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Monday 23 December 2013

Recipe CXIV - The Pudding 2: Sultana, Hazelnut and Cinnamon (Sweet)

This is by no means the B-side of the pudding. The sweet pudding is utterly delicious and adorns any after-dinner table. Puddings are some of the most varied and satisfying dishes there are. This one broadly follows Recipe CXIII, but when the ingredients are added, it diverges greatly. I am once again giving you the basics; it's up to you what else you do with it.

Ingredients:
280g plain flour
80g vegetable suet, chilled and grated
50g frozen butter (but refrigerated enough so it is very hard is fine), also grated
1 egg, beaten
Some butter for greasing
Some cold water on standby, if necessary
Some whisky, rum or cognac
Cinnamon, five-spice, hazelnuts (roughly crushed as well as powdered), nutmeg, brown sugar, even honey - whatever takes your fancy


Instructions:
Put a large cauldron of water on a medium heat. Never forget to put something in the bottom so the pudding does not have direct contact with the fiery heat of the cooker. I use an upturned rice cooker base. 
Grate the butter and the suet as in the last recipe. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, with your own proportions.


Knead it all together well. Add some alcohol if you want. Butter the inside of a bowl and spoon in the ingredients.


By now your water should be boiling away, so put the bowl carefully into the pan so that it is no lower than half-way inside the water. Steam for three hours.


Turn the bowl upside down onto a plate. If it is properly cooked, it should fall out immediately.


Serve with custard (here is a good recipe:http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/how_to_make_custard_82327)

Sunday 22 December 2013

Recipe CXIII - The Pudding 1: Beef, Mushroom and Port (Savoury)

Of all the gastronomic delights I experienced in 2013, the best have been the ones I felt proud of myself for having spent the time making. I would say this one, though, sits pretty high up the list of those as it took 2 days and a lot of care and attention. This is what puddings are about. The middle of winter is a great time to bring out the inner gourmand in us, but also we should embrace our ability to create delicious food with a little imagination and patience.

For those who do not know what it is, we need to discuss what "pudding" means. The word "Pudding" in German is what the British call "custard" and the French call "crème anglaise". They are, though, all slightly different. Custard is hot and can be runny or solid enough to sit on your spoon and I would go for custard each and every time over the other two.

Pudding, in the British sense though, does not mean this at all. It has evolved over the years into what is now a truly beloved yet highly variable household dish, albeit not so often made, considering the time it takes. My mother, bless her, often used to spend hours making a similar dish, and making this myself, I can appreciate just what an effort it was to produce it.

So what are puddings? 

Well, they are round, they form a centrepiece to a table, can be sweet or savoury, and are made with pastry, often suet. 

"Suet?" I hear you ask, "What's suet?"

An astute question as always, dear reader.

I love the English language for its conciseness. It is, in fact, fat surrounding the kidney of a cow used to make pastry. I know, that sounds positively dis-GUS-ting. Well yes. But there are now vegetable suet and other types, and they are very good ingredients for a sweet pudding with lots of fruit or a savoury yet crumbly pastry similar to biscuit.

This is the savoury version - you will do things in this recipe you never thought you would do, like grate fat and freeze butter.

For the filling, it is entirely up to you, as every pudding is different. Just go where your mood takes you!

Ingredients for the filling:
550g-600g of stewing beef, roughly diced
4 medium-sized carrots, chopped
5 to 8 mushrooms, sliced or quartered (porcini or some such, but if not, button mushrooms work out fine)
1 apple, sliced (optional)
1 red pepper, chopped
4 to 6 shallots, peeled and whole
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
Fresh herbs, finely chopped
Some flour, pepper and salt for seasoning
1 glass of port
1 tablespoonful of Worcestershire Sauce (optional but recommended)

 

Instructions for the filling:
Heat the oven to 170°C.
Put the flour, finely chopped herbs, salt and pepper in a bowl and roll the beef in it. Fry gently in butter in a casserole dish until brown.


Remove, and do the same with the vegetables.


Pour over the port, put the lid on the casserole dish and put in the oven for up to 4 hours. 

Before you add it to the pudding, you should let it cool down.

Ingredients for the pastry:
*tsp = teaspoon, tbsp = tablespoon

280g plain flour
A sachet of baking powder
(Alternatively, 280g self-raising flour and 1 tsp of baking powder)
Half a tsp of salt
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley and thyme
80g vegetable suet, chilled and grated
50g frozen butter (but refrigerated enough so it is very hard is fine), also grated
1 egg, beaten
Some butter for greasing
Some cold water on standby, if necessary

Baking paper and string
A large cauldron containing water for steaming 

Instructions for the pastry:
(I apologise for the photo, but you need to see it)
Grease a rounded heat-proof bowl with butter.
In another bowl, add the flour, salt, baking powder and fresh herbs. Mix them up well. Grate the suet and add it, then do the same with the cold, solid butter. 


Add the egg and knead everything until it becomes a soft, not-so-sticky dough. Cut a third off and put it in clingfilm to keep fresh.


Roll out the largest piece until it is big enough to fill your bowl. Put it inside the buttered bol and press it until it covers the entire inside of the bowl. Then fill it with the cooled-down beef stew mix until it fills the inner part of the pudding dough.


Use the remaining part of the dough to make a lid.


Then cover it with a double layer of baking paper and tie it up with string. Leave a little room for the pastry to be able to rise slightly.


By now your water should be boiling away, so put the bowl carefully into the pan so that it is no lower than half-way inside the water. Never forget to put something in the bottom so the pudding does not have direct contact with the fiery heat of the cooker. I use an upturned rice cooker base. Then steam for three to four hours.

Once cooked, get a large plate, unwrap the pudding, place the large plate on top and flip it upside down.


As you see, there is now ample space to decorate your pudding however you see fit, or adorn it with all the vegetables you are serving. This makes for an imaginative festive display for everyone to behold before it is carved up amongst all the guests. To be honest, you could do this with lamb, venison or even wild boar.


Finally, I would like to apologise for the appalling photos in this one - I have no excuses.

Enjoy!

Sunday 8 December 2013

Raymond's Recipe CXII - Chocolate and Almond Macaroon Biscuits

Christmas is approaching fast. With just over two weeks to go, I always realise that I am so woefully underprepared, that I just give up and let time take its course. However, I might fail to send an obscure great-aunt-in-law her annual bottle of outrageously pungent perfume that she likes, but I never forget the mince pies  or the Christmas puddings

One of the most important parts of this time of year is the food. I never neglect that. Over the years, I have always tried to outdo Christmas dinner from the year before, but now it's getting silly. If I carry on, I'll end up doing a multi-bird roast where you stuff a quail inside a pigeon inside a mallard inside a pheasant inside a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey, and that's not where I want to go, for I fear that would be my last meal on this mortal coil.

So I'm going for quality over quantity, starting with the sweet snacks. I made these as a trial run (hence the extraordinarily unphotogenic result), but over the next two weeks I will perfect them.

Ingredients:
100g plain chocolate, melted
150g blanched almond slices and 50g fresh almonds, coarsely ground
250g caster sugar
Three egg whites
1 tsp vanilla sugar 
Butter for greasing


Instructions:
Firstly, turn the oven on fairly low (160°C should do it), then line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper and grease the surface. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over some boiling water and whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.


Put the almonds in a blender and once in very small pieces (the fresh almonds will be bigger than the blanched ones - this is good for flavour and texture), put them in a large-ish bowl and add the sugar, vanilla and fold in the egg whites. Be very gentle with the egg whites as you fold them in, because they play a vital role in the final consistency and need to retain some form of fluffiness.


Then add the melted chocolate, slowly folding that in until it looks a thick brownish lumpy custard:


To transfer them to the greaseproof paper, you can do one of two things. Either spoon very small balls the size of a £2/€2 coin leaving a large gap between each, or spread it evenly over the surface of the greaseproof paper and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, depending if you want them soft and tangy or hard and crunchy. You will need to do it twice.


I made one lot batch crunchy and one batch soft. I also broke them into rough bitesize pieces and put them in a biscuit tin.


Next time I'm going to spoon them onto the greaseproof paper and make individual ones.