Recipe CXXIV: Home-Made Spicy Tomato Soup

Cooking on a Sunday is one of life's pleasures, and this weekend was one of those. As our guests were bringing the dessert, I decided to make a starter. This one is one of the finest things you can do in a kitchen, and it really is so, so simple.

Ingredients:

2 kg fresh tomatoes

1 green chili pepper

1 red chili pepper - keep some of the seeds, depending on how spicy you want it

1 sweet red pepper

1 large onion

4-6 cloves of garlic 

All of the above chopped into pieces

Three-quarters of a bottle of red wine

A teaspoonful of a red spice (cayenne pepper or even tandoori masala)

5 teaspoonfuls of Worcestershire sauce

3 thick slices of white bread

A fresh basil plant from a reputable supermarket, leaves broken 

50 g butter

Salt to taste

Instructions:
Put a lot of butter in a large, heavy non-stick frying pan or saucepan. While it is melting, add the onions and a pinch of salt, and fry gently for a few minutes - you don't want the onions to burn and crisp up. Add the peppers and garlic. Let them slowly sweat until soft. Then add the red wine and Worcestershire sauce.
(To give it your own personal touch, you could always use a variation - just use your imagination - something like Tabasco sauce, or red wine vinegar, soy sauce or even balsamic vinegar, but make sure whatever you use, the flavours fit!)

Let the red wine and Worcestershire sauce reduce by about half until it turns into something less liquid and more gloopy.

You are now ready to add the tomatoes. Put a lid on top, turn the heat right down to a gentle simmer and let the tomatoes soften until they are easily crushed.

Once they are really soft, add the basil, bread and red spices. Let the contents of the pan mingle for 10 minutes or so, while the bread soaks up some of the liquid.

Pass the contents of the pan through a blender and pour into a serving bowl.

Serve with a nice bottle of red wine. We chose Louis Chèze Caroline Saint-Joseph 2011, a fantastic wine that really highlights the spiciness of the soup.

Enjoy!

Recipe CXXIII - Norwegian Suksessterte

Having recently returned from the northern paradise that is Norway, both brimming with new ideas and aching with nostalgia for the serenity, advanced civilisation and heart-breakingly beautiful scenery, I came across a little gem of a recipe. Norwegians are big on food: lots come out of cans, as only a country half inside the Arctic Circle should, but when it comes to their recipes, the flavours are so different. They could be an acquired taste to some, but once you are used to them, they are a breath of fresh air.

I would like to introduce you to the Suksessterte, or Success Tart, in English. I was invited to the house of a splendid family for coffee (a Norwegian religion) and cake, and this one was there on the table, inviting and succulent-looking, so I cut myself a slice. It was so good, I had to get the recipe. Here is my effort, slightly changed from the one I got there, to reflect the proportions I used, and the ingredients on offer in Germany.

Ingredients:

Cream:
5 egg yolks:
100 ml double cream (I had to use mascarpone and some ordinary cream, because heavy cream/double cream and the like don't exist in Germany)
100 g ordinary sugar
150 g cold butter, sliced into cubes

Almond meringue:
5 egg whites
250 g ground almonds
225 g icing sugar

Topping:
Grated dark chocolate

Instructions for the cream:

Place the egg yolks, cream and sugar (NOT THE BUTTER) in a saucepan, put on a very low heat and stir until all the ingredients have melted into each other and it has become thicker. Use a spatula or a flat whisk to stir it - this should take about 15 to 20 minutes.

The mixture should not be allowed to boil or you will end up with bits of curdled egg in your mixture, and nobody wants to have that.

When it's all blended, take it off the heat, and add the butter piece-by-piece. Then get an electric mixer and whisk it for a good 5 to 10 minutes before placing it in the fridge until you have made the almond meringue.


Instructions for the almond meringue:
Put the oven on 160°C and take a square or round baking tray lined with baking paper.

Firstly, give the almonds a good pounding in the processor, to make the pieces extra small. Add the icing sugar and keep the food processor going until both ingredients have successfully mixed with each other.

With the egg whites, whisk them until they form the usual stiff peaks and then fold the almond-sugar mix into the egg white. 

Once homogeneous, transfer the mixture to the baking tray and put it in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes. In hindsight, I would not have used the baking paper, and just taken a chance with the baking tray's non-stick bottom. I will try this next time.

Once out of the oven, turn it upside-down onto a cake grid without the paper and let it cool.

Put your cake base on a clean cake tray, get the topping out of the fridge and start icing the cake with a spatula. Once you have covered it with the topping, grate chocolate on top.

Serve with copious amounts of coffee and invite your favourite visitors - vel bekomme!

Recipe CXVII - The Old English Trifle

When people look back at the achievements of modern British cooking and its immense progress in the last decade especially, few will deny that a lot of those accomplishments owe themselves to the times before the Great War. British cuisine was quite well-known and just as celebrated as a lot of other nationalities'. If it were not for the period of great austerity of the middle of the 20th century, and the bad publicity generated by various continental European authors, especially French ones (Alexandre Dumas, Goscinny & Uderzo spring to mind), the reputation of its cooking would not have been so shattered. But now, you can find British cookery shows on numerous TV channels the world over, and not just that perennial turncoat Jamie Oliver or that foul-mouthed bloke with his kitchen disasters, however he's called...

Anyhow, a vast amount of these dishes are not new - they are old, old, old, but just brought to life again through love and attention to detail. And the trifle is no exception. Back in the bad old days, I remember it as being a sad, wobbly gelatinous mess either doused far too heavily in the cheapest of alcohols or filled with the most tasteless ingredients. But rewind to the 17th and 18th century, and English puddings, including the sumptuous English trifle were copied and adapted by the Italians, where they were highly fashionable. The trifle was given the name Zuppa Inglese or "English soup". The word zuppa refers to inzuppare, which means "to dunk", a reference to the sponge in it. The tiramisù is actually an indirect derivation of the English trifle.

Anyhow, I digress. I made this trifle for our neighbour's 59th birthday. It requires little hard work, but a lot of time and a bit of imagination. There are many variations, but I stuck with the classic ingredients, as we shall see below...

Beforehand:

Get a large glass bowl ready for filling up, and turn on the oven to 160°C.

I would recommend doing the jelly (level 2) first, as it requires time in the fridge when you can do all the other layers.

Bottom layer, sponge -

Ingredients:

120g self-raising flour + 1 tsp baking powder

120g soft butter

120g fine sugar

2 eggs

Whatever flavours you wish to adapt your sponge with: I used crushed hazelnuts

Alcohol: I used amaretto, but feel free to use whatever takes your fancy

Instructions for the sponge:

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and stir until the mixture is slightly shiny and fairly consistent.

Pour it into a shallow cake tin or the like. I used a flan base because I wanted to cut the sponge up into pieces and put it at the bottom of the glass bowl.

Put it in the oven for between 30 and 40 minutes, or until the point you can put a thin knife or skewer in it and it comes out clean. Break it into pieces and put it at the bottom of the glass bowl.

Push it into the bottom of the bowl and slightly up the sides, then pour your alcohol over. Put the bowl in the fridge until you need it again for the next layer.

Second layer, jelly -

Ingredients:

300g fruit (I used fruits of the forest, but use any flavour you want)

1 packet of gelatine (usually about 25-30g)

500ml apple juice or water

An appropriate amount of sugar (50g-100g, depending on your taste

Heat the fruit and sugar in the water / apple juice and simmer until the sugar dissolves, but don't let it boil. Pour three tablespoons of cold water over the gelatine in a large bowl, and stir. It should become hard. Then pour the hot sugary fruit over the hardened gelatine. Put this in the fridge for a maximum of 3 hours to set. The jelly should not be fully set as you need to pour it into your trifle. So once it has almost set, but only enough not to run, pour it over the sponge and put it back in the fridge to continue setting.

Third layer, crème pâtissière (or cold custard to you and me) -

Ingredients:

4 eggs (yolks only)

500ml milk

50-60ml cream

1 vanilla pod, cut open and the contents dispersed in the milk and cream

30-50g fine sugar

1 to 3 tablespoons of cornflour

Instructions:

Put the egg yolk, sugar and cornflour together in a bowl and mix together. Put the milk, cream and vanilla in a saucepan and heat until simmering but not boiling. Pour the hot milk over the yellow mixture and stir vigorously until all the ingredients are properly mixed in. Then put it back on the heat and stir constantly until it gets stiffer in consistency. Place the contents in a bowl and put a clingfilm lid on it to stop a skin forming. Place it in the fridge until cooled.

Top layer, whipped cream -

Ingredients:

1 litre of whipping cream

3 to 5 spoonfuls of fine sugar

Instructions:

Whisk for as long as it takes the cream to thicken up. You'll know, because it stays on an overturned spoon.

Finishing instructions:

Take the glass bowl out of the fridge, pour the layer of crème pâtissière over the jelly.

Then pour the whipped cream over the top.

Finally, add your own touch to the top of your trifle - almond slices, fruit slices, whatever. I put some frozen fruits of the forest on top in a topical design for my neighbour's birthday!

Raymond's Recipes CXVI - Pork, Herb and Dried Fruit Burgers

I spent this afternoon dreaming up a recipe for the visit of a friend who is gastronomically pretty adventurous for a German. I wanted to make something quick yet tasty, and so I came up with this, and it was pretty nice.

Ingredients:

750g minced pork

2 onions, finely diced

A handful of dried fruit (e.g. prunes, apricots, sultanas), sliced

20 roughly ground black peppercorns

A small handful of fresh or dried herbs (coriander or thyme, depending on your taste)

4 tablespoons of of powdered or crushed walnuts

Salt to season

Butter for the frying pan

Instructions:

Put the minced meat in a bowl, mix in the finely diced onions and use a fork or a potato masher to mix in. Then add the dried fruit (I used just prunes, but you can put in dried apricots or sultanas instead if you prefer), herbs, salt and peppercorns and do the same until there is a consistency. Add the powdered walnuts to it - this gives it a little solidity. You can use plain flour, but it does not add to the flavour.

Put it in the fridge for an hour or so, just to allow the mixture to settle. 

Roll the mixture into balls and then flatten them while being careful not to split the sides.

Put them in a hot pan with melted butter; once the surfaces have been seared, turn down the heat and fry for about 20 minutes.

I served it with sautéed potatoes and onions, and an apple sauce.

Recipe CXV - Gentse Waterzooi

I'm back. Sorry I was away for such a long time - I have been incredibly stressed, and cooking had become a necessity rather than a pleasure. But I'm returning with this incredibly easy and remarkably tasty Belgian dish from the city of Ghent. French, as well as Belgian food, relies heavily on the use of butter in preparation. This is no different and adds most deliciously to the overall flavour. It takes relatively little effort and will make you smile when you put it in your mouth.

Ingredients:

One leek

Two tablespoons butter

Two carrots, peeled and diced

Four medium-sized potatoes, peeled and quartered

Salt and freshly ground pepper (usually white, but I used black)

1 litre of chicken stock or hot, salted water if none available

Two fresh bay leaves

Three sprigs of fresh parsley,

Three sprigs of chopped parsley to garnish later

Three sprigs of fresh thyme

Two large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into large chunks

Half a litre of pouring cream

1 large egg yolk

Some crusty bread (e.g. baguette) for dipping

Instructions:

Melt the butter in a high-sided frying pan on a medium heat. Sauté the vegetables until they are soft, putting in some salt and pepper.

Put in the sprig of parsley, thyme and the bay leaves, and then add the potatoes and most essentially the stock or the hot water. You normally need chicken stock, but because you are about to add pieces of raw chicken to poach in the liquid, hot water straight from the kettle with some more salt should do the trick in an emergency.

So when you have added the liquid, put in the pieces of chicken and cover and poach for 10 to 20 minutes. It may look like a mess right now, but soon it is going to transform itself into something unbelievable...

Take a pouring jug, siphon off an egg yolk and add the cream. Stir them well. Take a little of the hot liquid from the pan so as not to shock it when it goes into the pan itself. Pour it in, add the chopped parsley and watch it become so incredibly tempting. Don't wait for too long before serving!

Although the photo doesn't do it justice, I have to admit...

Serve it in large bowls with some fresh bread.

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)

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!

Recipe CVI - Pork Belly Stew with Honey and Beans

How do you know when a recipe is fully rounded or not? When you have adapted it three or four times to reach the right flavour and ingredients. This recipe will take some time before it reaches its roundedness, but here is a good base from which to adapt. It is extraordinarily simple to make and your house will smell utterly delicious for hours.

Ingredients (for four people):

A medium-sized ceramic or cast iron casserole dish with a lid

Some butter for frying

500g sliced pork belly, cut into strips or left whole - your choice

4 potatoes

4 large cloves of garlic

1 onion

A cup of broad beans (but chick peas, lentils or something similar will also do)

A cup of yellow peas*

A bouquet garni (fresh herbs - sage, rosemary, thyme, etc...)

Some coarsely ground black pepper

2 tablespoons of honey

Salt and water

*fresh yellow peas are rock hard and you should either leave them to soak in water overnight before you use them, or you should cook them for at the very least 2 hours. I chose the latter, as it fit the recipe.

Instructions:

Switch the oven on to about 170°C. Put 2 of the garlic cloves in some butter and allow it to brown. Then remove the garlic from the oil. This will give your casserole a hint of garlic without overpowering it.

Then add the pork with a dusting of salt. Brown it until sealed, then add the black pepper, onion, the rest of the garlic and bouquet garni.

Give it a stir, allow the onion to sweat a little, then put in the yellow peas, broad beans, potatoes and honey. Give it a very good mixing so the yellow peas sink to the bottom. Add water until almost to the level of the ingredients, a good shake of the salt pot and bring it to the boil.

You can then put it into the oven. Give it a minimum of 2 hours, keep trying the yellow peas as they will be the last to be ready. Everything else will be so succulent and moist, and should have a prevailing taste of honey without being overbearing.

Take it out of the oven every 30-45 minutes to fill up with water and to add a sprinkle of salt.

Recipe CIII - Cooking with Churned Butter

Churned butter (or beurre de baratte) is very, very easy to make, and it's healthier because the carcinogens found in ordinary butter are not present. You bring some very thick cream to a little under room temperature and put it in the mixer. After a little magic with some salt and ice, you'll have churned butter. I buy mine from a French delicatessen in Luxembourg, but in the end doing it at home is more satisfying and there are plenty of recipes for making it on this marvellous informative behemoth we call the Internet. Today I am going to make three things using churned butter and show you how it can enhance your cooking.

Ingredients:

2 spoonfuls of slightly melted churned butter or beurre de baratte

Some pork ribs

Salt and freshly milled pepper

A tablespoonful of churned butter

Some corn on the cob

2 cloves of garlic

Some fresh or dried herbs (I had to use dried because my fresh herbs have been suffering in the heat)

A pinch of chili powder

Some sheets of tin foil and a fork

A tablespoonful of churned butter

Some cream

Some boiled potatoes

Instructions:

Put some of the butter in a roasting tin. Take your pork ribs and spread some softened butter on the outside of the meat. Then sprinkle some crushed pepper over the top. Put it in the oven on a medium temperature (170°C) for about an hour, turning up the heat for the last 5 to 10 minutes to crisp the meat up.

Put the butter and all ingredients into a small pot and crush thoroughly until they form a consistent mix.

Take some silver tin foil and cut it to the size needed to wrap one cob of corn. In the middle where the cob will be placed, spread the butter mix so when you put the cob on it, the total outside will be covered with the butter. Wrap it up and put it in the oven too, for about 20 to 30 minutes. 

Peel and cut up some starchy potatoes, boil them in salted water and once thoroughly cooked, drain the water and add some churned butter and a small pot of cream. Mash well and serve as the bed for the pork.

Remove the pork and the corn from the oven and serve immediately.

Using churned butter enhances the flavour too. It makes everything taste that little more complete and provides some excellent flavour of its own to all meals. With your own input you can also use it as a dip or a spread.