Coconut Milk Cake and CCC's 2nd Birthday

Sunday marked the 2nd Birthday celebration of the Clandestine Cake Club with a meeting in a Leeds hotel of 30+ bakers and their cakes.
I was fortunate to attend the very first meeting of the CCC way back  in 2010 on a cold December afternoon, I vaguely remember trying to hunt down an inflatable parrot stuck on the door indicating the location. There was only about ten of us on that day that spent a pleasant afternoon chatting and stuffing ourselves stupid with cake. Nowadays it's more a well known secret with meetings countrywide and the odd international event as well but the rules remain ever constant, only cake allowed and there is no judgement on the cakes.







 It's a rare occasion I get to visit an event nowadays there isn't many round my current neck of the woods and unless it's on a weekend I struggle to get to Yorkshire and Leeds to attend events so I was pleased this one was on a Sunday Afternoon.

The cake I decided to make was one I had been eyeing up for awhile. Dan Lepards' Coconut Milk Cake, a delicious sounding cake (if you like coconut that is) that lured me in with the stylish picture in Short and Sweet.
The cake itself  was fairly straightforward. Light and coconutty with hints of rum and lime, very 'wintery carribean' and the meringue butter cream that went with it was light and deliciously buttery, one to use again I think. I added shaved white chocolate to the cake to give it a snowy effect.

Here's to another 2 excellent cakey years and not forgetting the impending CCC cookbook......

Roast Pork Belly, Roast Potatoes, Aubergine and Carrots

Sunday Dinner, arguably our finest export. Hunks of juicy roast meats; chicken, beef, pork, lamb the choice is yours. Various veg cooked any numerous of ways ranging from the meh of boiled vegetables, why people, why? To the sublime of a roast potato with it's crisp crunchy golden exterior to its fluffy cloud like centre, drowned in a lake of gravy. delicious.

The OH was in charge of the dinner last Sunday, which she claims is her first effort at a full sunday roast. The star of the show was a huge hunk of pork belly that we picked up at the excellent Doncaster Market. We browsed through River Cottage Veg for some of our favourite veg dishes to finish off the meal.
The final menu:
                      Roast Pork Belly with Chilli, Cumin and Honey
                      Roast Onion Gravy
                      Roasted Potatoes and Aubergine from River Cottage Veg
                      Caramelised Carrots with gremolata from River Cottage Veg

I make no excuses for the picture, that is how a Sunday dinner should be served, mounds of food piled up on the plate, preferably just enough to immobilise the person for the remainder of the Sunday afternoon unless of course, somebody mentions the pub....

Creme Catalana - A Random Recipe

I haven't been to Europe much on my holidays, usually I fly west instead of east. I have, however made the odd trip to the continent and one of these trips was to the amazing city of Barcelona in the Catalan Region of Spain.
Barcelona, pickpockets and scam artists aside, is a beautiful city. It pretty much encompasses everything you want in a holiday with it's white sandy beaches, rolling hills and mountain sides, bustling city life and of course, amazing food. If you ever get the chance to visit, have a wander around The Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria which is the main food market on Las Ramblas in the centre of the city. It is truly stunning, miles of fresh vegetables, seafood, patisserie, meat and charcuterie, it is a food lovers dream. Then play catch the chair with the rest of the crowds (speed and sneakiness is the key) on one of the tapas stands and eat what you have just gawped at.

So why am I wittering on about Barcelona, well as usual over in Blighty, everyone's favourite Ringmaster is orchestrating his usual Random Recipe challenge over at Belleau Kitchen. This months challenge was to pick a cookbook associated with our birthdays e.g. mine is on the 20th (May, I like whisky) so I counted to the 20th book and randomly picked a recipe. The book I picked was Ramsay's World Kitchen and I landed on the Spanish version of the classic Creme Brulee; Creme Catalana.  

Ingredients
4 large yolks
70g Caster sugar
2 tbsp cornflour, sifted
zest of one lemon and one orange
cinnamon stick
250ml whole milk
250ml double cream

Method
Whisk the yolks with the sugar until pale and creamy
Whisk in the cornflour and zests
Slowly pour in the milk and cream whisking continuously.
Pour the custard into a saucepan and add the cinnamon stick.
Heat gently whilst stirring continuously, when the custard can coat the back of a spoon, turn off the heat.
Pour through a fine sieve into a jug then pour into individual ramekins
allow to cool completely and chill in the fridge until needed.

Sprinkle a thin layer of demerara sugar over the top and either wave a blowtorch over the top to caramelise the sugar or preheat a grill to high, place on a tray and place under the grill until golden.

Verdict
Lighter than a traditional creme brulee with a lovely citrus undertone, couldn't taste much cinnamon, might infuse the milk beforehand  next time to see if that helps.

Living over the Shop - Book Review

A bit ago I was sent a cookbook to review - Living over the Shop by Stephen Doherty. The shop referred to in the title is every cooks favourite - Lakeland, namely the flagship Windermere branch back in my home county of Cumbria.

Lakeland is an absolute bain on my life, I cannot resist wandering in and buying some random kitchen utensil/gadget/tray etc.... I have quite a few items from that shop and all of it is of excellent quality, reasonably priced and lasts an age. So I was quite pleased to find out that this book was from the restaurant at the Windermere store.
Stephen Doherty is the former 3 Michelin star chef currently running the restaurant with a background most chefs would kill for, namely working with the legendary Roux brothers at Le Gavroche.

The book
The book is split into two parts. the first part is about Stephen's life under the Roux's and afterwards running pubs before finally arriving at Lakeland. There is also an excellent bit dedicated to Cumbria's finest producers, some I already know and others I need to track down. This bit of the book might be uniteresting to some but as the Roux brothers are my idols, It was nice to get an insight from another point of view. The producers bit I enjoyed also, more books should have this, allowing people to get quality ingredients straight from the source.
The second part of the book is all about the recipes

The recipes
There are 80 recipes in total ranging from simple basic food that you would expect in a store restaurant, jacket potatoes, sausage and mash but as well as these they cater for the more adventurous; Souffle Suissesse for example, a Gavroche classic. It also consists of variety of 'basic' recipes such as various sauces, chutneys and preserves. The baking section is also well stocked with fondants, chocolate stout cake and honey and whisky creme brulee. There are a lot of recipes based around salmon in various states: rilletes, cured, roasted etc.. which could put some non salmon lovers off but as there is a lot of salmon available in the Lakes, its not that surprising.

I decided to try out a couple of recipes;

Shallot and Goats Cheese Tart Tatin

Honey Madelines

Both recipes were simple to follow, did not consist of a wide range of impossible to get ingredients and both as you see came out excellent, the honey madelines were lighter than air.

Verdict
Overall a good book, an interesting behind the scenes look at Le Gavroche and Lakeland accompanying some excellent recipes that most people would have no problem making and showing off with.


Disclaimer
The book was sent to me free of charge with the intention to review, all opinions above are my own and I was not asked to give a good review or told which recipes to cook.

Chocolate and Raspberry Tart

Another year passes and another OH birthday approaches which means another stylish creation of a cake is due. Usually on this most holy of days, or so she likes to think it is, the cake is delivered sneakily to a friend ready to be brought out as a surprise when she least expects it.
You may think this requires 007 levels of stealth and sneakery but the reality is far funnier, I recall one year where I turned up at her birthday meal with a cake in a bin bag (the cake was in a container before you say anything), made some flimsy excuse of what was in the bag and entered the restaurant. Oblivious to everything, the bag was passed to a friend who took it to the waiter to bring it out later to great shock and surprise.

Anyway this year provided several problems, 1. she doesn't live with those people anymore, 2. lack of a big birthday meal and 3. We were in London for her birthday weekend.

I could have made some easy to transport cake such as lemon loaf cake or something similar but where is the glamour or effort in that. So I called on my Master Pattisier skills ( I wish) to create a very easily transportable but very tasty and stylish little Chocolate and Raspberry tart.

You will need 5-6 little tiny tart tins or one big one (21cm) if not.

Ingredients
Pastry
210g Plain flour
35g icing sugar
125g cold butter, cubed
1 egg yolk
2 tsp of water
1 egg white (to brush the cooked case)

Filling
Punnet of raspberries
300ml double cream
2 tbsp caster sugar
pinch of salt
50g soft butter
200g Chocolate (70% Cocoa solids)
50ml milk

Method
Pastry
Mix the flour and sugar together, add the butter.
Rub the butter into the flour gently between your fingertips until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the yolk and water and mix together.
Using your hands bring together the mix into a dough ball, don't overwork.
Wrap tightly in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 30mins to an hour.

Divide into 5-6 even pieces or leave as whole if using 1 tin.
Get two sheets of cling film, spread one across the work surface, place each mound of dough in the middle and spread the other sheet over the top.
Roll out gently in between the two sheets of cling film (this method stops any excess flour being added to the pastry and drying it out).
Remove the top layer and using the bottom layer drape the pastry gently into the tin and press gently into all edges.
Take a square of greaseproof paper and place over the pastry, fill with lentils, baking beans, coins and blind bake for 12-15 minutes at 180C
Remove the paper and items and bake for a further 12-15 mins, keep an eye out, when it reaches a golden colour you are happy with then take it out.
Brush with egg white and place back in the oven for a minute or so.
Take out and leave to cool completely.

Filling
Slice up a few raspberries, up to you how many and arrange across the bottom of the tart.

Place the cream, sugar, salt into a saucepan and bring to boil.
The second you see bubbles take it off the heat and stir in the butter and chocolate until smooth and completely chocolaty
Stir in the milk to make it glossy.
Pour into the tart, as close to the brim as you dare.
Leave to cool and set at room temperature for 2 hours

Serve and enjoy

Goulash

So with autumn in full swing and winter hurtling it way towards us, its time to bring out the thermals, to wake up and go home in darkness, to hide under duvets away from the winter chill but most importantly to get on with some autumn/winter cooking with a wide variety of stews, soups and roast meat.

This stew recipe is a childhood favourite, It's based round the classic Hungarian goulash which is a tomato stew with beef and paprika. I have added a mix of beef and pork to this dish for contrasting textures and because it's good to have a bit of variety.

I also added a scotch bonnet to the mix to give an extra kick of heat, feel free to up the amount of bonnets if you are a chilli head. Recommended amounts: 1 = nice kick of heat, 2 = fiery, 3= toasty. 4+ = you need help my friend.

My shin/shoulder came with the bone attached, you can get this removed by your butcher but personally I recommend you don't. Simply take of as much meat as you can, don't try to hard to get every little bit off, then simply sear the bones on all sides when you fry the rest of the meat. Add this to the stew and over the course of the cooking time, all the remaining meat will fall off the bone which can simply be removed. Be careful that there are no tiny pieces of bone left in the stew.

There is no need to stick to this recipe closely; throw in some mushrooms, carrots parsnips etc..., vary the meat, use different cuts such as oxtail or ox cheek, omit the chilli altogether (you wuss), the world is your proverbial shellfish.

Ingredients
500g Beef shin, cubed
500g Pork shoulder, cubed
4-5 fresh tomatoes, chopped
2 red peppers
1 tin of good quality tomatoes
2 onions, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and slightly crushed
1 stock pot
1.5 tbsp paprika (smoked if you prefer)
1 scotch bonnet (habenero), left whole.
Seasoning
oil for frying

Method

Season and fry off the meat in a frying pan or a heavy based casserole pot in oil until golden. this is easier in batches and set aside on a plate.
Fry the onion and pepper until golden and then add these plus the meat into a large casserole pan with a lid.
Add both varieties of tomatoes, paprika, garlic cloves, stock pot and scotch bonnet.
fill up with water until just covered, season well and bring to a boil. Place the lid on and place in the oven at 130-140C for a minimum of 3 hours, max about 10.
Serve with fresh coriander, sour cream and the carbohydrate of your choice - pasta, jacket spud, rice or lots of crusty bread.

Enjoy

Tomato, Mozzerella and Basil Salad

Tomatoes are up there with my all time favourite foods. When I was a youngster I used to make myself comfortable in my Grandads greenhouse and work my way through his latest crop, there is nothing worse (for me at 5 years old anyway) than waiting for a fat little tomato to ripen. Fortunately he had a decent sized greenhouse and I had limited stomach capacity otherwise he wouldn't have any left once they did ripen, didn't stop me trying though.


Tomatoes hit their peak around June/July time and there truly is no substitute for a homegrown tomato just taken off the vine. You can tell the quality a mile of just from the smell they give off. A tomato of that quality should not be messed around with, just eat the thing, maybe sprinkle a smidge of salt, perfection.

So why am I talking about tomatoes in October? Well this year has been slightly weird. A colleague of mine recently got a decent batch last week off her plants and last weekend I was in Borough Market of good old London Town and the stand of Heirloom Tomatoes just looked too good to resist, I wish I had got a picture but some stalls get a bit moody about photography.

All of the little beauties had varying shades of colour ranging from speckled light green to blazing fire engine red, in various shapes and sizes so I got a random selection to make a simple tomato salad with. Like I said before don't mess around them.

I also picked up some stunning mozzarella, one of the creamiest I've tasted to go with it and some fresh basil to finish it off. I won't insult you with a recipe just get stuck in if you can find a late batch or wait impatiently like I do for next tomato season.