World Cup Food Challenge - Churros, Spain.

Oh Spain, I had such high hopes for you. My tapas feast for the finale was well underway and then.....and then....you had to get completely hauled over the coals, utterly ripped apart and made to look like a Sunday league team by the magic of RVP and Robben. A staggering performance from the incumbent World and European champions.

So with my tapas dream turning to ashes, I was left with only one chance to cook from Spain. This was a difficult job with there being no shortage of tasty Spanish food, recipes and ingredients available. Was I to stick with my tapas feast? or choose something else?

Well it had to be something else, the feast just wouldn't be the same with Spain being unceremoniously drop kicked back across the Atlantic, so instead I opted for a recipe that I've always wanted to have a go at but never got round to. Churros.

For the uninitiated, Churros are the Spanish (and Mexican) equivalent of a doughnut, only instead of being round and filled with Jam, they are long and thin, coated in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar and then dipped into whatever you fancy. I personally recommend a fruit compote or melted chocolate.

This recipe is simplicity in itself but.... it is far easier with two people.

First off, make your dough....
Ingredients
250g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla extract
50g of butter
350ml water
pinch of salt

Method
Weigh out and seive together the flour and BP into a bowl, make a well in the centre.
Boil the water and pour over the butter and vanilla extract in a measuring jug, stir until fully melted.
Pour into the well and beat with a wooden spoon until a thick smooth dough is formed, allow to rest for 15 minutes.

Thats the easy part all done. Now...

Set up two trays, one with 150g of sugar and 2 tsp of cinnamon, mixed together and spread out. the other tray is to be covered with kitchen paper to absorb excess fat.

Next , fill a pan with about a litre of sunflower oil and slowly bring to about 150C, a piece of bread dropped in should brown within a minute.

While the oil is heating, transfer the mixture into a piping bag with a medium star nozzle, or a circle one if you don't want ridges.

Pipe into the oil to the desired length then, preferably with another person, cut off the end of the churro once the desired length as been piped.

Deep fry until golden brown, remove from the pan with a slotted spoon onto the paper and then roll in the sugar. repeat until all the batter is used.

 

Enjoy

World Cup Food Challenge - Escabeche, Chile.

To South America and the next country in Group B; Chile.

Chile have had a decent start to their world cup campaign, coming second in their group which can be considered a successful outing so far as they weren't the favourites to escape to the last 16 with the European powerhouses of football Spain (ha!) and Holland, taking up residence.

So what to cook...

Chilean cuisine has very strong Spanish influences and because of its location of the west side of South America has vast amount of seafood at it disposal. Scouring the internet I stumbled upon a recipe for escabeche, something I've wanted to but never had the opportunity to try.

Escabeche simply means 'pickled' and consists of fillets of fish, quickly fried or poached then soaked in a pickling liquor to marinade until serving.

So having decided to give Escabeche a go, I needed a recipe, enter River Cottage with this delicious recipe: Escabeche of mackerel. The recipe is also available in River Cottage Fish, which you really need to have in your collection.

I stuck to the recipe instructions with everything apart from the fish, I fancied rainbow trout and after trying it, it works fine.

The end result was delicious, lightly pickled fish, not to the extent of rollmops, and with a lovely spicing. You can almost feel yourself filling with virtue at the healthy deliciousness of it all. Give it a go.

World Cup Food Challenge - Appel Taart, Holland.

It's hard getting back into this blogging lark after a period of absence, a fairly lengthy period of absence looking back at the date of the last post. I have had stuff to blog, but little time or motivation to do it. I needed a challenge....

Fortunately the second greatest show on earth, The FIFA World Cup kicked off just under two weeks ago now and a team of crazy bloggers have been rounded up by @ewanmitchell to cook dishes from the all the participating countries, sound familiar? The good news this time, is there is only 32 countries and each blogger is responsible for 4 of them to cook with them through the tournament.

My Teams:

Group B

Australia

Holland

Spain

Chile

 

Lets start things off with my team of the tournament and my tip for World Cup glory; The Dutch.

 

The Dutch have had a blinding start so far, 3 wins out of 3 and Van Persie and Robben on blistering form. While wondering what to make for this country I was told to give their apple tart a go and they didn't have to tell me twice when it comes to baking or pies.

 

It's an interesting recipe this one, a bit of a cross between a pie and cake, with a bread style crust. it's very simple to make, far easier than the English apple tart and taste delicious with slightly tart apple, spicy cinnamon and sweet bread/cake holding it all together.

 

 

Ingredients

 

175g butter

175g plain flour

175g self raising flour

1 egg

1tbsp water

zest of one lemon

 

Filling

3-4 large slightly tart apples, think Braeburn not Royal Gala, cut into small pieces

50g sultanas

1tsp cinnamon

50g sugar

juice of one lemon

2 tbsp Apricot Jam

 

Method

Make the filling, add the juice of the lemon to a bowl

Core the apples and slice into small chunks, add to the lemon and stir to make sure they don't colour.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix together well, set aside.

Beat the butter until light and fluffy, add the flours, the egg, water and zest of lemon. mix together to make a soft, not sticky dough.

Remove a third of the dough and set aside. press the remaining dough into a lined 20cm cake tin, making sure it is even and goes up the sides of the cake tin.

Fill the tin with the apple mixture.

With the reserved dough, make a lattice effect over the top of the cake and then place into a preheated oven at 170C for 45-50 minutes until golden on top.

Melt the jam in a small saucepan and stir until smooth, brush the top of the cake once removed from the oven

Serve with sweetened cream or vanilla ice cream

 

Genieten!

 

 





Wild Garlic Quiche

 It is the season of Wild Garlic, a lovely food season where people (like me) can pretend to be scouring the wild for their tea and returning home victorious to a well earned pint after a hard day's searching, foraging and gathering.
I may have exaggerated a little there as I am quite fortunate to know of a good stash of wild garlic a mere 2 minutes walk from the OH's flat, but hey when finding food in the wild (local park) it's something to be slightly pleased about.

Anyway, it's a relatively simple plant to find. It grows like wildfire and it has very nice and edible little white flowers attached to it. It also has a very distinctive strong smell and chances are you will smell it before you see it. There is about a month left of the season so you still have plenty of time to find some.

 As well as obtaining some wild garlic, the kind folks at Barber's 1833 recently sent me some of their excellent cheddar to sample. Matured for at least 2 years, it is a delicious cheese with a rich taste that only comes from decent cheese that has had time to develop its flavour.

Pondering what to make with it (before I ate it all) I did think about making a classic rarebit but with spring in the air and the clocks going forward, I only had one option and I had to make the first quiche of the year.

Using a standard quiche base of eggs cream and milk, I grated a good chunk of cheddar in, alongside sliced up wild garlic leaves. I also added nutmeg to the pastry to liven it up a bit. The end result was delicious, cheesy, creamy quiche with the cheese balancing well with the wild garlic and not getting completely drowned out, a perfect spring time treat.

Ingredients
Pastry
200g plain flour
100g butter
1 egg yolk
1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

Filling
100g Chedder Cheese, grated
8-10 leaves of Wild Garlic, rolled into a cigar then finely sliced
150ml double cream
100ml milk
4 eggs
1 tsp nutmeg
Salt and pepper

You will need a 20cm fluted, loose based tart tin

Method
Pastry
Add the butter to the flour and rub together until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
add the water and stir with a knife to combine, then knead together quickly to combine until a soft dough.Wrap tightly in clingfilm and leave in fridge for at least half n hour.
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. 
With a rolling pin, roll it over the top of the tart tin to take off the edge.  
Prick the base with a fork to stop it from rising in the oven. Return to the fridge. 
Preheat the oven to 180C and place a baking tray in the oven to heat up.
Push up the edges of the pastry slightly to compensate for shrinkage.
Bake blind for 15 minutes then for a further 15 minutes normally to dry out and bake the base.
Once baked, brush the base with egg white to create a seal.
Lower the oven temperature to 150C

Filling
In a bowl, mix the eggs, milk, cream and nutmeg until fully combined. Season to taste.
Stir in the cheese and wild garlic and pour into the tart casing.
Bake at 150C for 30 - 40 minutes until slightly golden.
Allow to cool before serving.

Amazing Graze

Yesterday was the start of the second annual music and street food festival held in of all places, a church.
Run by the food heroes of Manjit's Kitchen, Amazing Graze is a collection of great street food, quality beer and an eclectic mix of musical acts, ranging from DJ sets to HipHop to Acapella. It is running today as well so still time to get yourself down there.

We were there for a good few hours merrily drinking and eating away a pleasant Saturday afternoon (with a brief interlude to shout at a certain horse race results). The street food itself, ranged from the usual pulled pork and paella to something a bit more adventurous from the makers of Leeds finest breakfast, The Greedy Pig.

The Pig, having escaped from their usual little cafe, had on a 6 option tapas menu, using all the parts of an animal that usually get neglected.

Naturally I had to try them all and between me and the OH we ordered the lot. The OH went for a terrine, meatballs and Ox heart kebab.
I went for the Ox heart kebab, thick chunks of tender spiced heart, griddled to perfection.
Scotch Quail eggs, quail eggs wrapped in sausage meat and liver and finally one of the finest pieces of offal I have ever tried with the Ox Tongue Taco, thinly sliced spiced tongue with salsa, curd cheese and pumpkin seed.

After a few hours and a few beers, the final tapas arrived with Stu from the cafe in the form of Black Pudding wontons, a product so simple but so good, crispy wonton pastry with a black pudding filling served with sweet and sour onions. Superb.

Having digested a bit, I decided to opt for a relative newcomer to the street food scene, Banh mi Booth, their van is still currently being built but this hasn't affected the food, with them offering an excellent selection of Vietnamese sandwiches (banh mi) and noodle dishes. I went for the pork and received a very large sandwich filled with pork, vegetables, herbs, chillis and a fried egg to put the final nail in the food coma.

After a few more beers, we decided to call it a day and headed back to town but not before getting an ice cream (caramelised banana sorbet (left) and golden syrup (right)) for the road from the always excellent Gingers Comfort Emporium.

Flapjack with Dark Chocolate and Raspberry

 It has been a very busy week at work and is only likely to get busier as it is approaching that delightful time in the academic year known as coursework/exam season. Roll on the 11th June when it will all be over but until then we have to power through. To aid this, I decided to go a bit old school and make a baking classic, a good old flapjack.

Never underestimate the wonder of a well made flapjack, Golden buttery oats that are sweet, crunchy and chewy that can be eaten on the go or lazily with a cup of tea and your feet up, glorious.

A good flapjack should consist of 50% porridge oats with the rest made up of equal quantities of proper butter, sticky golden syrup and golden caster sugar. Various dried fruits can be added but these are strictly optional as is my final ingredient.

Now the flapjack is wonderful on it's own but it's even better with chocolate, but it has to be dark... milk is too sweet and white...well lets not go there.

I picked up a bar of Divine's Dark Chocolate with Raspberries to go on top, it's a delightful chocolate with little tangy bits of raspberry in it which go really well in cutting through sweet flapjack and bitter chocolate.

Ingredients
450g Oats
150g Butter
150g golden caster Sugar
150g Golden syrup

1 bar of Dark chocolate with raspberries (if using)

Method
Line your chosen baking tin, I used a 23cm Pie dish, about an inch deep.
Weigh out the oats into a bowl.
Add the butter, sugar and syrup to a pan and then melt and stir gently until fully combined and a lovely golden liquid is created.
Pour in the oats and stir well until all oats are coated.
Pour into the tray and flatten down and smooth over with the back of a spoon.
Bake for 30 minutes at 150C until golden on top
Allow to cool
Melt the chocolate gently in a bowl over a pan of simmering water then drizzle over the flapjack as you see fit.
Serve and enjoy.

Creme Egg Brownies

I am a broken man this weekend. My very soul has been shattered and my liver has packed its bags and gone on holiday in protest. Yes, I drank a little too much alcohol combined with a lack of food and now I'm suffering for it.
Don't worry though, I am on the mend, assisted by these little beauties, which I made today.
I have been wanting to make creme egg brownies for an age, yes they are all over the place but I worship at the alter of the creme egg and combined with a gooey sticky brownie then its all good my friends.

The recipe I used is adapted from Lorraine Pascale's Oreo brownies which has served me well in the past, obviously this time I omitted the Oreo's in favour of the creme egg.

Creme egg brownies
Ingredients
165g Butter
200g Dark Chocolate, broken up.
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
165g light brown soft sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
pinch of salt

Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the chocolate, set aside and allow to melt, stirring occasionally until fully combined.
Whisk the eggs with the vanilla until light and fluffy
add the sugar to the side of the bowl in two goes, whisk between each addition.
Pour in the chocolate and fold in gently.
Fold in the flour, salt and cocoa.
Pour into a lined tin, I used a large pie tin but a standard 20cm square baking tin will suffice.
Slice the creme eggs into halves or quarters and arrange over the top.
Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes at 170C (fan)

Allow to cool slightly then use the baking sheet to lift it out to cool completely.
Serve and enjoy.

I can already feel my soul healing... until next weekend.