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Saturday, July 20, 2013
Spain - under my skin
Spain has a way of getting under my skin, it's a country I can't get out of my head once back home. We've just returned from a dream two weeks. Rediscovering Barcelona and Port Andratx on Mallorca and getting to know Valencia and doing the tapas trail in Logrono. As always - not enough time but enough to feel enthusiastic to recreate and evoke the tastes and flavours in my own kitchen here in France. Some of the most remarkable food was the simplest. Isn't it always? My favourite from this trip: sepia (cuttlefish) on the plancha. I'm hooked. In Valencia black paella was new for me as was suckling lamb done in a wood fired oven in Logrono. Absolutely no complaints.
Trouble is getting the ingredients. Here in south west France the local (fantastic) produce is very regional so finding 'proper' Spanish ingredients comes as a challenge. However, I've made a start with a well known dish from where in Spain it comes I'm not sure but it's a safe bet for me. Black pudding is easy to find here and very delicious it is from the town of Vic-en-Bigorre at our local Saturday market. Black pudding is not everyone's cup of tea but if you have the chance to taste a really good one you'll soon be converted. The best black pudding I have ever had comes from Burgos in Spain and includes rice and for my money nothing else touches it.
This is not really a recipe as such it's just a case of putting all these splendid ingredients together. I doubt scallops are traditional in Spain but I've married them here with the morcilla (black pudding) as a flavour experiment. The texture of the scallops and the creaminess of the black pudding feel right in the mouth heightened by the succulent beans and the fresh, tangy mint. It feels good. Essential ingredient next is the sea salt.
I first made this dish about thirty years ago. Spurred on by the loveable English cook, Keith Floyd, whose love of Spain matched my own and whose love of slapping up great simple ingredients with a glass of wine in his hand and a great amount of gusto enthused us all. He made us feel happy, not just about his cooking but about life and living and sharing. I can't quite remember off the top of my head how he made his broad bean dish but ever since then I've been putting together one version or another. The following is how I made it last night. Next time might be different. I might add some jamon Serrano and a splash of white wine or not as the case may be.
Serves: 2 as a main course
1 x 500g small black pudding, sliced into even 2cm slices
500g frozen broad beans
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium sweet white onion, finely sliced
6 scallops with or without coral
Sea salt and ground black pepper
Handful of fresh mint leaves
Method:
Transfer the frozen broad beans to a bowl and pour over enough boiling water to cover. Leave for a few minutes to cool then pod each bean of its tough outer shell. Discard the shells and set the podded beans aside.
In a medium sized frying pan heat the oil and sear the scallops for two to three minutes on each side until they are cooked through and lightly browned. Remove and keep warm.
Add the onion to the pan and gently cook until soft and translucent. Remove and keep warm.
Add the black pudding to the pan and cook until it is cooked through - about two to three minutes on each side.
Return the onion to the pan with the black pudding and add the beans. Cook a further few minutes, gently turning the ingredients around to mix together but without breaking up the delicate slices of meat.
Place the scallops on top, scatter over the mint and liberally sprinkle with sea salt and ground black pepper. An extra splash of extra virgin olive oil will help loosen the ingredients and given an extra sheen. Serve immediately.
Monday, May 13, 2013
taking a break!
Regular posting on the foodvine has
suffered since the beginning of 2013 while I sat back to write
another cookbook, the Recipe Tin. Now the book is finished, published
and for sale (see opposite) I feel I can take a well deserved break
from food writing. I apologise to my regular readers but I will make
amends in the months to come.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Turkish bread
Don't go on a diet and then decide you
can't live without Turkish bread – it's not Moorish for
nothing. When you're all back to your slicey self bake a batch and
never mind the calories. It's a bit messy forming into ovals so you
might curse me at this stage but otherwise it's a simple bread with
no kneading involved. You will need an electric mixer - don't attempt
it otherwise.
Ingredients:
375ml warm water
2 teaspoons dried active yeast
½ teaspoon sugar
125ml extra virgin olive oil
5 tablespoons plain yoghurt (at room
temperature)
562g plain white flour
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1tsp sea salt
1 teaspoon nigella seeds or black
sesame seeds
Method:
Use the bowl of a mixer like a Kitchen
Aid or Kenwood or similar. Place the water in the bowl of the
machine and stir in the sugar then sprinkle the yeast over the top.
Leave to activate for five minutes. When it starts to foam and you
see a little movement on the surface it will be ready.
Add the flour, yoghurt, oil and salt
(in this order). Mix on a low speed for six minutes.
Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel
and leave it in a warm place for two hours to double in size.
Preheat the oven to 190C.
Line two baking sheets with baking
paper.
Turn the dough out onto a floored board
and punch down. Divide in two portions. Smooth a portion onto each
tray to form ovals approximately of 33cm x 13 cm. Drizzle with a
little extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle over the seeds and salt.
Bake the bread in the oven for 23
minutes. Remove (from the oven) the bread tray from the top shelf.
Swap the bottom shelf bread tray up to the top shelf. Bake for a
further two minutes. Return the first tray to the oven, to the lower
shelf and bake both for a further five minutes.
Remove both trays from the oven and
slip them off the paper onto a wire rack to cool.
I find two loaves is too much for us so
I cut and freeze one as soon as it is cold enough. I love it split
and toasted for lunch and it's excellent sliced very thin and used to
serve with dips – especially ones like broad bead, carrot and chick
pea.
Note:
Three things kill yeast: cold, heat and
salt.
Make sure the water is warm and not hot
or cold.
The salt is added last during the
mixing stage so it does not come into direct contact with the yeast.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
the recipe tin
check out my latest cookbook, released today, 21st march 2013
click on links for a preview and to
purchase printed version and/or ebook at.....
and
146 pages of recipes, photographs, short stories and travel notes -
many not previously published on The Food Vine
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Ahu Ahu - a black diamond by a blue sea
I'd heard about the black sand on New
Zealand's west coast but I couldn't quite imagine what it would be
like in real life. Not my cup of tea I'd thought to myself, being
biased. I lived and love the chalk white sand of Jervis Bay on
Australia's eastern seashore. It's my kind of sand. Dazzling, pure
and whiter than white.
So I wasn't expecting real sand and I
wasn't expecting it to be black black and I wasn't expecting it to be
diamond bright, or to sparkle and glint at me, with or without the
sun. It took my breath away. It's beautiful, it's a shock to all the
senses.
Fresh water streams from nearby Mt Egmont lose momentum as they meet the beach, spreading out in ripples
across the smooth, untouched, black surface into the sea. Fat seagulls
squawk from little and large rocks that litter the
water's edge. No-one else is here. I think of Longfellow's “I hope
to join your seaside walk, saddened and mostly silent with
emotion, not interrupting with intrusive talk, the grand majestic
symphonies of ocean”.
Our villa, one of five – the Ahu Ahu
Beach Villas. It's thoughtfully designed, under-stated, private and
provides everything we need. We meet up with the owners, three nights
running. David & Nuala. They generously
offer freshly caught tuna and crayfish with homemade marinades and
sauces. David even cooks our cray. We're speechless. Words don't come
to extoll their virtues.
Ahu Ahu is roughly five hours drive
south of Auckland and five minutes from Oakura near New Plymouth. Mt Egmont's viewing platform and
climbing station is thirty minutes away. Ahu Ahu Beach Villas are a magic place to
stay. Three days was not long enough. Check their website for more details www.ahu.co.nz
David's marinade for (luminous pink)
seared tuna
sesame seed oil
sweet chilli sauce
soy sauce
garlic
ginger
lemon infused rice bran oil
lemon juice
David's aioli sauce for the tuna and
crayfish
crushed garlic
sour cream
chopped basil
lemon juice
lemon infused rice bran oil
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
brioche
I love the shape, the
shine, the texture, the taste, the flavour and the 'Frenchness' of
brioche..
Brioche making is a two to three day affair because very little yeast is used and the dough is usually given three risings, one of which is in a cold place, and this process takes a long time.
I decided to by- pass all this and kept my dough in the fridge for two hours and gave it no 'warm room' rising at all. I didn't knock it back after the first hour either. It is far too sticky to even contemplate touching. The net result was my brioche was excellent so this way of making it is really worth trying.
Serve brioche thickly
sliced and toasted: plain or with any jam or marmalade or a mixture
of cinnamon and sugar sprinkled over the top.
Brioche also makes
excellent French toast: take 4 thick slices and dip them, one at a
time, into a mixture of 4 eggs, 100ml cream and 100ml milk. Make sure
each slice is well saturated. Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan
and cook each slice about 2 minutes on each side until they are
golden brown. Combine 50g castor sugar with 1teaspoon cinnamon powder
and sprinkle over the cooked bread. Serve the French toast with a
compote of berries and some yoghurt or ice cream.
Ingredients for Brioche:
190g plain organic white
flour
2 teaspoons dried yeast
2 teaspoons castor sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
125g unsalted butter cut
into small cubes, at room temperature
1 egg and 1tablespoon
milk for glazing
Method.
Mix all the ingredients
together except the butter cubes and the glaze. Stir well. Using electric beaters mix on a low speed
for 4 minutes then high speed for 4 minutes. Lower speed to medium
and add butter cubes, a few at a time, until the butter is
incorporated into the mixture and it's smooth and soft and very
sticky.
Transfer the dough to a
clean, lightly greased bowl and cover. Place in the refrigerator and leave there for two hours.
Grease a fluted brioche
tin, line with non-stick baking paper. Spoon the dough into the tin
and brush lightly with the glaze.
Bake at 180C for 40
minutes. The brioche is cooked when a skewer inserted into it comes
out clean. Leave to cool for a few minutes then turn out onto a wire
cake rack and let cool completely.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
walnut and sultana bread
200ml milk (at body temperature)
1 egg yolk
3 eggs
30g soft brown sugar
3 teaspoons dried yeast
300g organic plain four (sifted)
190g walnut halves
2 teaspoons salt
Glaze: 1 egg white, 1 tablespoon milk)
2 handfuls sultanas soaked in warm
water for 30 minutes
Set oven to 200C
Line a 25cm (10 inch) loaf tin, I used
a collapsable one, with non-stick baking paper and set the tin on a
(round) baking sheet for ease in and out of the oven.
In a large bowl, mix:
milk, eggs, sugar and yeast. Leave in a
warm place for ten minutes or until the mixture looks like it is
fermenting on the top (bubbling up).
Sieve the flour into the mixture. Mix
well. Add the nuts and fruit if you are using it, then the salt. Mix
well.
Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and
stand in a warm place to prove for 30-45 minutes or until the mixture
has risen to within 1cm or ½ inch of the top of the tin. My mixture
took nearly 50 minutes to rise. Brush with the glaze, gently and
place in the oven.
Bake the bread for 5 minutes then turn
the heat down to 170C and bake another 25 minutes and check it. I
cooked mine a further ten minutes. All ovens vary so it's important
to keep checking.
It is also important to check the bread
is not burning on top. Place a piece of foil on it if necessary.
The bread is cooked when a knife is
inserted into it and it comes out clean or when it makes a hollow
sound when tapped.
Allow to cool in the tin then turn out
onto a wire rack. Remove the paper. Leave to cool completely.
Notes: I cooked my bread in a small
convection oven which has a round turntable in it which is why I had
to use a round baking sheet. It was a very hot day and I didn't want
the house getting all hot from the big oven. I let the bread dough
prove outside, covered, on a table in the shade as the inside
temperature of the house was a bit too cold for the dough to rise.
The heat of outside air proved a perfect proving place.
The above recipe is my adaptation of a
Peter Gordon recipe.
PG used 1 egg and 3 yolks while I used
3 eggs and 1 yolk. He used ½ teaspoon salt while I used 2 teaspoons
salt. He used 2 tablespoons milk for the glaze while I used 1
tablespoon. He used 250gm walnut halves while I used 190gm. I think
the walnuts should be roughly chopped so I will do this next time. He
didn't use sultanas. I did but I should have put another handful in
the mixture. He baked his loaf for 30 minutes while I baked my mine
for 40 minutes.
I have to say my loaf was absolutely
perfect as my bread expert husband will vouch for but I think if the
walnuts were roughly chopped it would result in a better distribution
of them throughout the loaf. Next time I'll use more walnuts, either
250gm as PG suggested or even more than that. After all this is
walnut bread.
The bread is heaven with cheese,
especially goat's cheese and when it's a bit stale it's almost
better. Sublime toasted, too.
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