Beetroot Bliss

Beetroots bleed, so you have to treat them right.

I've been experimenting with grains and pearl barley is my new favourite. Its got just enough bite with a special helping of chew. Beetroot has such an intense colour and nutty taste it speaks for itself. Add some creme fraiche, parmesan and lemon and you've got something special.

Beetroot and Pearl Barley Rissotto

Ingredients

• 3 Beets
• 2 red onions
• 1 cup pearl barley
• 20g grated parmesan
• 2 heaped tbsp of creme fraiche
• 1 large field mushroom sliced thinly 
• 1/4 cup sherry
• 1/2 cup red wine
• dash of sherry vinegar
• squeeze of lemon juice
• 600mls of chicken stock (Knorr chicken stock pot will do)
• 4 stalks of fresh thyme
• chopped parsley

Directions

• Clean the beetroot with a vegetable brush, put in a roasting tin filled with 5mm of water, cover with foil and roast for 30 mins at 175 degrees centigrade. Don't cut anything from the beetroot as they will bleed !
• Fry the onions and mushroom in olive oil on a high heat. Turn the heat down and add the pearl barley, saute for ten mins.
• Add the wine and sherry and allow the alcohol to cook off.
• Add the stock and thyme over a medium heat and simmer. Add the lemon juice, vinegar and one beetroot peeled and chopped fine (to give colour). When the liquid has been absorbed turn off the heat and add the parmesan, creme fraiche, and two remaining beetroots (peeled and chopped). The pearl barley should have a little bite but if it seems hard you can add more water or stock and simmer for longer.
• Serve with some parmesan shavings, chopped parsley and a walnut, rocket, balsamic salad.

Painted paper

The Janus press sent me some hand painted Japanese papers reminiscent of ancient Japanese lithographs. So far i have been reluctant to pull out the scalpel, i am admiring.

2012 Squashed

So its 2012, sounds prophetic, i have a feeling a lot of books will be made and a lot of food consumed. I'm going to begin with a homage to my favourite squash.

The Crown Prince Squash
1. Looks like a pumpkin underwater.
2. Tastes like a sweet potato on acid.
3. There will be more of the prince very soon.

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.