Autumnal Musings

I love Halloween, not for begging for sweets at stranger's houses (bit strange!), but for all the veg the comes into season. And for the excitement of being able to eat stews and soups without feeling guilty that it's 30°C outside, not that it ever gets that hot in England.

I've always been a bit of an Autumnal sort of person, and I don't think I really realised why until I started cooking properly for myself. Being a sucker for a bit of romance and all, there is of course the natural beauty of everything, but only adding to this is the wonderment of root vegetables that are available. I, for instance, decided that, for the first time, I would carve a pumpkin. Shock horror! It actually went alright, and although it looked more like a gurning old man (which, I suppose, is a little scary) the innards were far more rewarding. 

Using some bits and bobs I had in the cupboard, I ended up making a HUGE batch of pumpkin soup, which surprisingly came out quite well to say I wasn't working to a recipe. Working on the basics of my food knowledge (with a little help from my big sis'), I figured out some complimentary flavours to try and make it more than just pureed pumpkin. Frying a good bit of leftover onion, some ginger, some garlic and a few pinches of spices and seasoning, it needed little more. And to say I was going to throw away all the waste! It had a lovely kick from the curry spice, some mellow from the cinnamon and a fresh aftertaste from the ginger, oh, and it tasted like pumpkin of course. All topped off with a handful of toasted chilli pumpkin seeds gave it a bit of fire crisp aswell. 

Honestly? I was really chuffed!

I even had left over pumpkin to make some pumpkin pie, but I left it too long (and later realised I didn't quite have enough), so I concocted a banana and chocolate ganache cream pie instead.

Another reason for loving Autumn...it gets cold, so I can actually get away with using the excuse "It's too cold to leave the house". Loving it! And loving the fact that I can trawl the Internet looking for new and weird things to cook. I've actually come across a pretty cool looking cake called (aptly), "The King of Cakes", or Baumkuchen to the more European amongst us. I vaguely remember eating this at a fair in Germany when I was younger, mainly because it reminded me of a Kit-Kat when I bit into it. It's traditionally made on a spit and the cook paints the batter on in layers. If you take a cross-section of it, it really looks like the rings of a tree, which is pretty cool. 

It takes forever to make, so if you have no patience, it's probably not the best project to undertake, although you can do it in a regular oven, your tree rings'll just be horizontal rather than vertical, which i'm sure you'll be forgiven for! And if you can't be bothered, it'd probably be quicker to wait for the tree to grow and eat that instead, although I doubt it'll taste as good. I don't know who to thank for this strange creation, François Fournier? The good people of Salzwedel? Hungarian brides? Or good ol' fashioned Blighty in all it's Medieval greatness? Either way i'm glad they all exist to keep people like me entertained on a Sunday evening.

So. Tasks for the year now span to:

1) Make perfect, pretty Macaroons.

2) Make a makeshift Baumkuchen.

I know this post is a bit of a beast, but I have a lot of time on my hands seeing as it's 'Reading Week'. So i'll save your eyes and skip to the 'Recipe of the Week', dun dun dunnn! (Oh, the cheese):

Jess' Pumpkin Soup.

Feeds- 'the 5000'

The innards of 2 pumpkins  (seeds removed, washed and dried and put aside)

 2 Medium onions (white)

Fairly big knob of unsalted butter (Lurpak'll do).

3 Garlic cloves

2" Root of Fresh Ginger

2 Cinnamon sticks

1 Pint Chicken stock

Pinch of Curry Powder

Tablespoon of Chilli flakes

Good bit of sea salt and ground black pepper

Dollop of cream

Everything about this soup is easy, it takes a bit of  time to cook but it's really simple and you can leave it mostly alone. 

Firstly you need to chop the onions (pretty finely), the garlic and the fresh ginger. Fry the onions in the melted butter on a medium heat, then turn it right down so they cook slowly for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger, they should barely sizzle if it's on the right heat, really don't want it to burn or it'll taste horrid! Cook for a further 5 minutes and add the pumpkin, sizzle for a little while, then add the chicken stock, cinnamon sticks, curry powder and seasoning. 

Leave it for about 20-30 minutes to cook on low, so it's almost turning to mush, remove the cinnamon sticks and blend with a hand blender. Stir in a bit of cream if you want to make it a little richer, and leave cooking on a low heat whilst you prepare the pumpkin seeds.

Take a dry pan and add the chilli flakes and as many pumpkin seeds as you like, if you're a little timid with heat, add less chilli, if you like your food hotter than the sun, add more. Easy! Toast for a little while until slightly coloured and coated with chilli, and serve on top of the soup as a garnish!

I thought I would alternate between the sweet and the savoury with my recipes (just to be fair of course, I wouldn't want to hurt the other's feelings!)

It's been quite a successful beginning to Autumn, I can't wait until Christmas! There is going to be a feast and a half if i've got anything to do with it!

Peace

JR 

National Baking Week 2010

Is finally coming to an end for 2010! Unfortunately, I don't think I made quite as much of an effort as I perhaps could/should have. Funds are very low and I couldn't splash out on the ingredients I perhaps would have liked to. So I've had to make it out of ingredients I already have, which was a suprisingly substantial variety.

National Baking Week is all about encouraging people to start baking their own treats, whether it's just to learn a new skill, or to update some passed down recipes, it's always an awesome time to start getting your scales and muffin trays out. 

In the cooking community it's almost a mini festival in itself, forums exploding with recipes, family tips and tricks to make your baking the best and most rewarding it can be. It sounds so very bourgeois, but it's actually quite exciting, oh how adult of me! 

Nevertheless it's been fun, any spare moment i've had it's been spent either reading about recipes or new places I can find to get unusual ingredients. Great for the soul...not so great, however, for my dissertation reading, of which i've done not nearly enough. Saturday morning spent watching Saturday Kitchen, followed by Nigella introduced me to not only an amazing recipe for Grasshopper pie (thankyou Nigella, you goddess!), but inspiration to make an entire range of cocktail-based cupcakes. That bourbon biscuit bases...I literally could not help myself imagining bourbon cupcakes with creamy, minty, chocolatey icing. It's going to be immense!

I've found out some great little pointers to help me with future baking, example, tossing fruit or chocolate chips in plain flour before adding to cakes or muffins stop them sinking to the bottom, or to make your cakes rise enough, they have to go from adding the final baking powder (or the liquid to your dry ingredients) to the oven in under a minute...which is quite difficult. Or to not open the oven door for the first half of cooking time, because it will interfere with the rising of the cake. 

Simple things like that can make you give up on baking and think you're rubbish, but they are easily resolved and can give you confidence to try again. Baking your own stuff can save you a tonne of money once you've bought the basics (baking tins, scales, spatulas etc) and it tastes so much better. Running the risk of sounding like an advert, i'll carry on to the recipe of the week for me.

To honour National Baking Week, I'll keep the theme alive...

Scones (Courtesy of James Martin)

225g Self Raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

25g Caster sugar

50g Unsalted butter

150ml milk

1 egg, beaten (for brushing on top)

Pinch of salt

- Oven at 220C degrees/Gas mark 7

- Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, stir in sugar, add butter and rub quickly into the flour, until a fine breadcrumb consistency forms.

- Add the milk, slowly, working into a smooth dough. Leave to rest for 5-10 minutes before rolling

- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until about 2cm thick-ish. Cut with a standard pastry cutter, and don't twist when cutting, it'll make them rise wonky.

- Once cut, brush with the beaten egg (for a shiny glaze) or dust with flour (for a matt finish) and place the scones on a greased baking tray, then bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

- Cool slightly and serve with clotted cream, jam, butter, or whatever you like!

Honestly, this recipe is the only one I ever use when making scones, simply, because they are lush, and i've never needed to use another. If you're proud of your successes from National Baking Week, tell everyone about it in the comment box below!

Peace

JR 

Technology is Leading a Revolt

...against me and against my laptop, hence my substantial absence. It is seriously kaput.

But, it's been quite a food packed month and it's been fun! I think i had my proudest moment when i made these cute aqua cupcakes.

Just good quality vanilla cupcakes with some super creamy vanilla icing. Maybe not the most exotic flavour in the world, but they were damn tasty!

And a follow up on my jam, it's beautiful, maybe a little too sweet for me, i'll use less next time. But it's still lovely, I'm actually (almost) a bit reluctant to eat it. I want to preserve it in all its beauty. My first jam-making experience was a great success i think.

In other food-related news, it's the start of a new academic year for me and my Bangor friends. So that means students, it also means communal cooking, which I love! I've tried my hand at some things i've not had for a good while: blackened Cajun chicken, with greek potatoes and roasted paprika peppers, that was pretty yummy. I also tried my hand at some canneloni just the other day, nothing majorly exotic, beef and parmesan, but it was quite tasty in the end, so much better than any of the rubbish you get from a jar. I don't do things by half measures, so if you're gonna do something, and you have the time and the money, do it properly. It is so much more rewarding.

Change is exciting. I'll leave a recipe at the bottom of each of my posts from now on, so if you're feeling a little uninspired for food and you happen to read my rubbish little blog, you can maybe try it out? You really don't need to measure anything, you can change it to your tastes

Beef and Parmesan Canneloni:

with some cracking home-made garlic bread.

this feeds 4 medium sized portions.

300g lean beef mince

4 or 5 garlic cloves, depending on the size

1 small red onion

1/2 green pepper 

Small handful of grated parmesan (plus a little to sprinkle on top)

Canneloni pasta (about 12/13/14 tubes)

700g passata (either the big jars or 2 small cartons)

Small ball of mozzarella

1 Beef stock cube

1/2 small ciabatta loaf

1 tablespoon of butter (proper butter! Lurpak or the like)

Parsley

Paprika

Oregano

Pepper

Salt

Pinch of sugar

Olive oil

It's a lot easier to do all your prep before cooking so you don't have to faff around in the middle.

So, dice your red onion and pepper as tiny as you can, remember it's gotta fit into the tubes so it helps the smaller it is. Also, if you have a garlic crusher, perfect, if not, just cut that too. I find it's easier if you take the skin off the cloves, cut in half lengthways down the middle once so you have two flat sides to cut, slice into thin stripes, turn and cut into teeny tiny cubes.

Fry off the onions in a splash of olive oil on a medium heat until they're softened, add the peppers, add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, don't overcook the garlic or have it on too high or the garlic goes bitter and tastes awful! 

Add your mince, the stock cube, about a tablespoon of oregano, paprika and cook until the mince is cooked through. Add the passata, the pinch of sugar (it balances out the flavours of the super tomato-ey-ness of it) and the parmesan and stir through. 

Get your oven proof dish, your canneloni tubes, a teaspoon and a little oil. Drizzle your oil over the bottom so it doesn't stick and turn your tube so the bottom hole is covered by the the dish and spoon the mixture into your tubes and fill the dish. Leave a little sauce in the pan and cover the tubes with the last bit, tear up the mozzarella, chuck it on, and sprinkle a little parmesan on top. Cover your dish with foil and bake in a medium to low oven for about 40 minutes. Whilst you're waiting for this to cook you can prep your garlic bread.

For this, it's really simple, get the butter, soften it with a spoon, add crushed garlic (1 or 2 cloves) a teaspoon of parsley and a pinch of salt (a little for taste, but mostly to help tie all the flavours together). After that, cut your bread however you wish and spread it on. When the canneloni's been cooking for 40 minutes, put the bread in and turn up the oven to about 190C degrees and take the foil off the top of the canneloni so the cheese can crisp up. Cook for another 20 minutes and then serve.

I'm sorry, i know i've gone on a bit, so i wholly forgive you if you've not bothered reading to the end!

But, go explore the exotic and the unusual, and if you find any interesting recipes, and you have time, please leave me a comment and tell me about it (and the recipe if you have it), i'd love to try it out!

Peace.

JR