Limoncello Gelato with Brandy Snap Crumble

As soon as I saw the recipe for Gelato in Olive I had to have a go, I love the taste of lemon ice cream and I wasn’t disappointed. It is, without reservation, unashamedly lemony and that, for me, makes it well worth doing

The dish as a whole came out of dessert gone wrong. Once I’d made the Gelato I wanted to create some Brandy snap baskets and then sit a generous ball of Gelato inside each basket. Unfortunately the Brandy Snaps went wrong and were too hard but tasted great.

I didn’t want to waste them so I hit on the idea of putting them in the food processor and reducing them to crumbs.

Limoncello Gelato (From Olive Magazine)

3 Lemons, Zested and Juiced

190g Icing Sugar

450ml Double Cream

3 Tbsp Ice Cold Limoncello

Brandy Snaps (Something for the Weekend)

115g/4oz butter

115g/4oz caster sugar

4 tbsp golden syrup

2 tbsp brandy

115g/4oz plain flour

1 tsp ground ginger

For the Gelato

Finely grate the zest of the lemons into a bowl, then add their juice the stir in the icing sugar and leave for 30 mins. Whip the cream and the ice-cold Limoncello  until softly whipped, then whisk in the lemon mixture. Turn into a tub and put in the freezer. Freeze over night

For the Brand Snaps

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper.

For the brandy snaps, melt the butter, sugar, syrup and brandy in a saucepan.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the flour and ginger. Set aside to cool.

Drop teaspoon sizes of the mixture onto the baking tray and space wide apart. Bake in the oven for 5–7 minutes.

At This point I shaped the discs, whilst still warm, over Dario moulds and although I achieved the basket shaped they were too hard.

To make the crumble put the cooked brandy snaps, once cold, into a food processor and pulse until you get a crumb like effect.

Assembling

Line a Ramekin Dish with cling film, spoon the gelato into the Ramekin pressing down as you go until there’s 7-10 ml of space left at the top. Now top with the crumb mixture and press until firm. Put the Ramekin upside down on a plate, hold the Clingfilm down and gently lift the Ramekin. Finally delicately remove the cling film and add what decoration you feel good with.  

Spicy Prawn and Chorizo Potatoes

I have seen this somewhere before, I cant remember where though and therefore I've sort of made this up with some inspiration.

This dish suits any night of the week, the chorizo gives a wonderful level of flavour, the potatoes give it some body and the egg, if runny delights you with  a gorgeous richness to it


4 Medium size potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes, about 1 Inch
1 Packet of supermarket cooked prawns
1 good length of Chorizo, sliced
1 Red onion, finely chopped
1 Garlic Clove finely chopped
100 ml of white wine
1 egg per person
1 Chilli de-seeded and sliced
1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper
1 Handful of fresh parsley chopped

Heat the oven to 200 Degrees
Bring a pan of water to the boil, salt it and add the potato cubes, cook for 5 mins, drain, season and drizzle with Olive oil add the Cayenne and gently toss. Leave to rest for 10 mins, Tip into a roasting tin and place in the oven for 30 mins or until crispy and golden.

Meanwhile, saute the onions and garlic until soft
Put a separate pan of water onto boil for the poached egg

Add the chorizo, turn up the heat , stir until the chorizo starts to release its oil, lower the heat add the chilli and cook simmer gently for 10 mins.

Add the prawns, cook for 2-3 mins, add the wine turn up the heat and cook until wine has evaporated. Then reduce to a simmer until the potatoes are cooked. You may have to turn the heat off whilst the potatoes are cooking.

Add the cooked potatoes to the pan and stir gently so that the potatoes are coated in the sauce

Put the eggs onto poach and cook for 3 mins
Stir the parsely through the prawn, potatoes etc ...
Pile up into a large dish and place the poached egg on top
Drizzle over any remaining oil from the pan

Triple Chocolate Neapolitan

This made all the woman in my house go a bit weird and make nom nom hmmm noises. The rate with which this disappeared suggests that it's actually quite good.

As I'm no pudding expert I used this recipe straight from Olive Magazine and is now available on BBC Good Food 

There are some things to be wary of if you're going to attempt this

• You'll need a mixer, not essential but its knackering if you haven't
• Don't over whip your cream otherwise it wont mix properly with the egg whites and the Ice Cream will have a weird texture
• The Recipe suggests you fold the melted chocolate into the creamy egg mix, I tried this but it made the chocolate harden so and left bits in it. So instead I very very gently used a whisk to combine the two.
• Oh and make sure you get first go otherwise you might not get any, especially if there are women about.

Other than the method changes above I haven't really tried anything else yet accept adding some Vanilla Tuiles which went quite well

Oh and a learning opportunity for me here, the method for mixing the egg whites with the sugar is like making an Italian Meringue apparently and not something I'd done before

Serves about 8 
or 2 Choc crazed females

Ingredients
flavourless oil such as groundnut oil or vegetable oil, for the tin
175g golden caster sugar
2 egg whites
600ml pot double cream
100g white chocolate
100g milk chocolate
100g 70% dark chocolate

Method
Lightly oil then line a 900g loaf tin (I used a plastic Sandwich Box) with a double layer of clingfilm, leaving overhanging edges. Put the caster sugar in a pan with 4 tbsp water and heat gently until the sugar has completely dissolved, then boil for 2 minutes.
Whisk the egg whites to firm peaks in a large bowl. When the syrup has boiled for 2 minutes, carefully pour it into the egg whites a little at a time, with the beaters still running. Whisk until it has all been mixed in. Beat for 2 minutes to cool. Softly whip the cream in another bowl. Fold the cream into the egg whites, then divide the mix into three.
 
Melt each type of chocolate separately and leave until cooled but still liquid. Mix each into a different bowl of the base mix so you have dark, milk and white chocolate mixes.
Tip the dark mix into the lined tin,level it, then freeze for 45 minutes until just firm. Keep the other mixes chilled in the fridge until you need them.
Spoon the milk chocolate mix over the dark chocolate, then level and freeze for another 45 minutes or until just firm.
Finish with the white chocolate layer and cover with clingfilm.

Freeze for at least 6 hours or overnight before serving. Give it 20 minutes out of the freezer to soften a little before turning out to slice.


Take how much you want, issue the ladies with spoons and stand well back

Mozzarella Suprise Burgers

Burger recipes are like Flat Screen TV’s, Annoying Neighbours and Opinions on the NHS reforms …. Every buggers got one.

I’ve developed mine over time with the most recent addition being a little piece of mozzarella in the middle that melts into a delightfully stringy mess that kids love.

You could, I suppose, try other cheeses so long as they melt into something sufficiently oozy to keep your diners happy

The rest of the ingredients are my personal preferences but the guidelines are there for you to follow and get all inspirational and stuff

400g Quality Beef Mince

1 Red Onion Finely Chopped

2 Cloves of Garlic Finely chopped

2 Handfulls of Breadcrumbs

1 Teaspoon of Capers chopped

1 Chlli Chopped

10 basil leaves chopped

1 Handful of freshly grated Parmesan

1 Beaten Egg

1 Teaspoon of Sun Dried Tomato Paste

Mozzarella

Dash of Worcestershire Sauce

Salt

Pepper

So, couldn’t be simpler really place all the dry ingredients in the bowl, mix the wet ones together. Then mix the dry and the wet using a big wooden spoon and season well.

When sufficiently combined, place to one side and tear of nice chunky of mozzarella about the size of a walnut.

Now you’re ready for shaping your burgers.

Grab a chunk of the burger mix, its difficult to explain so grab a piece, roll it into a ball and then flatten into burger shape. Too Big take some out, too small … well you get the idea.

Ok so now you have your perfect size and still at the rolling into a ball stage.

Make a big Hole in the middle , push one of your mozzarella pieces into and then close the burger mix around it.

Flatten out into burger shape and place on a plate.

Repeat for all burgers and place in the fridge for 30 mins

Heat your cooking method of choice be it BBQ. Griddle or Frying pan and cook for around 10 mins flipping occasionally  but carefully as homemade burgers lose their shape quite easily

To test , stick a knife into the middle, pull out and touch against your lip .. if its ow that’s hot then its done, if not keep cooking

Serve how you like your burgers to be served

Seared Beef Carpaccio With Rosemary Flowers

Whaaaaat! Flowers!!!

Yeah really, flowers, honest guv.

I’ve seen many a TV chef type try to convince us that flowers are edible. Whoaaa steady on there.

I’ve just accepted that cheese and Jam are an acceptable flavour combination and now you expect me to believe I can happily chomp my way through the colourful section of the Garden Centre.

Erm, as it turns out, to some extent, they’re right.

The Rosemary in my back yard recently started sprouting flowers, so, tentatively; I plucked one of the purple blooms and had a little Chew. Wow, a delicate sort of flavour explosion thing was cavorting around inside my mouth. So confirm this was a new (to me) taste sensation I gave some to Lisa who quickly confirmed that they were indeed flavoursome and that I hadn’t been enjoying too much of the big orange thing in the Sky

Many ideas sprang mind around how to get the best out of the flowers and two things were paramount: What would be complemented by a rosemary hit and what would do justice to the delicate beauty of the flowers.?

Taste wise I think I achieved this, visually, did I do them Justice?

Serves 4 as a starter

1 Small, quality beef fillet steak

2 Radishes very thinly sliced

Handful of rocket and/or leaves of your choice

1 Tomato de-seeded and cut into fine cubes

8 Tablespoons of mayonnaise

1 Tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Squeeze of Lemon Juice

2 Teaspoons of Dijon Mustard

Baguette cut into 2cm thick slices, 3 per serving

Small amount of groundnut oil

Small amount of Rosemary flowers

On a clean chopping board lay down a good amount of sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Roll your steak in the salt and pepper so that you get a nice even coating all over the steak

Heat a frying pan until it is very hot, add the groundnut oil and very quickly sear all sides of the steak. It’s best to use a pair of tongs if you have one. Put the steak to one side to rest

In a bowl mix the mayonnaise, oil and mustard, whisk together then slowly whisk in Lemon juice and seasoning to taste.

Once the Steak has rested cut into slices as thin as you can get whilst keeping the pieces whole.

Take two sheets of Clingfilm and place one steak slice in-between the Clingfilm sheets.

Using a heavy object (rolling pin or meat mallet thing) batter the meat until it is wafer thin, repeat this process for all your slices.

In the same pan fry/toast your slices of bread until they take on a golden colour

Now your ready to assemble the dish how you want.

I started with the bread base, added the meat , then the leaves , the flowers and finished with a drizzle of the mustard mayo

Lisa did hers slightly differently

So, the taste then, what about that?

I think I matched the deep flavour of the beef , the peppery-ness of the rocket and acidic creaminess of the sauce very well with the fragrant rosemary bursts. 

You know what?

I think this eating flowers lark will grow on me ….. Ha Ha Ha Ha …. Erm I’ll get my coat

Chilli Chicken with Basil

It seems an absolute age since I last blogged. I think that's more to do with all the brilliant weather we've been having than anything else really. It's just been too nice to sit tapping away at a laptop when I don't have to

Lisa is getting to grips with her camera, hence the additional photos

So time to start getting some new stuff down and I though I'd share with you an old favourite of mine

This is a tried and tested recipe that never fails to disappoint I usually use beef but, as in this case, chicken works just as well.

A word of warning this is spicy and if you use the right chillies it can be tear your face off hot.

It has everything you'd want from a Thai dish, sweet, savoury, sour and heat.

I occasionally use Holy Basil but this is hard to come by so normally I use standard Basil

Serves 4

6 Tbsp Groundnut Oil

16-20 fresh Basil Leaves

3 Chicken Breasts

2 Tbsp Fish Sauce

2 Tspn Soft Brown Sugar

2 Red Chillis sliced into rings

3 Garlic Cloves chopped

2 tsp Ginger Chopped

1 Shallot Thinly sliced

2 tbsp finely chopped basil

Juice of half a lemon

Steamed Rice to serve

Heat the oil in a wok and when hot, add the whole basile leaves and fry until they crisp up.

Slice the Chicken into thin strips, place in a bowl, add the fish sauce and the sugar mix well and leave to marinate for 30 mins

This wont take long and be WARNED they spit like crazy when you fry them

Lift them out of the oil with a slotted spoon and put them on kitchen paper to dry

Drain all but a tbsp of the oil and reheat. Add the Shallot , Garlic, Ginger and Chilli for around 10- 20 seconds. This will give off a very pungent aroma that can make your eyes water and make you cough. It's supposed to do this

Add the chicken and fry for around 3 mins, stirring continuously 

Flavour with the lemon juice and black pepper to your taste. Stir in the chopped basil and serve with the rice, topped off with the fried basil

Sausage and Porcini Pappardelle

This dish was born out multi buy offer at Sainsbury’s. Sausages were on offer and one pack had been demolished at the previous nights BBQ.

I seem to recall a Jamie recipe similar to this, which gave me the inspiration to make it.

The Sausages and porcini mushrooms deliver little nuggets of meaty goodness. You could easily use Tagliatelle with this but I preferred the larger Pappardelle as it seems to make the dish more filling, the wine gives just the right amount of acidity

Serves 5

Six Pork Sausages

Handful of Dried Porcini Mushrooms

Two sprigs of Thyme, stalks removed and finely chopped

500g Bag of Pappardelle

1 Shallot finely chopped

2 Cloves of Garlic Finely Chopped

Glug of dry white wine

Tablespoon of Olive Oil
50ml Double Cream

Put the mushrooms in a bowl and cover with boiling water and leave for 20 mins.

Remove the Skin from the sausages and pinch off bite size pieces

Add the oil to large frying pan and gently fry the onion and garlic for a couple of mins

Add the sausages pieces to the pan and gently fry until brown

Meanwhile squeeze the water from the mushrooms but reserve the soaking water .

In a separate pan heat a knob of butter and gently fry the mushrooms, then add them to the pan with the sausages.

Next add the glug of wine, the Thyme and cook on a high heat for a min or two.

Add a couple of ladles of the mushroom water, be careful not to use the grit at the bottom of the bowl.

Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 mins, top up with any remaining mushroom water if required.

Meanwhile heat a large pan of water to boiling point, add a good amount of salt. Then cook the Pappardelle to packet instructions.

Spoon a little water from the Pappardelle into the sausage pan to loosen the sauce slightly and give it a glossy look.
Stir in the cream

Season the sauce to taste.

Drain the Pappardelle and tip into the pan with the sauce

Toss the pasta until all of it is coated in the sauce

Serve in pasta bowls and top with shaved Parmesan 

Beef Rendang

 

I love this dish. Its spicy, fragrant, sticky, gooey and it uses a nice cheap cut of meat.

There is a fair old amount of prep involved with all the chopping and stuff. This can be made easier if you get your butcher to cube the meat for you (buy it cubed from the supermarket) and trim off some of the fat if you want it leaner.

Lisa is not so hot (ha, see what I did there) on this, as although Malaysian cooking has elements of the Thai food she likes, it also has fair amounts of Indian spicing which she’s not so keen on. 

Some patience is required in getting the things to cook properly whilst resisting the temptation to whack up the heat.

The Recipe comes straight from John Torode and I only tweaked a little for my own tastes.

Ingredients

1 lemongrass stalk, roughly chopped

20g/¾oz coriander seeds

½tsp cumin seeds

½tsp turmeric powder

50g/2oz block coconut cream

1½ large onions, sliced

3 garlic cloves, chopped

3 red chillies, seeds removed, chopped (This wasn’t hot enough for me so add more or leave the seeds in if you like)

1 thumb-sized piece ginger, peeled and chopped

1 Teaspoon Chopped Galangal

1 bay leaf

750g/1lb 10oz boneless beef shin, cut into 2.5cm/1in cubes

400g/14oz canned coconut milk

250ml/8¾fl oz strong veal or beef stock, heated

Pound the lemongrass to a pulp using a pestle and mortar. Tip the lemongrass into a small bowl.

Heat the frying pan over a medium heat. Add the coriander, cumin seeds and turmeric and dry fry until fragrant. Tip the spices into a spice grinder or the pestle and mortar. Grind the spices to a powder if using a grinder, or pound in a pestle and mortar until the spices are as smooth as possible. Set aside.


In a wide pan or cast-iron wok, heat the block of coconut cream until it melts, keeping the heat low so that it does not burn. If, like me, you leave it in one block, this takes an absolute age. So if you can, break it up first. It's a bit like trying to break rock but it will save you time in the long run

Melt You Bugger Melt

Add the onions, garlic, chillies, ginger and pounded lemongrass to the pan and cook gently until the onions have softened and the mixture is fragrant.

Add the reserved ground spices and the bay leaf and fry for a few minutes more.



 
Add the meat and increase the heat so that it browns on all sides. Stir until the meat is completely coated with the spices - this will take a few minutes.

A few Minutes! This takes ages and trying to increase the heat to cook it quicker makes things stick to the bottom. So just be patient and it will happen.

By now wonderfully fragrant smells should start to emit from the kitchen, attracting all sorts to see what's a cooking

Ohhh........ but I like Beef Rendang

Add the coconut milk, bring to the boil, then add the hot stock.
Turn the heat up until its bubbling nicely then continue cooking for at least 1- 1½ hours, stirring occasionally until the sauce becomes thick and coats the meat well.

Serve with Rice, or follow John’s original recipe and add a salad as well
What ever you choose to serve it with, remember to add the chillies, spices etc to your taste. As for the leftovers I haven't worked out what to do with them yet.

Rode Hall Farmers Market

It's been a long old while since I last visited a Farmers Market. The previous one I went to had about 6 vendors, one of which was a greasy burger van, the rest consisted of one butcher selling mostly sausages plus smattering of cake stalls and Jam makers. As it was I wanted none of these things so I came away, only with some average pork, tomato and herb sausages.

Now I've seen, heard and read a lot recently about Farmers Markets of late and have been um-ing and ahh-ing about going. As it happens Lisa came home on Friday night and said there was one taking place on the Saturday.

Not Knowing what to expect I headed off to the wild borders of Staffordshire/Cheshire.
Was I pleasantly surprised or what?

OK, the Jam makers were still there, but no sign at all of the greasy burger van.
There were butchers of all kinds, cheese makers, biscuit makers, bread artisans , brewers, veg stalls and well, everything you could want food wise.
They even had a live band and Hog roast. Incidentally why is it whenever people gather in numbers of greater than 20 does someone decide to roast a whole pig.

Rode hall itself is a lovely place and well worth a wander around once you've stocked up on essentials.

I got there about 10:30 and it was packed so I'd advise getting there early

One stall of particular interest was a lady selling all kinds of mushrooms, some of which I'd never even seen before.
Her advise was simply fry  with butter and Garlic.

Being me I added a shallot and some pasta water from the tagliatelle I was cooking, plus a good handful of chopped parley.

Lisa had her's on country bread toast and I had mine with the aforementioned tagliatelle plus dash of truffle oil, olive oil and Parmesan cheese. The taste was amazing, each mushroom lending its own unique taste to overall dish.

I also managed to get some very good Cray Fish tails with which I made the previously blogged Cray Fish Salad and  my favourite cheese of the moment "Snowdonia Black Bomber Cheddar" and some blue cheese for Lisa.

Plus for the first time got some Rose Veal, which I cooked on the hob for a couple of hours in milk. If I'm honest it was good but I will cook it differently next time

Oh, oh, oh and I found some absolutely Stunning Chorizo for my Chicken and Chorizo Stew.

So all in all well worth a visit and I'll definitely be back next month

Seafood Tagliatelle

Feeling in a somewhat fishy mood following the crayfish dish I decided to go the whole hog and knock up seafood tagliatelle. Anyone who knows me will tell you that fish and I don’t usually share the same space. I don’t know why, I just don’t like the taste of fish, perhaps it’s because I’m a Pisces and it’s almost cannibalism, well it would be if you believed in that nonsense. Anyyyy-wayyyy, the dish.

It’s pretty basic recipe but brings out the flavour of the seafood, which wasn't too fishy, very well and the best thing is, its really simple to make. The seafood itself was a supermarket medley of Prawns, mussels and squid

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 Shallot Finely Chopped

2 Cloves of Garlic finely Chopped

2 Packets of Sainsburys seafood mix

2 Handfuls of soya beans or peas or skinned broad beans

Good glug of dry white wine (about 150ml)

Couple of handful of flat leaf parsley roughly chopped

Lemon Juice

Salt

Pepper

Enough Tagliatelle for four people

Put a large pan of water on to boil

In a large frying pan heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil then gently fry the shallot and garlic.

Add the seafood and beans then sauté for a couple of mins

Pour in the wine bring to boil and simmer for until the sauce thickens

Seasoning to taste as you go

The important bit here is timing your seafood with your pasta, if the pasta isn’t cooked yet, turn off the heat on the sauce. When the pasta is cooked add a little pasta water to the sauce, drain the pasta and add to the pan with the sauce and stir through until all the pasta is coasted

Chuck in your parsley and stir through, serve in pasts bowls add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and its ready.

Serve with lemon wedges for extra zing