(Sort of) ANZAC biscuits

Continuing with the middle-aged housewife theme during lockdown, I’ve taken to handwriting letters to friends and including a recipe. The bonus being that I occasionally get one in return.

I can’t tell you how delighted I was to receive this recipe for ANZAC biscuits from my friend Vicky. It’s a true Hand-Me-Down-Recipe as it comes from her late mother’s recipe binder which she passes to me in her mum’s memory as she was “a big letter writer”. This is just so lovely.

I couldn’t wait to try making them but true to form I just couldn’t resist a little tinker. I substituted sultanas for dark chocolate chunks. This is why they look so dark in this photo – they’re not burnt honest! They made a delicious elevenses treat and taste much better than they look in this photo.

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and Wikipedia has it that these biscuits were made to send to ANZAC forces serving in WWI. This connects nicely with the story of how I came to know Vicky. My husband found her first when back-packing around Australia in the 1990s.

Vicky’s Mum’s ANZAC Biscuits

Makes 16-20

• 2 tablespoons of golden syrup
• 125g of butter or margarine (I used butter)
• 100g of caster sugar
• 100g oats
• 50g of desiccated coconut
• 100g of plain flour
• 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
• 50g of sultanas (I used the same amount of Lindt dark chocolate cut into small chunks)
• 1 tablespoon of hot water

Preheat the oven to 170oC.

Melt the syrup, butter and caster sugar in a pan.

Then stir in the remaining ingredients (except the chocolate chunks if you are using, the mixture needs to cool a little first if you are using these otherwise the chocolate melts as I found out the hard way).

Roll into 16 balls and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes (mine were done after about 13). I needed two trays to bake 16.

Cool on the tray until they are firm enough to transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

They keep for several days in the tin.

PS. I am embarrassed to admit to the recipe I have been including in my letters because it’s so bog-standardly middle class and apparently the most googled recipe during lockdown! But, for posterity, here it is (no photo I’m afraid but you can use your imagination).

Elizabeth’s easy-peasy banana cake

• 2 on-the-turn bananas, mashed
• 140g of caster sugar
• 55g of Stork margarine (or for purists use butter)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 170g of self-raising flour
• ½ teaspoon of baking powder

Line a loaf tin (approx. 22cm long, 11cm wide, 6cm deep) with baking parchment.

Mix all the ingredients above together in a large mixing bowl. Then, using an electric hand whisk, mix until just incorporated.

Tip into the prepared tin and bake in an oven preheated to 170oC fan for 30 minutes.

Lockdown lunch – easy flatbreads with mushroom and lentil soup

Lockdown continues with no end in sight in terms of the children going back to school. I’ve grown quite used to having them around but I feel as though I am morphing into a 1950s housewife. All meals are served on the dot at set times and my brain is clogged up with thinking about where the next one will come from and how I can mix up the random ingredients in the cupboard to form some sort of presentable family meal. Putting all my feminist principles to one side, it’s a part that I’m rather enjoying playing. PS. I do not look like a 1950s housewife. No pretty tea dresses here but rather tracksuit bottoms, no makeup and grey roots scrapped back into a rough ponytail.

We’ve now completely run out of bread and plain flour and our supply of out-of-date yeast (begged and borrowed from friends and family) is dwindling away dangerously. Luckily, we have still been able to buy self-raising flour locally so I searched the internet for a bread recipe that would make use of this. I was really delighted with the results of this flatbread recipe – loosely based on one from Jamie Oliver’s website. The dough was very forgiving and soft and it could be shaped easily without the aid of a rolling pin. It’s definitely one that you could get the kids to help with (dress it up as a home economics lesson!). My husband Ben said that they tasted a bit like crumpets which can never be a bad thing in my opinion.

The mushroom and lentil soup comes from the no-nonsense ‘New Complete Vegetarian’ by Rose Eliiot. It is rather reminiscent of healthy vegetarian cafes circa 1990, but with a few embellishments it made a perfectly respectable weekday lunch. It tasted earthy and wholesome and handily made use of store cupboard ingredients and some on-the-turn mushrooms. Weirdly my son ate it happily – despite claiming to hate both mushrooms and lentils (I didn’t tell him what was in it until the end).

The flatbreads were the star of the show though and I really recommend trying them.

Quick flatbreads (with self-raising flour)

Makes 8

• 350g self-raising flour
• 350g plain yoghurt
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• A good pinch of salt
• A slug of rapeseed or olive oil
• Optional flavourings – I added a little fenugreek and some black mustard seeds

In a large bowl mix together all of the above ingredients with your hands and mix until it all comes together into a smooth dough (use a little more flour if it’s too sticky, I needed a couple of extra sprinkles). Cover the bowl with cling film or a tea towel and leave to rest for at least 30 minutes.

When you’re ready to cook, divide the dough into 8. Roll each portion into a ball and flatten out until it is about 20 cm in diameter. Use a rolling pin if you need to.

Heat a frying pan until very hot – do not add any oil. Cook each flatbread for a 1-2 minutes on either side. They’ll bubble up a bit and go nice a brown in places. You may need to reduce the heat a little if the pan gets too hot – I like it though if they catch a little in places.

Keep warm in a very low oven (around 100oC) on a plate covered with a damp tea towel while you cook the rest (the tea towel will prevent them from drying out).

Mushrooms and lentil soup

Serves 4

• 200g pack of mushrooms (I used chestnut), chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a little butter (approximately 15g)
• 125g green (or Puy) lentils
• 850ml water
• A stock cube (optional)
• Salt and pepper
• To serve, dill or parsley, cream or grated Parmesan

Take a large frying pan and cook the onions, garlic and mushrooms in the olive oil and butter until soft (about 5 minutes). Add the lentils and the water and simmer with a lid on for 45 minutes until soft. Do not add any salt or salted stock cube until the lentils are soft as the salt prevents them from cooking.

If you are using a stock cube add this in once the lentils are soft and cook for a couple of minutes more.

Blend the soup until smooth. This will make a very thick soup. I thinned mine down with a bit more water, or you can use milk if you wish. Check the seasoning and add pepper and a little more salt if necessary.

Serve topped with dill, parsley, a drizzle of cream or olive oil, or perhaps some grated cheese.

 

Lockdown Cinnamon Buns

It has been two years since I last posted on this blog. I’m still alive and cooking away happily but have struggled to make time to photograph and post the recipes.

I re-join you with a little more time on my hands. I’m in lockdown and made redundant from my paid work but trying to wrestle with my new, unplanned job of school teacher.

In this current housebound situation meals have become the main focus of our days. In these uncertain times even simple food brings me reassurance, comfort and genuine joy. Meals also do a wonderful job of bringing our little family together when we have all crept off to our separate corners of the house to work, study (or pretend to), read and sneakily binge on YouTube, Netflix etc.

To break up the day even more we have heartily embraced the English mid-morning snack known as ‘elevenses’ (or, ‘second breakfast’ if you’re a Hobbit). With this comes a battle with my daughter over who is going to bake the sweet treat. She’s eleven now and a keen (but messy) baker with a mobile phone and her own Instagram page mainly devoted to showing off her results. We are both very relieved that flour, yeast and eggs have now returned to the shops after a few weeks of worrying absence.

Elevenses is probably our favourite and most extravagant meal (snack) of the day. Others tend to be modest affairs consisting mainly of rice and tins of beans masquerading as some sort of curry.

Top of our ‘elevenses’ favourites are these tasty Scandinavian style cinnamon buns. With these I can fantasise that I’m in a trendy Stockholm cafe enjoying the Swedish equivalent of ‘elevenses’ known as ‘fika’ (roughly translated as coffee and cake).

The original recipe came from Magnus Nilsson’s epic ‘The Nordic Cookbook’ but I have tinkered with it to make it simpler. I use my favourite no-knead method for a minimum of fuss. The process takes 24 hours from start to finish but the actual work involved is not at all onerous.

Cinnamon buns

Makes about 20

Dry ingredients

• 600g of strong white flour
• 150g of wholemeal flour (or use all white if you wish)
• 125g of white sugar (granulated or caster)
• 15g of dried easy bake yeast
• 15g of salt

Wet ingredients

• 150g of melted butter
• 320ml of milk (semi-skimmed is fine)
• 1 egg

Filing and baking

• 150g of soft salted butter (or use unsalted and add a little salt)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of cinnamon
• 75g of brown sugar (demerara, light, dark take your pick or use white sugar if you prefer)
• Egg wash, 1 egg mixed with a little milk (or just use milk if you don’t want to waste a valuable egg)

Add all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Melt the butter (I use a microwave) and add the milk and beat in the egg. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well until combined. Knead gently for a minute just to make sure that all the ingredients are evenly mixed. I always use the no knead method for baking these days so this is all the kneading that’s required here.

Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave at room temperature to rise for around 6-8 hours. I generally do this first stage in the morning and leave to rise all day.

Tip the risen dough onto a work surface dusted with flour and roll out into a large rectangle roughly 50cm wide by 40cm. Try to get the thickness of the dough as even as possible and pull the edges to manipulate them into a rectangle (they’ll fight to stay rounded so just do your best.

Mix together 150g of softened butter with the brown sugar and cinnamon.

Spread this buttery mixture evenly over the surface of the dough leaving a 4cm border along the long edge furthest away from you. I use a butter or palette knife but the back of a spoon also works well.

Roll the dough up into a log starting from the edge closest to you and finishing with the unbuttered edge underneath.

Cut the log into slices roughly 2 cm thick. You will need a very sharp knife so that you don’t lose the shape. The end pieces will probably be a little more raggedy but don’t worry they’ll still taste great.

Transfer each slice (flat side down) onto a lightly greased baking tray. For this amount you will need two large ones with sides to catch any seepage of the buttery, cinnamon mixture.

Cover carefully with clingfilm and leave in the fridge to prove overnight.

In the morning take the buns out of the fridge and place in a warm place to rise until they are doubled in size. This will take around 1 ½ to 2 hours. I put mine in the airing cupboard.

Lightly brush the surface of the buns with the egg wash.

Bake in an oven at 200oC for around 15-20 minutes or until golden.

Cool on wire racks (if you can wait that long).

No knead focaccia

Below is my recipe for easy ‘no knead’ focaccia. I was particularly pleased that the ‘no knead’ method worked here because focaccia dough is notoriously wet and the kneading part messy and troublesome.

This is a great bread to start on a weekend morning ready for supper in the evening. With some good olives, interesting cheeses and a bottle of wine it makes an excellent meal.

No knead focaccia

The photo above shows half the loaf you make here

• 500g of strong white bread flour
• 2 teaspoons of regular table salt
• 4g of yeast
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil (plus more for drizzling)
• 400ml of cold water
• Sea salt

In the morning, place all the dry ingredients (flour, yeast, table salt) in a bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon. Add the wet ingredients (oil and water) and mix again until just incorporated. The mix will be very sticky.

Cover with cling film and leave to rise at room temperature (for at least 8 hours) as you go about your day.

Line and oil a tin (20 x 30 cm or one with a similar area) and tip in the dough pressing down gently to the edges so that it is evenly distributed.

Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for another hour.

Preheat the oven to 220oC and put a bowl of boiling water in the bottom of the oven to create steam. Drizzle the top of the bread with extra olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Remove from the tin and leave to cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing into thick wedges.

NOTE: You could leave the dough to rise overnight for warm bread in the morning, however I don’t consider focaccia to be a breakfasty sort of bread.

Fish with coconut (Sri Lankan style?)

I haven’t posted for a while as I’ve not been very adventurous in the kitchen recently.

We’ve been enjoying our small herb garden, which has just come into its own after all the cold weather, and our simple meals are far too basic to talk about – pasta (with herbs), rice (with herbs), eggs (with herbs)…you get the idea. We also have allotment grown purple sprouting broccoli coming out of our ears which I like best stir-fried quickly just by itself.

This is all good (and quite healthy) but I decided earlier in the week to spice things up a bit and make a special trip to the fishmongers so that I could make this dish which seemed suitably fresh and summery.  Its unusual, dry texture takes a bit of getting used to but the combination of heat from the spices and sweetness from the coconut, enlivened at the end by lime and coriander, is very moreish (as my father would say).

The original recipe came from my ‘Essential Asian’ Cookbook. I have been unable to find any similar recipes anywhere. Perhaps this is because it’s not authentically Sri Lankan (I am always suspicious about books that claim to encapsulate the food of an entire continent) or maybe it’s just not well known enough to have made it to the top of a google search. I would be interested to hear from any Sri Lankans regarding this matter.

Anyway, if you like fish, coconut, fresh flavours, and you don’t require a sauce I would encourage you to give this a try.

Sri Lankan fish with coconut

Serves 2-4

• 50g of desiccated coconut
• 50g of flaked coconut (although I’ve used all desiccated when I didn’t have this and that worked just fine)
• 500g of firm white fish (cod is what I generally use)
• ½ a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1 tablespoon of lime juice, plus extra for serving (to taste)
• 1 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 teaspoons of cumin seeds
• 1-2 dried chillies (depending on how hot you like it)
• 2 tablespoons of oil (I use groundnut)
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 3 medium onions, very finely sliced
• Salt to taste
• Coriander (to garnish)

Preheat the oven to 150oC.

Spread the desiccated and flaked coconut on an oven tray and toast for 10 minutes until dark and golden, shaking the tray occasionally to mix.

Place the fish, pepper, turmeric and lime juice in a frying pan, half cover with water and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes with a lid on until the fish flakes when pulled gently with a fork. The cooking time will depend on the thickness of your fish fillets. Remove the fish from the pan and leave to cool a little before flaking into pieces.

I don’t like to waste the fish cooking liquor and therefore use it to cook the rice that goes with this dish, topping up with water to make the full amount of liquid required (see rice recipe here).

Dry roast the star anise, cinnamon stick, cumin seeds and chilli in a frying pan over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Then grind to a fine powder in a food processor (easy) or pestle and mortar (hard but satisfying). This spice powder smells amazing.

Heat the oil in a frying pan or wok and add the garlic, onion and spice powder. Then stir fry over a medium heat for 10 minutes until the onion is soft and fragrant.

Add the flaked fish and toasted coconut to the pan and toss with the onion until heated through.

Season with salt and lime juice to taste and garnish with chopped coriander. This is not a dish that needs to be served piping hot, I actually prefer it warm or at room temperature.

Serve over rice, with a cucumber and tomato salad (or some similar sort of fresh salad). It’s even nice with just salad or wrapped up in a flat bread. I also like to have a dollop of yoghurt on the side.

No knead bread

Why does modern life seem to involve so much unnecessary labour? Is it because we have a deep need as humans to feel useful? Work = purpose, whereas idling = useless.

But as life is so busy these days surely we should take the easy option when we can – especially when it produces the same or similar results.

I have long been a fan of the no iron clothes washing method, whereby I take garments out of the dryer before they’re completely dry and hang them on coat hangers for the wrinkles to fall out with no effort.

And in recent years we’ve been trying the no dig gardening method at the allotment and so far it has produced equivalent and in some cases better results for much less work.

Than last week I was listening to Nathan Myhrvold, author of ‘Modernist Bread’, on Radio 4’s Food Programme and he said that you really don’t need to knead bread to produce a good loaf.

I can’t tell you how excited I was to hear this (that’s how sad I am). I just had to put it to the test.

So I made Ben’s standard loaf but just skipped the kneading part. And what do you know, it worked just fine. The finished loaf looked a little bit rougher but the texture and flavour were excellent and possibly even better than usual.

Now this method does mean that you need to leave the dough to rise for a lot longer (8-10 hours) but this fits in more conveniently with a standard working day. Bung all the ingredients together quickly in the morning (without kneading) and the dough will be ready for its second proving (and baking) once you return from work.

PS. I can vouch that it works on pizza dough too (basic recipe here) just skip the kneading part and leave to prove for 8-10 hours.

PPS. Of course the really easy option would be to buy a factory made loaf from the supermarket or a pricey, artisan one from your local deli, but nothing beats homemade, especially when the effort to reward ratio is so high.

Ben’s bread (the no knead version)

Makes one large loaf

• 900g of strong bread flour (mainly white with 200-300g of spelt or wholemeal if you like)
• 12g of salt
• 6g of easy bake yeast
• 550ml of water
• (Optional) A small handful of seeds of your choice e.g. sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, poppy

Add all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Bring together with your hands until well mixed together (use a wooden spoon if you prefer).

Leave in the bowl covered with cling film to rise. How long this takes will depend on the temperature in your house but it is likely to need at least 8 hours if it’s just sat on your work surface, although longer is fine and may well be necessary if it’s a cold day.

Once it has at least doubled in size, briefly knock back the dough with your hands and tip the mix into a greased bread tin (ours is 28.5cm long, 13.5cm wide and 7cm deep).

Leave to rise in the tin for about another hour. It is difficult to be precise here but the dough needs to reach just above the top of the tin.

Preheat the oven to 220oC or 230oC if, like me, you like a really golden crust and put a tin of boiling water in the bottom of the oven to create some steam (this also helps with the crust formation).

Bake for 18 minutes at 220oC/230oC.

Then remove from the tin and bake for 17 minutes at 180oC.

Leave to cool before slicing.

Berlin style beef balls

A couple of weekends ago I went on a city break to Berlin with a female friend and without my husband or children. I have not been away by myself for years and it was a real treat. We spent most of the time eating, drinking and wandering aimlessly around the city.

We ate at the trendy, vegetarian, Michelin starred Cookies Cream, had a leisurely, retro brunch in the leafy Prenzlauerberg District and drank mind-blowingly strong coffee at uber-cool The Barn. However it was the Berlin beef balls, bought from a small stall in Markthalle Neun, in the Kreuzberg District that was my fondest food memory.

Once home, I decided to copy the idea – helped by the promo card which kindly indicated the ingredients in each type of ball. I just needed a little help from google translate.

They were fun (albeit time consuming) to make. Once cooked they all looked pretty much the same on the outside so we played an exciting game of meatball roulette at dinner which my son absolutely loved. His favourite were the ‘Bangkok’ but I suspect that’s because he enjoyed saying the ‘kok‘ part exaggeratedly in an attempt to be rude (he is 8 and that is the level of his humour).

In the market hall they were rather more orderly, putting four balls of each kind on a skewer and serving with thin slices of dense brown bread and lashings of butter.

Beef balls (four ways)

Makes 40 small beef balls (10 of each flavour).

Take 1kg of good quality beef mince and divide into four portions of 250g each.

Add the ingredients to each portion according to the lists below.

Mix all the ingredients together well with your hands and roll into 10 small meatballs. I find that dampening  your hands first with a little water helps to stop the mixture sticking to them.

Heat a tiny amount of oil in a frying pan and cook the meatballs over a medium heat until they are a dark brown colour. Take your time here to make sure that they are browned well all over. The process will take around 10-15 minutes.

You will need two frying pans for this amount, or you can keep one batch warm in a low oven while you cook the rest.

The Berlin

• ½ a small onion finely chopped or grated
• A heaped teaspoon of mustard (probably should be German but I used English)
• A tablespoon of fresh parsley, finely chopped
• A good pinch of salt and pepper

The Bologna

• 1 heaped teaspoon of tomato puree
• A handful of chopped fresh basil (do not use dried, leave out if this is all you have)
• 1 teaspoon of fresh rosemary, chopped (or use dried if you like)
• 1 teaspoon of fresh oregano, chopped (or use dried if you like)
• ¼ of a teaspoon of fresh or dried thyme
• 1 small clove of garlic, chopped
• A good pinch of salt and pepper

The Bangalore

• ½ teaspoon of ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon of turmeric
• ¼ teaspoon of paprika
• ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• ¼ teaspoon of ground coriander
• 1/8 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• Cloves (I used four whole ones and ground them in a pestle and mortar), or use around 1/8 teaspoon of already ground
• A good pinch of salt

The Bangkok

• 1 stalk of fresh lemongrass (to prepare, chop off the root and the green top, bash with a rolling pin to release the oils and then finely chop – you should end up with a heaped teaspoon of chopped lemon grass)
• A handful of fresh coriander (stalks and leaves) finely chopped
• 10g (a thumb sized piece) of fresh ginger, finely chopped or grated
• ½ a chili (red or green), finely chopped
• A good pinch of salt

Beef Ball Roulette

The joy of a lunchtime beer and no responsibilities!

 

 

 

Simple bread rolls (cobs)

I love bread almost as much as pasta but recently I’ve been eating less because I would rather eat no bread than bad bread.  For me the only place for a Chorleywood white sliced is in a fish finger sandwich or a chip butty when all culinary snobbery is abandoned in any case.

But life is busy and there is not always the time to make bread from scratch. Admittedly I often resort to a bag of cobs from Bird’s when the children need a packed lunch.

When I do have the time I like to make these simple bread rolls. They are easy to make but they do take time to knead, rise and bake so you need to be in the house for a day to oversee the process. It’s a nice thing to do with the children at the weekend when it’s freezing cold and rainy.

The original recipe came from the Hairy Bikers via the BBC website. By coincidence, I was in the middle of writing this post when it featured on the BBC online front page under the title ‘12 easy recipes for baking better bread‘. I can vouch for the recipe being pretty foolproof (I’ve been using it for years) although careful comparison (which I’m sure you’re all far too busy to be bothered with) will reveal some alterations by me.

Basic bread rolls (or cobs if you’re from Nottingham)

Makes 8 rolls

• 500g of strong white bread flour
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons of dried yeast (I use Allinson’s Easy Bake Yeast – in a green tin)
• 30g butter, softened
• 75ml milk
• 225ml warm water
• Semolina, for dusting

Measure the flour into a large mixing bowl.

Then add the butter and rub this into the flour with your fingers until it is completely mixed in (there should be no large lumps of butter left).

Now add the yeast and salt and mix lightly with your hands.

Mix the milk with the warm water and add this to the bowl.

Mix everything together with your hands until it comes together into a rough dough.

Tip the dough onto a clean work surface and knead for at least 10 minutes until elastic and smooth. Although it’s tempting, don’t cheat with this bit or you will have very dense rolls.

Return the dough to the bowl and cover with a tea towel or cling film. Set aside for 1 ½ -3 hours until the dough has doubled in size. It is hard to give an exact time here because it will depend on the temperature of your room and other inexplicable factors like the age of your yeast and brand of your flour.

When the dough has risen, return it to a floured work surface and knock it back by kneading it on the work surface for around 30 seconds.

Separate the mixture into eight parts and roll each into a ball. Flatten each slightly with your hand and transfer the rolls to a baking tray dusted with semolina. Cover the tray with a tea towel and set aside for another hour, or until the rolls have doubled in size again.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 230 degrees C.

When the rolls have expanded, dust them with flour or semolina and transfer them to the oven. I like to slash the tops once with a sharp knife.

Bake for 15 – 20 mins, or until golden-brown and cooked through. A hollow tap on the bottom of a roll is a sign that they are done.

Leave to cool for at least 30 minutes. These rolls are best served warm but not hot.

Espresso mushroom pasta

Not a great photo I’m afraid but I was far too hungry to faff around with the lighting and make it look better.

I would rather do a few more press ups and walk a bit more than give up carbs – I love them and they make me happy.

Pasta has always been my go-to for a quick, mid-week meal when life is busy but it can get a bit boring.

To spice things up a bit here is an interesting idea which mixes mushrooms and coffee for a very unique and earthy pasta sauce. I stole the concept from Rachel De Thample’s book ‘FIVE’. You don’t necessary need to be a coffee fan to appreciate this dish but you do need to like mushrooms.

Espresso mushroom pasta

Serves 2 greedy adults or 3-4 with a regular appetite

• 200ml of freshly brewed strong black coffee
• 15g of dried mushrooms
• 250g of chestnut mushrooms, finely sliced
• A good splash of olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• Salt and black pepper
• 300g of pasta of your choosing (this is the dried weight)
• A heaped tablespoon of mascarpone, cream cheese or thick cream
• A handful of walnuts, toasted quickly in a hot dry frying pan and roughly chopped
• A handful of fresh parsley, chopped

Brew the coffee and add the dried mushrooms to the hot coffee. Leave to soak for at least 30 mins (or longer).

Put a large pan of water on the boil and cook the pasta according to the packet instructions or to your liking. Reserve a cup full of the cooking water for later.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a frying pan and saute the mushrooms and garlic for a few minutes until they start to colour and wilt.

Drain the dried mushrooms, reserving the coffee and chop finely. Then add both the dried mushrooms and the coffee to the frying pan.

Let the chestnut mushrooms absorb the coffee and cook away until there is barely any liquid left in the pan. Mix in the mascarpone, cream cheese or cream and stir to combine. Let it bubble away until you have a sauce the thickness of single cream (you can always add a bit of the reserved pasta water if it gets too thick).

Drain the pasta and tip into the mushrooms. Stir to coat and season well with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately garnished with toasted walnuts and fresh chopped parsley.

 

Milk sorbet

I don’t eat out a lot but last year I was lucky enough to try milk sorbet TWICE at two different restaurants.

The first was at ‘The Peacock‘ in Rowsley where it was the perfect companion to a dense chocolate tart. The second was at the wonderful ‘John’s House‘ in Mount Sorrel where it came on top of a hot rice pudding – an odd sounding pairing but an absolute delight.

After these two memorable food experiences I decided to try and make it myself. This recipe from Donna Hay was the first that came up on a google search and I haven’t bothered to try any others because it is perfect.

We are divided in our family as to whether milk sorbet is preferable to a good old-fashioned vanilla ice cream but I’m totally convinced that it is better in some circumstances, such as with very rich deserts where it offers a lighter and more refreshing note of contrast. It is great just on its own though (I seem to say that a  lot on this blog).

You will need an ice-cream maker for this recipe. As I’ve said before, I have a Magimix Le Glacier ice cream maker – the cheaper sort where you have to freeze the bowl overnight before using. This remains one of my best used kitchen appliances*.

*PS. I have not been paid by Magimix to say this.

Donna Hay’s Milk Sorbet

• 1 cup/220g of caster sugar
• 1 cup/250ml of water
• 3 cups/650ml of full fat milk (I used Tesco Finest Channel Island milk)
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Place the sugar and water in a saucepan over high heat and stir until dissolved. Bring to the boil and cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Set aside and allow to cool completely.

Once cool add the milk and lemon juice.

Churn in an ice-cream maker until firm (about 20 minutes) and freeze until required.

You will need to leave the sorbet at room temperature for around 30 minutes before serving.