We had to develop our own recipe, get it tested by a classmate, adjust the recipe accordingly, test a classmate’s dish, then style our own dish to be photographed by a professional - so much fun, and fantastic practice at recipe writing, recipe testing and styling.

For this dessert, you basically follow the same recipe as for the chocolate bavarois (see my earlier post), substituting white chocolate for the dark chocolate, and incorporating finely chopped stem ginger in syrup into the mix to taste. For the rhubarb jelly, you stew about 400g rhubarb with a tiny bit of sugar, then press it gently through a sieve to get the wonderful pink juice, but not the pulp (save the pulp for your porridge or a crumble). Weigh it out, and for every 100ml of juice, soften 1 gelatine leaf in cold water, squeeze it out, then stir it on a low heat with the rhubarb juice until dissolved. You plate it up in a food ring in exactly the same way as the other bavarois - make a buttery ginger biscuit base, press it into a food ring, let it set in the freezer for 10 minutes, then pour over the cooled rhubarb jelly. Pop it into the fridge to set for about half an hour (you can’t freeze it as it kills the gelatine). Once the jelly is firm to the touch, pour over the white chocolate bavarois mix, and let it set for a further half an hour. Unmould it carefully with a blowtorch, being careful not to melt the dessert.

If you’re wondering what the squiggly pink bits on top are, they’re dehydrated rhubarb skins. I wanted to make pink rhubarb powder originally, but when I saw how beautifully these came out, decided to use them whole instead. To make them, you use a peeler to peel a centimetre of skin from the top of a stick of rhubarb, then use your fingers to pull the rest of the skin away in an incredibly thin strip. Repeat and put the strips of skin on a lined baking sheet, then pop them in the oven at around 100 degrees C for 10 minutes to dry out.

To decorate, make a syrup by reducing some reserved rhubarb juice with sugar, and then pipe dots on the plate with a squeezy bottle. Sprinkle some reserved ginger biscuit pieces on top with sugar that you’ve coloured pink with the rhubarb juice, and top with the dehydrated rhubarb skins.

Easter Eggs

I couldn’t resist borrowing a box of eggs from the fridge and seeing how well they reacted to various food dyes this morning. Dad pointed out that this vari-coloured one looked just like a mango, so I thought it would be worth a quick snap. Hope you’re all having a lovely bank holiday!

Three way mackerel: ginger smoked, grilled with a coriander, ginger and lime dressing, and ceviche, served with samphire, coriander potato salad and chilli ‘sand’. 

The quantities in this recipe are totally up to you - I know that’s not massively helpful, but it really depends how much of everything you like. If you’re not keen on really hot food, don’t use scotch bonnets, just use the mild large red supermarket ones, and use as much ginger, lime juice and coriander as you think tastes punchy. 

This recipe serves four - you will need one large mackerel per person, fresh enough to eat raw or as ceviche. Get the mackerel gutted, cleaned and filleted, or do it yourself (they’re great to practice filleting on as they’re pretty cheap - the lovely lady at the fish counter in Waitrose showed me how to do one, then I took the rest home to practice with).

For the ceviche, remove the skin and pin bone two of the eight fillets. Cut into small cubes and set aside in the fridge. 

For the ginger smoked mackerel, you will need an old wok or large saucepan with a lid, some wood chips (I got oak ones from the garden centre) some tinfoil, and a small rack or metal steaming basket that will fit into the wok with the lid on. Keep a window open, have a door ready to open nearby and turn your extractor fan on. Pin bone and halve two of the fillets lengthways, and put them on the oiled steaming basket. Rub with ginger powder and sprinkle with sea salt. Line the wok with tinfoil, sprinkle on a handful of wood chips and some grated fresh ginger, put the steaming basket with the fish on top of the wood chips, then put the lid on. Pop the wok on the stove on a low heat for 5- 10 minutes, depending on how smoky you want the fish. Do not open the lid indoors - your fire alarm will go off. Take the pan outside and open the lid there, then bring it back in and set aside.

For the grilled mackerel, pin bone and cut the four remaining fillets into eight large rectangles crossways (you can skin the trimmings, chop them and add them to the ceviche bowl). Score the skin with a sharp knife. In a large bowl, mix a good handful of chopped coriander with chopped chili, grated ginger, lime juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt, and a little sugar adjusting the quantities until you think it tastes nice and punchy. Spread half the mixture onto a baking tray, top with the mackerel fillets skin side up, and set aside. 

For the potato salad, peel, cube and boil some nice waxy salad potatoes, drain them, let them steam dry for a few minutes, then dress with extra virgin olive oil, salt, and chopped coriander.

For the chili sand, bake a small square of bought puff pastry (or leftover pastry if you are also making the arlette), let it cool, then blitz it in a food processor with a pinch of dried red chilli to taste.

For the samphire - blanch the samphire in boiling water for 30 seconds (do not add salt - you’ll see why) then refresh in iced water. 

Just before serving: put the mackerel fillets under a hot grill for 4 minutes or until just cooked through. Toss the ceviche cubes with the juice of half a lemon, half a lime, sea salt and chopped chili to taste (add more of everything if you think it needs it). Put the ceviche into mini kilner jars. Warm the samphire with a little olive oil.

To plate up: Sprinkle a line of chili sand down each plate. Use a food ring to plate the potato salad in the centre of the plate, and top with the grilled mackerel. Put the smoked mackerel to one side of the plate topped with the warm samphire. Put the kilner jar of ceviche on the other side of the plate with a little more samphire in it. Dress the grilled mackerel with the coriander dressing, and serve immediately. 

Arlette with poached peaches and lavender cream, peach & lavender sorbet, lavender syrup, & crystallised lavender.

I hadn’t heard any of the judges’ comments on this dessert before Friday, so it was pretty amazing to hear how much they liked it when the programme went out. It’s a lovely light summery dessert - if you don’t have peaches, you could easily substitute nectarines or large apricots. Grab dried lavender from a nearby garden (luckily my parents didn’t mind me snipping away at theirs) or from a health food shop.

This recipe makes four portions, with plenty of sorbet left over.

For the sorbet, put 35g sugar and 100ml water in a saucepan and heat gently to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved, bring the mixture to the boil, then take it off the heat. Meanwhile, pit and roughly chop 250g ripe peaches, and add these to the hot sugar syrup with 1/8 cup lavender. Leave the mixture to steep for 10 minutes, then mash the peaches into the syrup with a potato masher. Push the peaches through a fine sieve to make a purée, then put the sorbet into an ice cream machine to churn for 25 minutes. Freeze once churned.

For the lavender cream, put 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water in a saucepan and heat gently to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved, add 1/8 cup lavender and let the mixture simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes. Pass the syrup through a sieve. In a clean bowl, whip 500ml double cream to soft peaks. Add one tablespoon of the lavender syrup to the whipped cream, and taste - if you want it stronger, add another tablespoon of syrup. Spoon into a piping bag with a medium nozzle and set aside in the fridge. Use a drop of grape violet food colouring to colour the rest of the syrup and set aside. 

For the poached peaches, put 250ml rose wine into a saucepan, and bring to the boil to evaporate the alcohol. Add 1 cup water and 1/3 cup sugar and let the sugar dissolve on a low heat. Bring to a simmer. Take 3 large yellow peaches, halve them, take the stones out, then use a melon baller to make 24 peach balls, avoiding the skin of the peach. Put the peaches in the poaching liquor and poach for 10 minutes before removing from the syrup and setting aside. [The syrup can be reduced and used for another dish, and makes an amazing base for peach jellies]

For the arlette, preheat your oven to about 200 degrees C, or 180 fan. Take one ready to roll sheet of puff pastry (or your own puff pastry if you have some handy) and roll it out thinly with plenty of icing sugar between two sheets of greaseproof paper to about a milimetre thick. Put the paper onto a baking sheet, and put a heavy baking tray on top of the pastry to weigh it down. Pop it in the oven for about 15 minutes - this could take more or less time depending on how hot your oven is. Once the pastry is golden and cooked, take it out, cool it on a wire rack, then cut it into 12 triangles. With hindsight, it would have been a lot easier to cut the pastry into neat triangles before baking, rather than trying to cut the very fragile pastry afterwards - your call. 

For the crystallised lavender, put 1/8 cup lavender and 1/8 cup sugar into a saucepan and stir on a low heat until the sugar has gently caramelised around the lavender. 

To plate up, put one arlette triangle on each plate, and top with 5 peach balls. Add another arlette triangle on top, and pipe the lavender cream on neatly. Top with another arlette triangle, and sprinkle with bits of broken arlette and crystallised lavender. Swipe a bit of lavender syrup on the plate, top it with a quenelle of peach sorbet. Ollie’s invaluable top tip - put a bit of the whipped cream underneath the peach sorbet, that way when you move the plate it won’t slide everywhere. Sprinkle with more crystallised lavender and serve. 

Chocolate and Passionfruit Bavarois

I was so happy that John & Gregg liked this dessert! I think the recipe should be up on the BBC Food website at some point, but if you fancy trying it out this weekend, here it is. The idea is from Margaux’s wonderful blog http://nowimacook.com/ - I’ve tweaked the recipe a fair bit - see what you think:

To make two bavarois:

Melt 27g butter. Crush 70g all-chocolate biscuits with a rolling pin. Line a small plate with greaseproof paper, and put two food rings on it. Put a couple of tablespoons of biscuit mix at the bottom of each food ring, and press down well with a rolling pin/by hand. You may not need all the biscuit mix, so leave some aside for future buttery biscuit bases. Put the rings in the freezer to chill.

Weigh out 50g passionfruit pulp (approx two fruits) into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Soften half a sheet of platinum grade gelatine in a bowl of water. [ITo make a vegetarian version, use agar agar instead of gelatine] Whisk together an egg and 15g caster sugar. Pour the hot passionfruit mix over the eggs and sugar, and stir briefly before returning to the pan. Stir over a low heat until thickened - you want a custard consistency. Reserve a few tablespoons of this mixture - you can later put it through a sieve to decorate the plate. Squeeze out the gelatine leaf after five minutes, and add this to the hot passionfruit mix. Stir thoroughly to combine, then mix through 20g butter. Carefully pour this mixture over the chilled biscuit bases and return to the freezer to set.

Scald 67g milk in a saucepan. Put 1 leaf platinum grade gelatine in a bowl of cold water to soak. Once the milk is just under boiling point, add 40g chopped dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids minimum) and stir to combine. In a clean bowl, whisk 1 egg yolk with 17g caster sugar. Pour the chocolate milk over the egg mixture, stir briefly, then return the lot to the pan and cook until it’s the consistency of thick custard. Squeeze out the gelatine leaf and add it to the hot custard, and stir until the gelatine is completely dissoved. Put the custard pan over a bowl of iced water to help chill the mixture down. Whip 32g double cream to soft peaks, and when the custard has cooled down, carefully stir the two together. Pour carefully onto the set passionfruit cream, and return to the freezer for half an hour to set.

To serve, use a blowtorch to very gently warm the sides of the food rings. Don’t let the blowtorch stay on one part of the food ring for more than a second, or you’ll melt the dessert. Take the food ring off, grate some chocolate on top, and swirl some of the reserved, sieved passionfruit cream on the side of the plate.

Wild rabbit loin in an edible garden, olive ‘soil’, planted baby vegetables.

Ah well, at least it looked pretty. I’ve had some really helpful suggestions for how to boost the flavours in the dish - the lovely Tor and Jess from cookery school came up with the idea of a roasted garlic aioli with wholegrain mustard, instead of the disastrous bagna cauda, and John Torode advised to do the vegetables a la grecque, instead of just blanching them. It’s a work in progress dish, but hopefully with these amendments it’ll eventually taste as good as it looks!

A slightly different shot of the mussels from earlier this term - do check out my earlier post for the full recipe.

Quails egg, crispy pancetta & spinach purée- one of our canapés from lunch last week.

Oven Coq au Vin

Snapped just before going in the oven - this was a quick one pot dinner last night when I just didn’t have the energy to stand at the stove and stir for hours. I tipped a couple of quartered onions, mushrooms, pancetta cubes, chicken, thyme and plenty of butter into a roasting dish, and cooked it around 170 degrees C for 35 - 40 minutes, giving everything a good stir half way through. We were too hungry for me to take an ‘after’ photograph….

Roast Venison Fillet, Sweet Potato & Celeriac Mash, Red Pepper Sauce & Green Beans

This was just spectacular as a dish - easily the tastiest thing we’ve made at cookery school so far. After having our dishes marked, we wolfed down our plates of this with indecent haste - the mash in particular was unbelievably good. Possibly on account of the limitless supplies of butter and cream that went in. 

Roasted Red Pepper, Basil & Parmesan Bread

This bread is so easy to make, and absolutely delicious. Just take a fairly standard bread dough, roll up roasted peppers, lots of parmesan & basil into the dough like a swiss roll, cut slices from it, and put the rolls close to each other on a baking sheet before proving. They swell up gloriously and stick together like savoury Chelsea buns, and then you could take the whole thing to the table to tear apart.