Pauline's Birthday Feast

Pauline's Birthday Feast

Pauline is my mother, and to honour her in turning the grand age of (I shan't tell you to avoid getting wrong, but it's somewhere between 36 and 91) I made a feast from scratch. Technically this is a recipe, just a description of what I made for a feast to feed around 10-15 people to give you some ideas. If I were to write down every recipe I used or created it would most likely take the time of that age somewhere between 36 and 91. I had a fun two days in the kitchen preparing and cooking this and I was in my element. I love cooking for large groups! The way you know whether you are successful is when there's none left at the end!

So we have as the main centre pieces spicy(ish) meatballs in a nice, deep and heavy red wine and tomato sauce baked with a small sprinkling of leftover mozzarella and Parmesan accompanied by Mediterranean roasted vegetables (peppers, onions, potatoes, tomatoes and courgettes). The meatballs were made very much in the way of my spicy burgers (see previous recipe) and the sauce was based on Alice's Basic Tomato Sauce recipe (see Alice's Basics page to the top left) except with a lot more red wine and cooked down for thickness. The vegetables were flavoured with a medley of spices/tastes among which were definitely garlic, cayenne pepper, turmeric and paprika, but I can't remember any others! 

I also made bruschetta. This is where the only shop-bought item within the recipes appears - I toasted thick farmhouse bread in triangles drizzled in olive oil to create these. One third were topped with tuna pate, one with freshly diced tomatoes, red onion, oil, basil and mozzarella whilst the last third were left plain with just salt and pepper to dip into the meatball sauce or other dips. 

A few weeks ago for a picnic I made my own samosas and pakoras from scratch and I haven't got around to posting the recipe yet. There were far too many of these so I froze a few. I defrosted these and crisped them up in the oven to serve with a raita dip I made with cucumber, natural yogurt, pepper and parsley. I also had some leftover very spicy tomato sauce from a pizza-making session so I used this as a spicy salsa dip too. As another dip/accompaniment I made a black olive, caper, lemon juice and anchovy tapenade that went down a storm.

Pauline requested prawns so I pan-fried some of these at the last minute in garlic, lime and parsley.

During cooking I was also preparing a picnic for the next day in which I made a spaghetti frittata (see recipes from last year) and a bit of this went on the table too!

And finally, the obligatory salads: one parma ham, melon, grape, rocket and black pepper, another spinach, goat's cheese, red grape and balsamic.

This was the feast in it's entirety. There were a few shop-bought added extras on the table such as crisps, hummus etc. But everything I cooked was homemade - except the aforementioned farmhouse bread.  Notice the absence of sweet foods and the presence of spice. This feast almost sums the point of my blog up: spicy, savoury food for friends is the way forward! Share with me your spicy ideas and enjoy mine!

Supremely Spicy BBQ Beef Burgers

Supremely Spicy BBQ Beef Burgers

With the recent hot weather I've had to have a few barbecues. These burgers were one of the most successful creations. Not only are they supremely spicy, but also supremely simple to make! The recipe is based on one from Cyrus Todiwala on the BBC food website, so they have an Asian flavour. I made them extremely spicy but you can use less if you can't take the heat!

Ingredients (quantities are rough, you can make as many or as few as you like):

Lean British Beef Mince

3 Garlic cloves,  finely chopped

1/2 a white onion, finely chopped

2 chillies (1 red, one green), finely chopped

Tsp ginger paste

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

Tsp turmeric

Tsp hot chilli powder

Squeeze of lime juice

Fresh coriander, chopped

Vegetable oil

Pepper

(you can use larger quantities of the spices if you like, I know I certainly did!)

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a medium pan and fry the onions, chilli and garlic for a few minutes until softened.
2. Add the ginger, lime and all of the spices. Fry for a minute or two then turn off heat and stir in the fresh coriander.
3. Blend/food process to a coarse paste.
4. Spread out on a plate and leave to cool. If it's a hot day you'll want to cover it!
5. Once cooled use your hand to mix into the mince until well incorporated. Form the meat into patties sized to your desire. They are ready to BBQ until cooked.
6. Serve how you like! My personal choice is in a flat bread with salad, mayo and a tomato spicy sauce!

Alice's Cullen Skink and Ardbeg Sourdough Bread

This recipe, well these two recipes, are a homage to last year's Whisky tour of Islay. It is my own version of the fishy Scottish delight. You don't necessarily have to make the bread due to the complex recipe and unavailability of the flour, but you can always make a normal bread and splash a little whisky in with the water! In the process of grinding malted barley to make single-malt whisky you get husks, grist and flour. I found this out from Dougie at the Ardbeg Distillery near Port Ellen. He also told us that each distillery uses slightly different ratios of husks, grist and flour to make the whisky and showed us an example of each. Noticing a lot of flour hanging about, and being a cook; I naturally asked if anyone had tried cooking with the flour. As the malted barley is heavily peat-smoked not many people had. So, at the end of the tour I cheekily asked for a small bag of the flour to experiment with. So if your reading this Dougie - thank you! You were an excellent guide and you yourself commented that you thought it would work best as a sourdough bread, so that's what I created! I would suggest you enjoy this dish with a glass of Ardbeg on the side and surprise yourself how well whisky goes with food - it's something I've been experimenting with a lot lately!

The Bread

In order to make sourdough you first need to make a Starter Dough. This takes five days and it's easier to make in large batches as once you've made in you can keep it in a jar in the fridge for another couple of weeks and keep taking what you need from it. You can also freeze it. I will write the Starter Dough recipe here, but  will also put a copy in the 'Basics' section. I appreciate this recipe is a rather lengthy, time-consuming affair that requires a lot of patience, but it's definitely worth the results!

Starter Dough Ingredients (makes a batch):

-Day One:

5 tbsp live full-fat yoghurt, 6floz skimmed milk

-Day Two:

4oz strong white flour

-Day Four:

6oz strong white flour, 3 1/2floz water, 3 tbsps milk

-Day Five:

5 1/2oz strong white flour, 5 1/2floz water

Starter Dough Method:

1. On day one heat the milk in a saucepan over a gentle/medium heat. Place yoghurt into a bowl and gradually stir in warmed milk until combined. Cover and leave in a warm place until thickened (12-24 hours).
2. Day two, stir the dough then incorporate the flour evenly into the yoghurt/milk. Cover and leave at room temperature for another 24 hours.
3. On day four, add the flour and water and mix thoroughly, cover and repeat on day five. 
4. Take what you need for the recipe you're doing then put the rest in a jar in the fridge, feeding it every five days by mixing together equal parts of starter, flour and water.

Ardbeg Sourdough Bread Ingredients (makes 2 loaves):

500g/11lb 2oz flour (here I used all the Ardbeg flour I had then topped up the remainder with strong bread flour)

300g/10 1/2oz sourdough starter (see above)

250ml/9floz water (and a splash of whisky too - if you like!)

10g/1/4oz brown sugar

10g/1/4oz salt

Oil

Ardbeg Sourdough Bread Method:

1. Mix together all the flour, starter and water, whisky and add the sugar and salt. Turn out and knead (preferably on a granite slab like the amazing one Paddy bought me for Christmas) for ten minutes until the dough can be stretched so thinly that it becomes transparent.
2. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a damp, clean tea towel and leave to prove for three hours.
3. Turn out onto a clean, floured surface and knock back. Portion into 2 spherical loaves. Flour each orb heavily and and place in a bowl lined with a heavily floured tea towel. Leave to prove for a further 2 1/2 hours.
4. Preheat the oven to 240 degrees (or as high as you can get to that - mine only goes to 220!). To create steam, put ice cubes and/or cold water into a large baking tin and place in the bottom of the oven. Keep a check on this and re-fill if needed. Heat a baking stone or tray in the oven.
5. Turn loaves out onto heated tray/stone and score each loaf two or three times along the top before popping them back into the oven with the tray. 
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a crust has formed and when the bottom of the loaves are tapped they sound hollow. On my first attempt at sourdough it actually took quite a while to cook all the way through, but I only made one large loaf. Now I  tend to stick to two smaller loaves as the crust doesn't burn while the inside is cooking. If you have a really hot oven this shouldn't be a problem. Lift and cool on a wire rack. Serve warm if you like!

Before serving the soup!

Alice's Cullen Skink

As I mentioned in the previous introduction, this is my own version of Cullen Skink, the main departure is more variety of fish and less potato! This goes exceptionally with the bread if you're looking to prepare an Outer-Hebridean whisky feast!

Ingredients:

Around 600-800g fish of your choice (including smoked) - I didn't actually weighed my fish and just did it by eye to serve two with a little left over. I used smoked haddock, smoked cod, small prawns and pollock. Try to use sustainable fish when possible

1 bay leaf

Knob of butter

Chicken stock and white wine - again judge this by eye as to how much you'd want

1 onion, finely chopped

1 leek, finely chopped

2 potatoes, unpeeled and cut into edible chunks

Around 500ml whole milk

1/2 tsp cornflour

Chives

Salt and pepper

Tiny drop of fish sauce (optional)

 Method:

1. Gently blanch the fish in the stock, bay leaf and wine until cooked. Drain and set aside both the stock and the fish.
2. Melt the butter in a different, large, pan. Soften the onions and leeks gently for around 10 minutes. You could add a small amount of garlic here if desired - but you don't want to overpower the subtle flavours. Season with pepper.
3. Add the potato chunks and coat in butter. Pour in the stock/wine and simmer until the potato is tender.
4. Discard the bay leaf, flake in the fish and add the milk. Here is also where you'd add the fish sauce, if using.
5. Season to taste and finish with a generous sprinkle of chives. You could also use parsley and/or spring onions. Serve with Ardbeg bread and a wee dram of Ardbeg Uigeadail!

Thanks Dougie!

Roasted Butternut Squash Ravioli in a Sage Butter with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Roasted Butternut Squash Ravioli

First recipe in a while now that I've finished my university course! I've still been cooking and storing recipes so there's a lot more to go up - but unfortunately I haven't had the time to write them up for the blog. Well now I have! So here's an extra tasty one to get you going again. I was impressed my self with how nice this one actually tasted. I served the ravioli in a sage butter with roasted cherry tomatoes, but you could serve this in whichever sauce you like. Or even just with oil and a sprinkle of Parmesan! I do think it's a shame to put it with a heavy sauce, like a tomato sauce, as the tastes and flavours of the filling are quite delicate and deserve appreciation. Also, I used a pasta rolling machine and a ravioli to make this, however, if you don't have these a rolling pin and a knife do just fine. You may not get the pasta as thin as you will with a roller, but it'll still be delicious.

Ingredients (serves 2 with enough for lunch the next day):

For the pasta:

300g '00' Pasta Flour

3 Medium Eggs

Pinch of Salt

For the filling:

1 Butternut Squash

1 Medium Onion (finely diced)

2 Garlic Cloves (crushed and finely diced)

Pinch of Nutmeg

Drop of White Wine (optional)

Teaspoon Natural Yoghurt

Handful grated Cheese (Italian hard cheese or Cheddar is fine, I used cheddar as I had no Parmesan)

For the coating:

Knob of Butter

Finely chopped fresh sage (or dried, as I used as I had none fresh)

Handful cherry tomatoes, halved

Oil

Sprinkling of cheese

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. To make the pasta, on a clean surface sift the flour into a volcano shape. Crack the eggs into the 'crater' of the volcano, add a pinch of salt and gradually bring together. I usually start with two forks and when it becomes more manageable I use my hands.
3. When the dough will form a ball, cover with a cloth and leave to rest for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, clean the surface and your hands ready for kneading. After 5 minutes, knead the dough for 10 minutes or until it is pliable and elastic.
4. Put on a clean floured tray in a ball, cover with a damp cloth and leave in a warm place for half an hour.
5. Meanwhile, get started on the filling. Cut the squash in half and drizzle with oil. You may also want to season it with chopped garlic, any spices along with salt and pepper. I just used salt and pepper.
6. Pop in the oven to roast along with another tray with the halved cherry tomatoes also drizzled with oil and seasoned. This will take about twenty minutes.
7. Remove the squash from the oven and set aside. Leave in the tomatoes, but turn the oven down to 80 - 100 degrees depending on how they are cooking.
8. In a wok, on medium, heat a little bit of olive oil. Add in the garlic and onions. As they soften, scoop the flesh out of the roast squash - making sure to get it all out. Add to the wok. Make sure it is coated in the oil/onions then turn the pan off.
9. Blend all ingredients in the wok together. When blended, mix in yoghurt, cheese and the pinch of nutmeg and set aside to cool.
   
10. Retrieve your pasta dough and roll. You'll need to do this in sections, most likely by splitting the dough ball into about four/five separate balls. If you use a machine like the one above, then you can keep rolling and adjusting the rollers to become gradually tighter to create a thin pasta sheet. If using a rolling pin, keep folding and rolling out until it is as thin and you desire.
    
    
    
11. Next, you need to create the ravioli. I used a tin and a rolling pin, like the one above. But a flat surface is also fine. Put the sheets of rolled out pasta into the floured tin/onto a clean floured surface. Using a teaspoon, spoon filling into individual raviolis, taking care not to overflow.
12. Place new sheet over filled cases and roll together. Repeat until all pasta/filling is gone. If there is any left-over filling, you can also fridge/freeze it and use it in other recipes - that's if you can stop yourself from eating it straight out of the bowl!
13. You can boil the ravioli in salted boiling water right away - it will only take a few minutes. 
14. To get the sauce/coating ready, heat knob of butter in pan on low-ish heat, season with salt, pepper and sage and stir. When the ravioli is ready (it will rise to the top of the water) add to butter pan and coat.
15. Serve in pre-heated bowls or on plates. Place freshly roasted tomatoes on top and sprinkle with cheese. Enjoy your little pieces of Italian cuisine mastery!