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 CVIII - Cheese, Leek & Bacon Quiche

So, how long does it take me to write up a recipe? All week, actually; sometimes longer, depending if I have thought of something to do or not. Which is why I don't post every week any more - I do a lot of experimenting and some weeks I don't think it's good enough to post. Anyhow, I'd say it takes up to 5 days for a recipe to ferment in my head, about 2 hours shopping (sometimes more, if I have to go to a city for ingredients), and most of the afternoon making it, taking photos that don't reveal the chaos that is my kitchen, but then a good hour to upload photos and type up the recipe on here. So I hope you appreciate this one - I have to say it's one of my top ten, and I thoroughly enjoyed eating it after!

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

220g of plain flour, sifted

a pinch of salt

130g butter, chilled and cubed

1 medium-sized egg, beaten

A roll of clingfilm

Some baking beans for blind baking

For the filling:

You can make up your own, but here are mine:

200g bacon lardons, finely chopped

60g fresh cheese (I used the French sheep's cheese Brébiou but Cheddar, Manchego, Mahon, Pecorino, even Stilton would all be fine - just taste a couple at the cheese counter and take one)

1 onion, 1 leek, 3 spring onions, 3 cloves of garlic, (some courgette, optional), chopped

Some chives (optional)

3 eggs

200ml double cream

100ml single cream

Some fresh herbs

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

Heat the oven to 180°C and grease your pastry tin.

Make some pastry by putting the flour, butter, fresh from the fridge, or it won't work, and the beaten egg together and kneading it into a crumbly dough. Alternatively, put it in the mixer and pulse. Then wrap it up in clingfilm and let it prove for 30 to 40 minutes.

Afterwards, spread clingfilm on the countertop, put more on top of the pastry and roll it out until it is as wide as your baking tray. Put the pastry inside carefully and cut off the excess. Fill it with baking beans and blind bake it for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, cut up all your vegetables and cheese into blocks, fry the bacon (bit of black pepper too), then remove and put on some kitchen tissue to drain the oil; do the same with the other vegetables. Then take the creams and eggs and mix them together to make a consistent gloop. Put the other ingredients in there, and spread them about until there are no clumps of one particular ingredient. 

Remove the pastry from the oven and let it cool so you can remove the beans. It should be quite hard now, so that when you spoon the creamy gloop into it, the base remains unaffected by getting wet.

Put the whole into the oven for between 30 and 45 minutes - mine needed 40. Make sure the quiche is cooked through by putting a knife into the middle. If it comes out clean, it's done. If not, put it back for more time.

I like to keep the cheese bits a little bigger than normal, as it makes the pleasurable experience of eating melted cheese as real as possible.

Recipe LXXXVI - Apricot Dumplings

The Austrians and Hungarians are both not very well-liked by the Czechs. Firstly because they felt snubbed when the Emperor decided, when he was crowned, to overlook Prague and just have his coronations in Vienna and Budapest, ending Czech equal status in the Empire, called "Austro-Hungarian", not "Austro-Czech-Hungarian". But it doesn't stop there. In the courts of the Emperor, as well as in those of the upper nobility, it was common to have a Czech cook. The Czechs are quite miffed that their neighbours adopted lots of Czech dishes that are their own, and not Austrian or Hungarian. The Schnitzel, Goulash, Strudel and this particular dish are all most likely Czech, but they are known by their association to other countries.

The Austrians call them "Marillenknödel", and the Czechs "meruňkové knedliky", but they are essentially the same in both countries.

This particular dish, despite not being the most photogenic, is one I have revered as the most delicious dessert I have ever eaten. Be aware that the measurements are purely guidelines, as this is a grandmother's recipe, not a pastry chef's recipe. Ever made quark cheese dough? It's surprisingly resilient, even when in a pot of nearly-boiling water...



Ingredients:
500g fresh quark cheese
6-10 small apricots
Some spoonfuls of demerara sugar
Some semolina flour
Some butter - preferably soft but not melted
1 large egg yolk
2-3 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla sugar
A pinch of salt
Some plain flour, both for kneading and adding to the dough
Powder sugar for decoration
Whipped cream, sour cream and/or melted butter

Instructions:
Put the quark in a sieve for between 30 minutes and an hour to drain off the excess liquid. Put it into a bowl and add the soft butter, egg yolk, semolina flour, sugar and vanilla sugar then mix it all in together with a wooden spoon, but don't mix it in too well as it needs to keep its rough, unpretentious nature. Add some ordinary flour at this point and mix it into a fluffy, light yet stick dough.



At this point, you will need a lot of flour on your hands, and on the board you are using. Better a ceramic one, as this can get really, really messy.
Using the wooden spoon, put the dough on the board and roll out into a log, then cut off a slice.



Flatten it using your fingers, then take an apricot (usually whole, pipped and with a slit wide enough to slip some demerara sugar into it, but in my case, I quartered a half-slice and sprinkled some on top) and enclose the dough around it. Roll them into balls with your hands.



It is almost impossible, with such a volatile dough, to get it totally enclosed, but it's not too important. The stuff is very resilient. Put them on a plate ready for boiling.



Bring a saucepan of water almost to a boil, and put some dumplings directly in it using a perforated serving spoon. Make sure they don't stick to the bottom of the saucepan, and check regularly. As soon as they rise to the surface, they are ready.



Put them onto a plate, pour the melted butter on top, sprinkle some powder sugar if you want, and serve with whipped cream or sour cream. If it's a hot day, ice cream goes down really well.



Here is a photo of a dumpling that has been opened:

Recipe LXVIII - The Yorkish Pasty

Thanks for your patience over the last month - I have been taking a break from cooking for a while, spoiling myself away from the kitchen. I went to London for the Olympic Games and had some of the most memorable days of my life. While I was there, I gained a lot of inspiration for some future recipes, one I wish to tell you about here.

In the UK, there is a great pie tradition. Some languages have only one word for the casing, but in English there is dough, or batter, or pastry, to name but three. I tried a few pastry-based items, however one pie above all really stood out for me during my stay in London. In M&S in Stratford's new shopping centre, right next to the Olympic Park, there are two restaurants. In the top one, there is a tremendous view of the stadium and many other fabulous buildings, but the greatest feature is its Yorkish pasty.

I had only ever been moved to tears once before because of the delightful food put in front of me, but the second time happened there. And I really wanted to share the recipe with you because it is probably the best item of prepared food in the country. This is not precisely the recipe, because it's a closely-guarded secret, but it's as near as I believe to the original as possible.

Ingredients for the pastry (I made half twice - it was easier):
450g plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
120g butter
2 egg yolks (keep the whites!!!)
Some water
A pinch of salt

Instructions for the pastry:
Knead the flour, baking powder, salt, butter and egg yolk together until it looks like crumble mix.

 

Add some water very slowly until it makes the pastry form a dough. Wrap it in clingfilm and put it in the fridge for an hour.

 

Ingredients for the filling:
About 100g of swede (US = rutabaga)
About 300g of potato
2 onions
300g of finely chopped beef
Some finely chopped parsley
Some ground black pepper
Some salt

 

Instructions for the filling:
Cut up the potato and swede into very small pieces and drop them into salted boiling water for 4 or 5 minutes. Drain the water and leave them to cool.

Cut up your beef up into adequately small pieces. Do the same with the onion.

 

Instructions for the combination:
Switch the oven on to 180°C. Take the pastry out of the fridge. Pull off a lump and roll it out on a well-floured flat surface. Take a bowl or a plate and cut out a circle. Put some onion slices in the middle of the circle. Add some beef pieces. Put some salt and pepper on it, and add some chopped potato and swede. Sprinkle some parsley over the top. Use some of the egg whites to brush over the periphery of the pastry to be able to close it up over the top of the filling, making an envelope. Use some more egg white to baste the outside of the pasty so it goes a nice shade of brown. Repeat until all the ingredients run out.

 

Spread some butter inside a baking tray and put each pasty into it. You may end up with more pasties than room. Just baste a second baking tray. Put it in the oven for a minimum of 30 minutes. I put mine in for 45 minutes.

 

I made nine in the end, and they were utterly delicious. But it doesn't come close to the taste of a real M&S Yorkish pasty. Maybe because it was put in front of me.

If you do go to M&S in Stratford, you'll be surprised how many members of staff there are. It was a pleasure to not have to wait round until someone shows up. I hope they open up in Germany.