Dinner at the Chapel

Baking queen

Baking up until recently has been an uncommon occurrence in my household, mainly because I love savoury food, and I just kind of get mystified with flour and all the different types, don't get me wrong, I have used all sorts of flours in my time, and I have a good knowledge of weird flours, lol, but I have been trying to replicate certain dishes like a very thin Romanesque style pizza with not much success for years, i.e. can't get it really really thin.

So I decided to get scientific about it, after all, I hate not understand why things don't work. So I went on amazon, and I purchased 4 books which I felt might help me on my journey to becoming a better baker.

I think the two worth mentioning are the following: Ottolenghi which does have some really nice baking in it, but I think what I loved was the fact that for most of the recipes I had the ingredients in my cupboard, I did have to invest in some sumac and pomegranate molasses, but more of that in a later post.I LOVE this book, it made my stomach turn over with excitement, and I planned my first recipe, which was the ricotta ravioli with sage butter and aubergines, there are no pics, but this turned out to be a gorgeous dish, and the vegetarian claimed it as a favorite.

Then I decided to make brioche, I had it in my head this would not work, I don't know why, and then when I couldn't use a mixer because mine broke and I only have a blender, I thought it was even worse, but I tried anyway, and I tried to use my blender to mimic the way the mixer works as closely as possible. You have to leave this overnight to rest in the fridge, but this was the result before cooking, it looks a bit lack luster and sloppy:

BUT this is the result after cooking:

And this after cutting:

It was absolutely beautiful and soft and buttery, I ate it warm with butter, warm with jam, warm with cream and jam, and toasted, lol, it was absolutely fabulous, I suspect it could have risen a bit more, but I shall try it again and perfect it. I also made some bread, and adapted the recipe a bit, and again it was really really good!!

Then came to Easter baking, I purchased another book, which I feel is going to turn my cooking around, because it has science in it, it explains about protein contents of flours and why they are suited to certain types of cooking, especially with Italian cooking, which for me is v exciting.
Its called The Italian Baker.

I shall talk more about this in a separate post, but I made pizza dough, and it was the closest I have ever got to one of those wonderful pizza's in Rome, lol, but its a story/recipe in its self.

Finally I made hot cross buns using this recipe and they turned out beautifully, so soft and moist inside, they were the best hot cross buns I have ever had, they were great toasted next day too, I can highly recommend this recipe; (by the way, I couldn't be bothered to put crosses on, lol)

 

Finally I made cookies from this recipe for the children, I had to stop stuffing myself, they were so so good!

Hope you had a great easter too ;-) xx

Raspberry scones

OK, I love freshly cooked scones because they are so quick to make,  I don't mind dried fruit in them, but actually, I prefer them without. But because scone dough is a dense mixture its makes putting soft fruit in it sort of impossible, because they all break up. So I discovered a way to add fruit to scones which works like a treat!!

Basically use frozen fruit, I LOVE raspberries, and I always have raspberries in the freezer, I make these at least once a week and they are best with raspberry jam and a little cream ;-)

Ingredients:

8oz/225gms of self raising flour
1.5 oz/ 40gms butter
1.5 tbsp caster sugar
pinch of salt,
5floz milk
0.5 tsp of baking powder
Large handfull of frozen raspberries.

Preheat oven to 220 degrees/gas mark 7, or 425f

Line a baking sheet with grease proof or grease a baking sheet.

Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixing bowl to get plenty of air in, and then rub in the butter with your fingers till its like breadcrumbs.

Stir in sugar and salt stir in so it is evenly distributed, add the raspberries (still frozen of course) and then start adding the milk, and stirring it in, keep adding and then use your hands to make it into a dough, but don't man handle it too much, just bring it together because the raspberries will start to defrost immediately.

Roll out the dough until it is about 2cm thick, use a round cutter and cut the rounds out.

pop on baking sheet and bake for about 12 - 15 minutes.

These are best eaten slightly warm.....

yum yum  xxx

My fav cake recipe in the world - plum cake

I am predominantly a savoury person, I do like cake, but I can have cake lying around and I wouldn't eat it; unless it was pop's fruit cake. But I do LOVE sponge and fruit, but stewed fruit. Infact stewed fruit is my fav way of eating fruit, lol.

And on one of my health kicks, I bought some figs, because they are super nutritious, but then kind of wasn't sure what to do with them, so in a desperate attempt to use them before they went bad I found a recipe for fig and raspberry cake, the sponge is kind of something between pastry and sponge, and has a super texture, its also so easy peasy to make, and actually you can stuff it with any fruit you like in the middle, I often use apples and raspberry's or today I used plums which worked a complete treat, it really good as an afternoon treat or even a very satisfying pudd.

So here goes, the recipe is slightly adapted from one in the book 'The Produce bible' by Leanne Kitchen, the amazon book link is on the left sidebar and I can highly recommend this book, its stupendous.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ingredients:
175gms unsalted butter
145gms of caster sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
260gms of self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
7 plums, chopped
tsp of grated lemon peel
sugar for sprinking on top

Method:

Cream butter and sugar until its light and pale, Add the egg and egg yolk, and beat again, sIft in the flour and baking powder and add a pinch of salt, stir it to combine, chill for a few minutes until its firm enough to roll out.

Divide the dough into 2 halves. I used a loaf tin this time, and it worked superbly, take half the dough and fit it into the bottom of the tin, I just spread it out with my hands rather than rolling it out. Add the layer of chopped plums and sprinkle lemon yest over, roughly shape second half of dough and pop it on top and then spread this out gently to the edges, but don't compact it though, sprinkle sugar on the top ad cook for 30 minutes, then let it cool a bit and gently turn it out, its nice to eat still warm or cold is nice too.

You can use any fruit that cooks well, like raspberries or cooking apples or apricots, or mixtures of them are superb as well.

I like it served with a bit of creme fraiche.....

Carrot, Ginger and smoked paprika soup.

So I always make the best things when I am messing about, and I decided I need to eat more orange vegetables, because its good for your skin and thought it might help with the wrinkles and all that. So I messed about with some carrots and came up with a soup which the vegetarian said was one of the best soups he's ever eaten, its quite hard to impress him actually so I thought it was probably worth blogging the recipe.

So here are the ingredients for a soup for 4 people:

6 large carrots
1 onion
1 large shallot
2 cloves of garlic,
chicken stock (1 cube)
2 inch chunk of fresh ginger
1/2 tsp of hot chili powder
1tsp - 1.5tp of smoked paprika depending on taste.
Salt and fresh pepper to taste.
Parmesan grated to serve

So chop up onions, and fry in olive oil till soft, then add the crushed garlic and finely chopped shallot, then grate in the ginger, making sure all the juice goes in.
Slice the carrots and add them all in and keep cooking until soft and add seasoning.

Add stock and simmer until carrots are soft, then blend with a hand blender, stir in the chilli and paprika and serve and sprinkle Parmesan to serve.

My first restaurant review - The Canteen on Clifton

I want to say, that this review is extremely positive, I am not normally so gushing, and it takes ALOT to please me with food, but this is my favourite restaurant of all time, lol, so in future, I guarantee most reviews will not be this good, lol, unless its amazing.

When I lived in Cardiff I was spoiled by the lovely restaurants which you could walk too, but I lived in Splott, which is ok, but not exactly the greatest are to find places to eat, and I used to dream of opening a cafe because Splott was desperate for somewhere to eat, and then the Canteen on Clifton appeared, a leaflet appeared through the door, and I was so excited I couldn't contain myself, especially as it was Vegetarian (I used to be vegan), and there are hardly any vege restaurants in Cardiff.

For me, eating out is about eating food which I can't cook at home, and makes me want to explore something different.

In a short wrap, this is what makes this restaurant special to me and why I believe it is a success:

1. It has a very very relaxed atmosphere
2. The chefs are lovely, and they care so much about what people think of the food, they always ask you your thoughts on the food and if you enjoyed it, I love being able to say how much I loved it. Also the waitresses are fab, especially Jennine, lol, she rocks.
3. There is a meat dish on the main menu, perfect for the meat loving boy/girlfreind/mother/father/freind, this is always SUPERB.
4. I rarely see anything on the menu which I would make at home, so you are always challenged to try new tastes and dishes.
5. It is extremely good value for money, 2 courses are 11.50, and 3 for 13.50, it is so worth the money (especially considering the shit I ate in Dublin which cost me 80 pounds for 2 weird pizzas and a bottle of wine last week, if I can remember the name of the place I will write about it).
6. The portions are a perfect size, you can eat 3 courses and  be really full, the great thing is you have just the right amount of room for all three, I hate getting to pudding and being so stuffed I can't try it.
7. The menu has 3 - 4 choices for starters, mains and pud, which means its always cooked freshly, and this changes every few weeks, which means if you are like me and want to try everything, 3 visits and you can try it all, hahahahaha.
8. Alot of the choices are vegan and suitable for ceoliacs, (I used to be vegan and have a wheat allergy, and I could only dream of being able to have dinner out, its great for people who are sensitive to things).
9. you can view the menu online and choose what to have before you even go, lol.

So here was the starter menu:

Jerusalem artichoke and curry leaf soup

Not duck spring rolls with hoisin-plum sauce

Selection of bhajis with date-tamarind ketchup

I actually really struggled to choose, however there were some interesting bhajis, so I decided to try them, and they were amazing, the one which I LOVED was one with coconut and beetroot, it was wonderful:

These were the menu choices for main course:

Main Course;

Feijoada with barley farofa  (meat)

Bean, sweet potato and chestnut feijoada with barley farofa

Butternut squash, mushroom, sage and lemon thyme risotto

Winter vegetable tagine with jeweled cous cous

I choose the Bean, sweet potato and chestnut feijoada with barley farofa, it was in a word, a perfect dish, all the flavours were perfectly balanced, it was warm, spicy, but not hot, and smokey, and the barley side dish again was superb, it was absolutely the perfect dish for a cold evening, I didn't speak whilst I was shoveling this down, it was too good, lol.

Then onto pudding,

The puddings are always so yummy, and I have had sticky toffee pud before so I decided to try the vegan panacotta,

Dessert
Sticky toffee pudding, toffee sauce and ice cream
Banoffee pie
Coconut and cardamom pannacotta with kiwi salsa

The salsa was so Zingy, and the pannacotta had a really nice texture and was lovely and coconutty, it was really nice.

Have to admit the banoffee pie looked cracking, lol.

So sorry this is so gushing, I just wish all restaurants were as good as this.

The canteen website is here:

And the address is

The Canteen on Clifton Street
40 Clifton Street,
Splott
Cardiff
CF24 ILR

If you are visiting Cardiff, I recommend you go for dinner here, BUT you have to book in advance, its very popular!!!!

Welsh Rarebit / welsh rabbit- the quest for perfection.

Firstly have to say, my computer doesn't like me having two type pad accounts, and so doesn't let me log on grrrrrr, however, I am here now, and will post regular food festivities more often, appologies for lack of posting. lol

OK, so I have always wanted to make welsh rarebit, mainly because it looks so damned good.

And I found an old book of cut out recipes in an old note book, so I thought I would try it. I made it and it was good, but a bit bland for me I think, but needs a touch of adjusting, trick is though to leave the mixture in the fridge to set, then its thick and spreadable, so the recipe I used is here ( this version would be good for teenagers that need yummy hot snacks to fill them up, and seeing as its stored in the fridge its a perfect accesible snack:

350gms of cheddar (mature)
75ml milk
15gm of flour
25gms of breadcrumbs
15ml of English mustard
few shakes of Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper
1 medium egg
1 egg yolk
4 slices of thick toast, nice white crusty bread.

1. Place cheese and milk in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring until cheese has melted, do not boil.
2. remove from heat add flower, breadcrumbs and mustard and w sauce, return to heat and cook for 2 more minutes.

3. place in food processor and add seasoning and eggs, blend until smooth, and put in a container and in fridge to set.

Really important, it needs to set first, to a nice thick paste

spread thickly on toast and place under hot grill until brown and bubbling.

I have to say, the way to make the sauce is odd, I would be tempted to make a proper bechemel, and then add the breadcrumbs cheese, make sure its melted in and and then cool a little and beat in the eggs and cool, but I need to practice this a few times.

So then I consulted a super duper book in my collection called British regional food (isbn 1-84400-234-9).

 And here is what it had to say about Welsh rarebit:

To start with in a  nutshell the correct spelling should be Welsh rabbit, and is described as 'cheese on toast with savoury additions'

And this recipe is very different from the recipe out above:

5 tablespoons of stout
5 tablespoons of double cream
250gms of caerphilly or cheddar cheese grated.
2 egg yolks beaten
2 teaspoons of worcestershire sauce (this quantity seems better to me)
1tsp mustard
salt and pepper
4 slices of nice thick white bread.

simmer stout in small pan until it has reduced by half. Add the cream and then reduce this again by half until it is really thick, leave to cool.

Mix this with all the other ingredients except bread and season to taste.
toast bread on both sides, and spread mixture  on toast and grill until nicely browned.

This sounds a million times better than the other one. Now where is the stout.......

xx

Festivites are a starting.....

So this blog with be choca bock this season with posts, mainly because there are about a thousand eating events to be had in the next 2 weeks, and seeing as I am sure there will be a million comedy moments too, I will make sure I photograph and share them all, I do have a propensity for Bridget Jones moments when it comes to the crunch.

So whats occurin?

Tomorrow eve (pre Christmas eve) Dinner for 4 adults and 2 children....I was thinking of an Italian theme, perhaps a lovely mushroom risotto for starters with an baked aubergine creme, and then perhaps some home made ravioli and then a choc cake/souffle thing, and was then informed that mushrooms and aubergines are not the fav of the day. So might stick to the ravioli and choc cake but need to think again for the starters, and make it child friendly.....hmm.

Then, there is Christmas day, and we are going vegetarian for the day, I have been thinking, a good stuffed chestnut/loaf thing with cranberries, good roast pots, tasty mixed root mash, spiced cabbage, and perhaps a purchased Christmas pud from the yummy deli down the road? personally I have a love of trifle, so maybe I will make both. Christmas day is the least of my worries at the mo, lol.

Saturday after boxing day mom and pops come to stay, we are having a proper sit down in the eve, so I suspect there will be tapas, somehow to fit a moroccon theme, because I am making a lamb tagine with apricots and almonds (obviously have to make a vege one too) using this recipe its tried and tested and very much loved, but I don't think mum and dad have ever had it before, (I like to make them try new things..........)

Sunday, we then have a sit down lunch for 6 adults, and early fairly light lunch, was thinking my pea and parmesan tart with some roasted veges or something similar, it is a bit of a winner......

Then there is new years eve, now, I was going to do lots of tapas, but actually its going to be hard to coordinate, and there are quite a lot of people who are coming who don't know each other, so after watching river cottage Christmas last night, I had the grand idea that we turn our gallery hall into a banquet room, it has so much potential that I figure it would be a wasted opportunity, and to be honest I have always fancied doing a full on banquet, then after we have removed the tables we can drink till the sun rises on full bellies. I have to confess though, I have no idea what so ever what we are going to have, I think there are 10 of us, and I would really like to do something a little bit special for this one, its the first opportunity I have ever had to do something like this, and anyway, I always cook enough for about 6 people anyway, so adding another 4 isn't going to be hard .......gulp plus 6 children.........

And then finally there will be new years lunch, *sweat*

So I am off to rifle through my cookery books and start planning........ and tips for anything will be very appreciated...

By the way, the bread situation has been rectified, I made the softest most wonderful bread ever on friday, will post photos later...

A very excited jen xxxx

My new breadmaker

So, mom and pops, bought me a bread maker for my moving in present, the day before yesterday I made bread according to pops recipe, seeing as he is a bread maker expert now. I followed it to a t and the bread was delicious.

So this morning I am in creative mood, so I decided get out my bread maker book and found a recipe for corn bread, I had some of the ingredients missing, like milk....I left it out overnight and it went sour, so I added milk powder instead....I ran out of white bread flour so I use self raising, yes I can hear your heart sinkng here.........

I had to bake it for an extra hour because it was wet in the middle....I think I added to much water....

but it looks good from the outside, lol:

I think I just need a strong jaw to get through that crust.....

So, I think I had better get the basics first before I mess about any more.....

Bacon Butties.....sometimes nothing else will do.

Sometimes the soul is in need of heaven, what better way to feed it than thick fried bacon, wholemeal fresh bread, slavered with real butter and nothing else. ahhhhhhhh......

What better way to start than with a near gnocci disaster

What prompted this dinner choice was the fact that I had left over some mash with cheese and onion.

However, after adding some eggs and flour, it occurred to me that chunks of things in gnocci don't work, why I couldn't have tested it anyway........ but suffice to say I made some more mash without cheese and onion and added more eggs and flour, not quite sure why on earth I didn't follow a recipe, probably because I have made it a million times before and its always worked. So I plopped the damned things in the boiling water, and to be honest they just tasted of flour!!

I normally use potato flour, but just used plain wheat flour this time, and they were the kind of dumplings that lie for eternity in the bottom of your belly. I was disapointed, because its one of the vegetarians favourite dinners.

Thankfully the saving grace was the roasted tomato sauce......

5 fresh plum tomatoes, baked on a high heat with a sprinkling of salt, lots of garlic olive oil, and some fresh basil....

Smothered with parmesan and tomato sauce, it was passable

....anyone have a good gnocci recipe they have tried and tested?????