Food for thought

Central London foodie writes about places to go eat, recipes to make and other delicacies to tempt your palate.

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gastrogirl:

toffee crunch cupcakes.

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BEER FLAVOUR WHEEL

Absolutely had to share this random image that came up when I Googled for images of ‘Morrisons grapefruit segments in juice’. No need to ask why I was looking that up, I wears too lazy to get out of bed to check the can when doing my food diary!

Still it seemed an entertaining interpretation of the word grapefruit and I’m sure it’ll come in handy when I’m next baking bread or drinking lager, whichever fond pursuit comes first!

Enjoy

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F E R N T O P
Deep envy as I watch this perfectly formed fern-top created. I’m such a barrista-manque, it comes of being interested in the urban environment, as an urban designer a lot of time is spent in coffee shops sipping velvet smooth flat whites and watching how passers-by use the street. One of the main qualifications for being an urban designer apart from being spatially aware is an intense curiosity about how people behave; some of my happiest moments have been spent watching the world go by and analysing how the space around them works for them.
When I’m at home I try to treat my friends to the same smooth experience when it comes to coffee and after the trusty Saeco has ground and brewed up, I like to emulate the fern-top of the professional barrista. Most of the time it ends up as a blob with a knife drawn through it, which sort of comes out as a heart shape, alright for the ladies and Valentines night but for the rest of the year it’s a bit of a cliche. So in an attempt to improve my skill I have invested in a jug with a small lip and there has been some improvement BUT NOT ENOUGH! Hence re-bloging this envy-making effort.
If anyone finds a free school of barrista skills please let me know via my work website: www.aliveinspace.co.uk as I’m sure that it’s a skill that I’d like to acquire and one I think my friends would approve of too.

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B R A I N F O O D ?
This blog is turning into the macabre, what with revolting green jelly salads and brains made of cereals I feel that I need to separate out my design offences from my food loves, anyway here is my last effort with an images from multidisciplinary Italian artist Sara Asnaghi created this fun and beautiful series of human brains made of 9 different type of food titled – “What have you got in your head?”
(via jocundist: what have you got in your head?)

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G R A N D M A ’ S R U N N E R B E A N C H U T N E Y
Had a very successful time at the All Souls Aroma ladies Christmas even selling off decorations and stuff for Bridget. I also took along 12 jars of my runner bean chutney, I’d made over 24 last summer. By now the chutney is ready for eating and so I had a testing jar open and some cheesy biscuits for people to try it on, the children had a great time munching the remaining biscuits! Anyway to my great surprise the whole lot went at £3 a pot, they were only small pots too, so at long last and owing to popular demand here is the recipe… It is absolutely delicious with cheese.
RUNNER BEAN CHUTNEY (CUMBERLAND BEAN SALAD)
Ingredients:
2 lbs runner beans
4 or 5 onions
1 ½ lbs demerara sugar
1 ½ tablespoons turmeric powder
1 ½ tablespoons english mustard powder
1 ½ tablespoons cornflour
1 ½ pints malt vinegar
Method:
Peel onions and chop up.
Slice beans and boil together with onions in salted water until both are tender.
Strain and drain well then cut up small or put through mincer.
Add sugar and 1 ¼ pints vinegar and boil for 15 mins.
Mix turmeric, mustard and cornflour with the remaining vinegar add to the bean & onions
Boil for another 15mins.
Allow to cool and put in jars.

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BONFIRE PUMPKIN & SAUSAGE CASSEROLE
As times get hard, my shopping belt has had to be tightened and so I made the mistake of buying two packets of Tesco’s finest Cumberland sausages rather than the normal one as there was a discount double on offer. Never again! If I had wanted white pepper seasoning in my mouth I’d have bought a tin of the stuff.
So having manfully got through the first packet I have decided that the only way to disguise the over-powering flavour of white pepper was to join the Bonfire night cook up with this seasonal casserole. It’s totally delicious, the vinegar just giving it the hint of sharpness needed to balance out the richness of the sausages and the comforting stodge of the pumpkin and cannellini beans. We are having it with roasted corns and baked potatoes while warmly wrapped watching the fireworks light up the sky, the X-Factor can wait!
The quantities given in the recipe are a bit random, it says that it’s for 4 people then only requires 6 sausages and ladling into 2 large bowls at the end. I found that the flesh of a whole pumpkin would have been a bit too much so I now have some ready in the fridge for a second casserole, this time with Black Farmer chipolatas, which were on offer in Morrisons and which are infinitely better seasoned than the Tesco’s nightmares.
(via BBC - Food - Recipes : Sausage, pumpkin and sage casserole)

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BAKE SOURDOUGH
I’m about to start making my own sourdough, I’ve been perfecting no knead bread for a while and now have the confidence to move onto this slightly more tricky breads. It will require a bit of investment if I go the banneton route so I was pleased to see this sandwich loaf, which I am going to give a try.
So I’m sharing it with you and will post the results later on.

(via Bake Sourdough)

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cheatsheet:

Almost had these at Applebee’s yesterday. Phew, dodged a bullet?
Deadliest New Fast Food

Nasty! Thank goodness we don’t have such ‘healthy’ temptations in Europe

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S U R P R I S E
This little gem was turned up when I was trying to translate a 1970’s Swedish au pair’s banana cake recipe and needed to know how much sour cream is in a small pot. Hope it tickles you as much as it did me!

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LEMON AUBERGINE CHICKEN COUSCOUS
I’ve been out and about a bit more than I expected, so there has been a bit of a traffic jam amongst the veggies in the fridge. This recipe is very quick and was inspired by a superfluity of lemons, 2 really beautiful looking aubergines and a couple of packs of chicken thighs. It also gave me a chance to clear up my veggie order before trekking to Scotland tomorrow for a few days on the west coast with my beloved aunt.
As ever, I had a hunt around for recipes to use and failed completely to find anything that would fit the ingredient assortment, so I went with a Tesco tagine base with an Ottolenghi twist. I hope that you like it as much as my roomie did. It is a dish for adults as it has a slightly sour flavour which is nicely balanced out by the richness of the aubergines. I did not eat the lemon pieces but sucked them out in my fingers, yum yum.
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Ingredients
500g chicken thighs on the bone 3 lemons (cut into half and then thirds lengthwise)2 onions (sliced lengthwise)2 large aubergine (chopped into 1cm cubes)2 courgettes (chopped into 1cm cubes)1 green pepper (sliced into 1cm squares)1tbls oil (I use grapeseed as it has a high burning temperature)1tps cinnamon1tsp ground cumin1/2tsp chili flakes3 cloves garlic (crushed)500ml chicken stock
Method
Heat a saute pan with the oil and fry the chicken over a medium heat for 8 minutes until sealed browned. Remove to a draining plate and reserve. Keep the oil and melted chicken fat in the pan.
Add the onions to the pan and fry over a gentle heat for 2 minutes until they begin to soften, add the lemon, garlic, cinnamon and cumin and chili flakes and continue to cook gently for another 2 minutes until onions are beginning to look translucent.
Add the remaining vegetables to the onion mixture in the saute pan and stir thoroughly to ensure that they are coated with the oil and chicken fat and then stir fry over a medium heat for 8 minutes until beginning to brown.
Return the thighs to the pan, pour over the stock and then bring up to a simmer over a medium heat. When simmering, cover the pan, turn the heat down to low and allow to gently bubble for 25 minutes.
Once cooked, check for seasoning and add salt as required.
Make enough couscous for 6 people, put in bowls serve sauce over the top with a sprinkle of chopped coriander or flat leaf parsley
This is a relatively wet sauce and it is best served over bowls of seasoned couscous. Feeds 6 and takes about 50 minutes straight up. We ate it before I had time to picture it so please note that all credit for the illustrating photograph goes to http://www.flickr.com/photos/artezoe/

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T O F F E E P E C A N C U P C A K E S W I T H S A L T E D C A R A M E L I C I N G
It’s Ailsa’s wedding today and she has asked her girlfriends if they can help with cakes for the tea in the church after the marriage ceremony. My offering is these delicious little cupcakes. In days gone by it would have meant the bother of making caramel or stewing a tin of condensed milk for hours but nowadays the wonderful people at Carnation have produced ‘Caramel’, which makes an excellent substitute. YAY for Carnation! This recipe is not the cheapest as it takes a whole tin and a whole pack of butter, but it is worth it.

Looks good doesn’t it. These are going to be delicious, shame that they have to be eaten, though
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TOFFEE PECAN CUP CAKES
These are not really cupcakes but adapted muffins from an Australian Women’s Weekly triple tested recipe book. They rise with nice flat tops so make it easy to ice.
240g dulche de leche (I used the Carnation Carmel, about 2/3rds of the tin)300g self-raising flour165g soft brown sugar90g coarsely chopped pecan nuts (to add depth of flavour you can quickly brown them in a non-stick frying pan)and 12 good shaped pecans for decoration80g unsalted butter melted250ml buttermilk (I did not have any so spent half an hour shaking full fat in a large jam jar to make butter before skimming off the butterfat, this is not to be recommended unless you are teaching your children how butter is made and getting them to do it in turns)1 egg
You will need to pre-heat your oven to 200C (180C for fan ovens).
Line 12 hole (80ml) muffin pan with paper cases.
Warm dulche de leche/caramel over a low heat until smooth, soft and slightly runny, put to one side so it can cool a bit.
Sift flour and sugar into a large bowl, stir in chopped nuts.
Mix together the wet ingredients and then stir into the dry ingredients, do not over mix, the mixture should be lumpy.
Divide half the mixture into the paper cases.
Spoon in half the dulche de leche/caramel.
Spoon over the remaining cake mixture.
Top with the remaining dulche de leche/caramel, then using a skewer gently swirl it into the muffin mixture, I dug quite deep into the mixture to ensure that the caramel was thoroughly stirred in.

Bake for 20 minutes, when cooked take out and stand for 5 minutes in pan (they lose their shape otherwise) before turning out top side up onto a cooling rack.

When cool ice!
SALTED CARAMEL ICING
1/2 tsp salt1 tsp vanilla extract160g softened butter200g icing sugarrest of the tin of the ‘caramel’
Mix all the ingredients together and then beat for 5 minutes.
Spread on top of the cooled cup cakes.
Top with reserved pecan, that is if you have kept it! I think that putting a nut on the top is a good idea as it lets people who have an allergy immediately know not to eat this treat, it looks pretty too.because I was making these for a wedding I piped the topping.
Not being used to icing it took a few attempts until I worked out that it is best to do straight lines across and then a ring around.

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Now all I have to do is put my posh frock on and somehow get them to the church without mashing them, not easy with the little blue bubble in the crash repair shop ( a long story but suffice it to say that my no claims bonus is intact).

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