On a high

I had a fair bit of cranberry sauce left over from Christmas and decided to use it in something sweet. Seeing as this is my last recipe of 2011 it had to be something special. Cranberry apple crumble! The cranberry is slightly sharp so it contrasts nicely with the sweet crumble topping and soft apples. The ginger in the crumble topping gives a hint of spice. I've used small ramekins for the crumble since theres nothing nicer than receiving your own individual dessert, touches me everytime. 

Ingredients

Crumble

The key to a good crumble is to use cold butter and to squeeze the mixture to get different sized crumble lumps which will have different textures. Light brown demerara will give the crumble a slight caramel note.

120g cold unsalted butter

160g plain flour

60g light brown demerara

¼ tsp ground ginger

Directions

Add the ingredients to a bowel and rub with your fingers until a breadcrumb consistency is reached. Refrigerate when finished to make it extra crunchy. Top the apple cranberry mix by squeezing handfuls of the crumble on to get large and small compacted hunks that will get crunchy.

Apple

I sauté my apple lightly in alcohol to prevent it being too dry or undercooked.

Ingredients

150mls cider

2 Bramley apples

2 eating apples

glug of apple juice

½ lemon

2 tbsp of agrave nectar (to taste)

5 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

Directions

Add the spices and liquids to a pan and bring to a simmer. Slice the apples into thicknesses of around 5 mm and add to the pan. Cook over a low heat for ten minutes. Add the apple to the crumble dishes with a little of the infusion syrup.

When ready top the apple with a layer of cranberry sauce and then a layer of crumble. Bake for around 14 mins at 175 degrees centigrade until the crumble turns light brown. Serve with ice cream or yogurt.

Cheese for Breakfast

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH3rx8LhrQo&ob=av3e

Christmas Dinner

No one's going to cook Christmas dinner until next year, but i'll put my recipe up anyway. I don't like turkey stock so i made a chicken gravy to go with the roast turkey. Cranberry sauce with pomegranate molasses and orange juice has a great tang and offsets the richness of the roast. I roast the parsnips separately from the potato's as they take less time and you can add maple syrup!!

Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
300g cranberries
Orange juice - fill until halfway below the cranberries
Zest of 1/4 of lemon
Caster sugar - to taste - i like it tangy but not too sweet

Directions
Fill a pan with cranberries and pour orange juice in until halfway up. Add the pomegranate molasses and lemon zest, bring to the boil and simmer until the cranberries break up (you can crush them with the back of a wooden spoon too). Add sugar to taste and simmer until the sauce reaches a syrup consistency. It will start to have a lovely glossy sheen! If your really keen you could strain the sauce to remove the cranberry skins but i like their texture. You can cover and reheat for the roast.

Sherry gravy

Ingredients

3 shallots skinned and quartered

1 carrot sliced into 1/4's

6 chicken wings

4 large stalks of thyme

4 garlic cloves, crushed with their skin on

olive oil

Salt

1/2 cup Sherry

1 cup red wine

300mls chicken stock

2 dried porchini mushrooms (for Unami)

glug of Sherry Vinegar (vinegar cuts through the cloyingness  of the fat)

Hunk of butter creamed with some flour and salt (this prevents the gravy getting lumpy)

Directions

Roast the veg, herbs and chicken wings. Then pour into a pan and add the liquids. Bring to the boil to cook off the alcohol and add the mushroom and butter. Simmer for fifteen minutes then strain.

Roasted Vegetables

Parsnips

If the parsnips are large cut off the thick bases and par boil these with the potato's (keep the spears dry as they cook quickly). You can then return these to the rest of the parsnips. Coat the parsnips with some mayple syrup, sunflower oil and a little butter before roasting for 35 - 50 mins at 180 degrees.

Potato's

Peel and par-boil until a knife will pierce the potato but not enter the middle. Fluff up by shaking the potato's when they have cooled. Toss with olive oil and a little goose fat. Roast with 4 rosemary stalks and 3 crushed garlic cloves for 50 mins at 180 degrees.

Roasted Turkey

Wash the turkey and season inside and out with salt (add some pepper at the end as it will scorch in the oven). Mix a large hunk of butter with 5 thyme stalks (take the leaves off them) and a little salt. Push the butter mix under the turkey breast and leg skin and stuff a bay leaf under each breast. Pop an unwaxed lemon inside the turkey.

I like to roast the turkey upside-down cover with foil under a high heat (220 degrees centigrade) for half an hour before turning the turkey over, covering it with pancetta and roasting for half an hour on a lower heat (150 degrees). Baste the turkey when you turn it over. Then continue to roast the turkey until nearly done (firm and juices running clear). At this point turn the temperature up and take off the foil to brown the breast. Each bird will take a different amount of time so the last stage will vary in terms of timing. Turkey crowns (without the legs) cook quicker. Leave the turkey to rest for 20 mins (covered with foil) before serving and don't forget some stuffing!!

Mulled Cider

I made some Mulled cider the other day at the Russet. I'm all for anything hot and alcoholic so heres my recipe (i didn't measure anything so just glug it together).

Directions

6 bottles of good quality cider
1 apple studded with cloves (if you use a knife to score the apple first it's easier to stud the cloves)
1/2 cup ginger wine
Few glugs of dark rum
Brown Demerara sugar - to taste
Lemon zest peeled into strips
Zest and juice of an orange
3 cinnamon sticks
2 Star anise

Heat until boiling then turn down very low to preserve the alcohol and allow the flavours to infuse.

Christmas in the Fro

I'm pacing about the oven agin, protecting my babies. Some would say this is my default position in the kitchen Oven protector. So to distract myself from whatever is going to or not going to rise in the oven i shall post.

Traditionally the Johanknect  Tree is more decoration than tree.

Father Christmas is a little hairier too

Where's the rest?

So i was meant to fill a tree. The thing is i've met my match, paper stars eh. I've managed to finish one but it was a mission, i'l leave the origami for the masters i think.

Banana bread with rum infused sultanas and pomegranate walnuts

I haven't put many recipes up yet. Its not because i don't have them, i'm just trying to perfect the balance of flavours and ingredients. I've been working on this banana bread for neigh on a year. I found that the slightly nutty taste of rye flour goes well with bananas. I eat this so much i thought i'd try a healthier version with sunflower oil instead of butter and a little agrave syrup instead of sugar. Bananas are so sweet you don't really the sugar anyway.

The last time i made a banana bread i forgot to add the walnuts and sultanas, so just sprinkled them on top. The walnuts toasted and the sultanas caramelised. I've added to this by infusing the sultanas in rum and adding pomegranate molasses and maple syrup to the walnuts. This way you get a lovely variety of textures.

Its ready.

Sultanas

• 30g sultanas, 1 cap of rum, 2tbsp water
• Heat the sultanas gently with the rum and water until the liquid is absorbed and then set aside.

Walnuts

• 60g walnuts, 1tsp maple syrup, 2 tsp of pomegranate molasses.
• roast the walnuts for two minutes at 175 degrees centigrade. Then rub off the skins when cool as they are bitter. Add the syrups and coat well.

Banana Bread

Ingredients

•   3 bananas mashed roughly with a fork
•  ½ tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon, pinch of nutmeg, 
• 100ml sunflour oil, 
• 3tbsp agrave syrup
• 2 beaten eggs
• 100g self raising flour
• 40g sifted rye flour (don't keep the larger rye flakes left in the sift)
• 20g ground almonds
• 1 tsp baking powder

Directions

• Mash the banana roughly before adding the vanilla and spices.
• Add the sunflower oil and beat well.
• Add the agrave followed by the beaten eggs and mix well.
• Sift in the flours and baking powder and mix lightly (too much mixing at this point will make the cake tough).
• Stir in the ground almonds and pour into a tin (14 by 24 cm) coated with greaseproof paper.
• Top with the walnuts and sultanas.
• Bake for 40 mins at 175 degrees until a knife comes out clean.

Word play

Heres my companion to the 'Happy original series', thanks.

Again with a floral print.

Fresh on the court

The superfro's have a new basketball kit. Thanks Dunkenstein, Clyde and Pearl for our inspiration. Fresh on the court.

For my beautiful supplier

I have a supplier. Currently my sustenance consists of pomegranate molasses, giant couscous and sumac. Quite possibly i am working on the best recipe i have made. A signature dish i hope. Roasted sweet potato, pomegranate molasses, chestnut, mushroom and ginger gyoza. Its been a while since i made gyoza but its coming back.

Sweet

Stripping

I don't normally do requests, so i guess this is a favour. Its december decoration time and i'm looking at a classic. A star. I'm not going to lie stripping paper takes a while and small hands would be advantageous. Unfortunately my hands are not small.

Pop

Its time for some classics. Where are the waffles and pop you ask? They never went away, i've just been saving them i guess. Happy pop was the first thing i made that was any good. I was selling these way back when so they've got a special place in my heart.

pop life - prince
Soundtrack to a trip down memory lane

Coming to a paper near you

An article by my main man Jasper

The People’s Kitchen

November 14, 2011

According to the Coalition Government community spirit is in short supply. People are adhering to the individualistic ideals of capitalism and are neglecting even to learn their neighbour’s names. The people’s kitchen stands to prove this notion wrong.

Every Sunday over the past year a group of like-minded individuals come together to share a passion for food. From the caveman to the modern man the sharing of food and hospitality is the ultimate gesture of camaraderie and community spirit. What festive, cultural or family event is complete without a communal meal?

The people’s kitchen was made by the people for the people. As such it transcends demographics and strengthens the ties of the local community. Cooking together people learn about food and bring with them their knowledge of traditional dishes. Tart tatins, cous cous, plantain, roasted pumpkins and ratatouille to name a few. In many ways the food reflects the diversity of the local community in Dalston.

Local shops donate surplus food that would otherwise end up on landfill sites. The rest of the food is either donated or foraged from the local area. Cooking delectable meals with surplus food highlights the topical issue of food waste. Meals are served up on a pay as you want basis, with the proceeds invested back into the kitchen. After a visit to the people’s kitchen, Sunday will never be the same again. Where else can you make new friends, cook, share food and listen to good music all for the price of enthusiasm and a love of food?

Article written by Jasper McKenzie (jtmckenzie@btinternet.com)

Successes in 2011: We collect, cook and give food on a donations basis every Sunday at our venue. Over the course of 2011 these events average 50 people each Sunday - for our anniversary last month we had 100 people. Steve Wilson, our founder, has led foraging walks before the cooking once a month, where we work in partnership with Hackney Harvest to collect surplus elderflower, apples, berries and other fruits that go unharvested in our borough. We have already achieved cooking all the crew food for the first ever Cloud Cuckoo Land festival (festival information here http://www.cloudcuckooland.org/ and photos here http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecloudsfestival/), where we served up a total of 1000 dishes to crew and festivalgoer’s. We have also featured in the Evening Standard, Positive News, Hackney Citizen and newspapers local to Dalston and Hackney.

The People’s Kitchen runs from 3 till 7pm every Sunday at Passing Clouds, 1 Richmond Road, Dalston. Dinner is served from 6:30pm. To get involved with the People’s Kitchen Dalston email daniel@thepeopleskitchen.org, or just show up any given Sunday.

All volunteers will be provided with cooking equipment and aprons.

Hair

I'm going to do the unthinkable. Haircut. Worry not, every good hedge needs preening, an accentuated shape up.

This moment of enlightenment was in no way facilitated by a recent journey on the tube (o.k thats a lie). To the woman who had your face pressed up into my hair like a soft morning pillow, it was clean. In fact i borrowed some of Freya's curl activator, afro sheen that morning. It is serious that sheen, smelling like a heady mix of haribo, coco butter and felt tip pens. Really she should thank me for a fro induced psychedelic trip. No wonder she was gasping for air at old street station. What better way to start the day?

I can't trust just anyone though, like the Queen and her pursanthiams i need a master gardener.

Happy again

Happy with teeth...

Life's a breeze with calabrese

In homage to a vegetable of class.

I opened my veg box. "apples, carrots, fennel, pears, mushroom and the leeks. Wait a sec those are some funny looking leeks damn"

My first experience with Calabrese. Somehow Calabrese had replaced my leeks. I didn't know it at the time but this was a good thing, a very good thing! I admit i hadn't heard of Calabrese. From the name, perhaps they're a funk band, big in the 70's but no Calabrese is a mathematical type of broccoli full of helixes and spirals. A thing of beauty.

I found the mild flavour of the Calabrese went well with Greek yogurt and the crunch of almonds. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

Calabrese 

50g blanched roasted almonds

Squeeze of lemon juice

Knob of butter

Pinch of chilli and salt

$ spoons of Greek Yogurt

Directions:

Steam the Calabrese like Broccoli, for around three to four minutes. Empty straight into iced water to preserve its colour. Heat the butter in a pan. Dry the Calabrese and add with the chilli and salt. Saute until warm , add the lemon juice and then serve with the almonds and Greek yogurt. Alternatively you could serve the salad cold.

Birthday Cake

I've fine tuned the icing recipe so we're ready to go !!! I've used glucose syrup as its not quite as sweet as sucrose and it won't crystalise. This'l make the icing sticky and glossy.

Ingredients:

70g of dark chocolate melted
1.5 tbsp of glucose syrup
2.5 tbsp of water

Directions:
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water. Add the glucose syrup and stir with a spoon. Slowly add the water while still hot and stir in until incorporated. The chocolate should start to look glossy. Leave to cool a little before spooning over the cakes.

Flourless Dark Chocolate Ground Almond Amaretto Cake
The balance of flavours and the moist firm texture make this the best cake recipe i have made !!!


Ingredients:
100g butter, 100g caster  sugar, 150g 70% dark chocolate, 100g ground almonds, few drops vanilla essence, 2 tbsp coco, cap of amaretto liqueur, 3 eggs (2 separated)

      Directions:
       Preheat an oven to 170 deg. C.  Brush melted butter inside five kugelhopf tins before putting into the fridge. Break up the chocolate melt over alongside the butter. Allow to cool.  Separate two eggs. Beat the 3rd egg with the two egg yolks before adding the sugar. Mix well. Now use a spatula to fold ingredients (no mixing). Add the chocolate, alcohol and vanilla to the eggs and sift in the coco. Fold in the ground almonds. Whisk the egg whites until you have firm peaks then fold in gently.  Fill the kulf tins until 1 cm from the top and put into the oven for 20 mins until a knife comes out nearly clean.  Allow to rest for ten mins then turn out and cover with icing.

Cake ?

Its my birthday soon and tradition dictates that i make a cake. This time its going to be special, i've been practicing for a while now and i have a prototype. A flourless ground almond, dark chocolate cake. I'm going to put up the recipe when i've got the perfect icing. I'm thinking a chocolate glaze with apricot jam raspberry coulis and whipped amaretto cream. Two days to go.

Face off

Cards are about two people, someone saying and someone recieving. I'm experimenting with a scrapbook two face theme we'l see where this leads......

Suppliers need love

A wise man once said 'one who gives you free food should be loved' i am that man. The people's kitchen is supported by people who donate food (that isn't selling), they need some thanks.

Thanks !!

I owe some people thanks. Thanking someone is pretty simple and sincere, you just let the words speak for themselves. I'm going to use a black (simple) and white (sincere) theme. I still want some hippy curves but i'm going to tone the whole thing down and keep to one colour outside and one inside. Saying that i still want it to be a surprise when the colour changes as you open the card. Thanks.