Last year I went to the BBC Good Food Show courtesy of Barber’s Cheese and got to try their lovely cheese for the first time. This year, things got a bit more serious and I was invited to The Bath and West Show to take part in a cheese toastie off (as well as having a good nose around the show). For my toastie recipe I wanted to keep it simple so I went for a sort of croque-monsieur; smoked ham, Barber’s Cheese, English mustard and plenty of butter on both sides of the bread. You can’t go wrong with butter.
Spring Carrots with Crème Fraîche and Herbs
Ingredients
You will need (as a side dish for two):
- 1 small bunch spring carrots
- 3-4 spring onions
- Few sprigs fresh oregano, dill and parsley
- Olive oil for cooking
- Juice 1/2 lemon
- 100ml crème fraîche
- Salt and pepper
Method
Scrub the carrots. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the carrots. Boil for around 10 minutes or until soft but still with a little bite.
While the carrots are cooking, slice the spring onions finely and then gently fry in a small frying pan in a little olive oil until softened but not brown.
Drain the carrots and put to one side.
Add the lemon juice, herbs and salt and pepper to the spring onions, keeping it on a low heat, then mix in the crème fraîche. Allow it to warm through a little.
Dark Chocolate, Orange and Hazelnut Brownies
Ingredients
You will need (for nine brownies):
- 100g salted butter
- 180g golden caster sugar
- 70g light muscovado sugar
- 120g dark chocolate with orange (the stuff I used had caramelised orange peel in)
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
- 2 eggs
- Splash vanilla extract
- 100g plain flour
- 2 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 50g roughly chopped hazelnuts (mine were blanched)
Method
Line a (roughly) 20cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper. You could grease the tin but anything for a life of easier washing up. Melt the butter, sugars, chocolate and golden syrup together in a pan over a low heat until melted and well combined. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Beat the eggs and vanilla extract together then whisk in the cooled chocolate mixture. Mix the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder together then fold this into the chocolate mix. Gently mix in the hazelnuts. Pour the brownie mix into the tin then bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 25-30 minutes. Mark into pieces while still hot.I think everyone likes their brownies differently; some prefer them cakier, some want them still gooey and others will have them like fudge. The thing I like about this recipe is the corner pieces are cakier than the edge pieces which are fudgier and the (best) centre brownie which is still slightly liquid. The middle piece is my favourite and I try to take it out when it’s fresh from the oven to enjoy hot. This of course is somewhat awkward as you need all manner of kitchen implements to try and extract it; it’s like culinary Operation but well worth the effort. The chocolate is just intense enough, the orange is more of a whisper and the hazelnuts add a welcome texture. Exactly what I wanted.
Pea, Carrot and Paneer Pilaf
I hadn’t done a vegetarian option for my Feed 4 for £6 series for a little while so I thought it was about time I did. I am a big fan of recipes which involve putting ingredients into a pan, putting a lid on and leaving it to its own devices and this is one of those. If you can’t find paneer for this recipe you can use halloumi but it’s saltier. All you need otherwise is onions, carrots, peas, curry powder and rice. Sorted.
Ingredients
| You will need (for 4): | |
| Rapeseed oil for frying | £0.02 |
| 1 medium onion, diced | £0.10 |
| 2 medium carrots, diced | £0.18 |
| 200g frozen peas | £0.25 |
| 250g basmati rice | £0.45 |
| 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped | £0.05 |
| 2 heaped tsp curry powder | £0.05 |
| 700ml hot vegetable stock | £0.10 |
| Salt and pepper | £0.02 |
| 225g paneer, cubed | £1.54 |
| Total | £2.76 |
Method
Heat around 1 tbsp of the oil in a large frying pan on a medium heat and add the onion, carrot and garlic. Fry for around 10 minutes or until softened. Add the curry powder and rice and cook for a further minute. Add the frozen peas and pour in the hot stock. Bring the pan to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer, put on a loose fitting lid. Simmer the rice for 15-20 minutes or until the rice is tender and the stock has been absorbed. Check on the level of stock while it’s cooking and top up a little if needed. While the pilaf cooks heat a pan up on a medium heat and add a little bit of oil. Season the paneer all over with salt and plenty of pepper before adding it to the pan. Fry the paneer until golden brown. Check the seasoning before dishing up the pilaf and divide the cheese between the plates.Rice is always welcome on my table in whatever form it comes. In this it’s got a lovely curried flavour along with the sweet carrot, peas and onion and the peppery slightly salted cheese. My favourite bits are the golden edges of the paneer. I have to say that this has to be one of the most filling things I have ever made, I almost couldn’t eat it all (but I had just had some cake!). This costs less than £3 for four, is very satisfying and is easy to make. Ideal weeknight grub.
Matsuri at St James, London
You might have noticed a lack of fish and shellfish recipes on my blog. The reason being I am intolerant to shellfish and the OH isn’t a fan of fish. While everyone else tucked in to their sushi, it looked lovely, we had the above vegetable sushi with soy sauce to dip. I liked that they looked like mini gardens surrounded by rice and they tasted honest, clean and fresh.
We then had tempura vegetables which were light and crisp. I loved the salt and spices that came with it to dip in. I was enjoying a fresh and slightly syrupy chilled sake (Houraisen – WA, Aichi Prefecture, Junmai Ginjo) with this course.
An afternoon with Twinings
I thought I knew a bit (at least) about Twinings but I learnt so much! They have been operating out of the same shop in London since they started in 1706 and have a huge variety of tea available; all sorts of flavours and blends. It takes five years to become a master tea blender and, once qualified, you get a special teaspoon engraved with your name on (I really want one of those!). I also didn’t know that Twinings originally created Earl Grey; that’s why theirs is called The Earl Grey.
The John O Gaunt at Hungerford
I started with the Scotch egg. I have to say I’m used to ordering a Scotch egg and it arriving hot with a liquid yolk in the middle so I was a bit disappointed to have this one arrive cold. You could tell from the consistency of the yolk that it would have been perfect if served hot. Having said that I did like the sage and onion flavour of the pork and the homemade brown sauce was very nice. There was also a big bowl of courgette and Stilton soup which I thought was an unusual combination as courgettes don’t have much flavour but it was generous and tasty.
Wild Garlic Gnocchi with Mozzarella and Wild Garlic Oil
Ingredients
You will need (for two):
- 300g waxy potatoes
- Small handful (roughly 20-30 leaves) wild garlic, blended or very finely chopped
- 100g plain flour
- Salt and pepper
- 25g Parmesan, grated
- 125g mozzarella
- 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
If you’re not sure where to find some take a look at this to find places where wild garlic grows near you.
Method
Peel and dice the potatoes to roughly the same size then boil them in salted water until tender.
Drain the potatoes then leave them to cool (take the lid off the pan to allow steam to escape).
Mash the potatoes well then add the flour, most of the wild garlic, plenty of salt and pepper and the Parmesan. Mix together until you have a dough.
Knead the dough lightly then roll into sausage shapes and cut into roughly inch sized pieces. I pressed the top of each gnocchi with a fork, for looks more than anything.
Chorizo, Pepper and Potato Hash
I’ve always liked the idea of a hash; various bits of food all chopped up and cooked together. I tried to make a corned beef hash once which was somewhat eventful. I was at University in my student house with two of my friends. The can of corned beef was being somewhat stubborn so I used my intuition and tried to open the can with a can opener. Suffice to say there was some slippage and some slicing and next thing I know I’m running around the kitchen with all of us pretending to be braver than we are trying to wrap my hand in kitchen roll. Luckily we lived near the hospital so off we trudged, in the ice and snow, to sit in A&E with all the people who had dislocated something slipping on the ice. I ended up with four stitches and my two fingers bandaged up which provided much amusement for the following week. In my haste to leave the house I had left a pan of water on the hob; this was also the night I learned you can burn water.
Curried Lamb Pie with Bombay Potato Topping with Schwartz
Ingredients
You will need (for 4):
For the lamb:- Flavourless oil for cooking
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 onions, chopped
- 1 tomato, seeds removed and chopped
- 2 tsp tomato puree
- 3-4 tsp Schwartz Curry Powder (I used mild but you could use a hotter one if you like)
- 400g minced lamb
- 100g frozen peas
- Salt and pepper
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