Pune - the Indian Shrewsbury

A. It certainly isn’t anything traditionally Indian. It’s the Shrewsbury biscuit (also called Shrewsbury cakes), an English recipe that dates back to the 1500′s, and is apparently one of the bits of British culture that India decided to keep after colonisation.

I haven’t been to Pune (yet), but I used to love Shrewsbury biscuits when I was a kid. For some reason though they had dropped out of my mind, I had neither thought about them or eaten one for years.

Then at a flea market the other day I found a big bundle of old cookery booklets, magazines and newspaper cuttings all for sale for a couple of euros. Despite the fact that they are in four different languages and I only understand one of them, I had to have them. There, hiding away In a good housekeeping pamphlet on ‘cookies and biscuits’ from 1956 was a simple recipe for lovely Shrewsbury biscuits.

In truth the recipe was just a bit too simple, and the resulting biccies were not nearly as exciting as I’d hoped they might be, but they did set me off on a mission. A bit of research into recipes dating back to the 1600′s, a bit of experimentation, and an unhealthy amount of biscuits eaten later, and here we are with my recipe which gives fantastic biscuits every time.

Recipe notes

There is a stark difference between more traditional (c.1600-1800) and modern recipes for Shrewsbury biscuits. The old recipes all contain a high ratio of flour to sugar, probably because sugar was hideously expensive, whilst the modern ones have much more sugar than flour. This recipe uses equal quantities of both, because I think that if you add any more sugar the biscuits become too sweet and it overpowers the flavour of the lemon.

Original recipes also contained caraway seeds, whilst modern ones generally use lemon rind. I love them with lemon, but if you are a caraway fan, then you can easily substitute it in.

If you don’t have any rose water to hand, then don’t panic. Just skip that bit and add the butter as you would normally.

Let’s get biscuity

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C and line a baking sheet with baking paper.

2. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar.

3. Beat the egg in a cup with a little bit of rosewater, and add it slowly into the creamed butter/sugar, mixing well as you do.

4. Sift the flour and add it to the mixture together with the grated lemon rind, then mix it well until it forms a stiff paste.

5. Turn the bowl out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out to about 4-5mm thickness, then cut the biscuits into circles (or whatever other shapes you fancy).

6. Bake the biscuits for about 15 minutes, until they are a very pale brown, then allow to cool.

The 1977 edition

Of course, once I’d got it home, it didn’t take long at all for the temptation to try one of these retro recipes to get the better of me. I don’t bake as much as I’d like to and don’t have a wide range of baking ingredients on hand in my kitchen right at this moment, so I had a flick through to find something fast, easy and containing only things that I already had in the cupboard.

Shortbread

Everyone loves shortbread, including me. In my case it might well be because I just love butter, I can eat it on its own, which other people regularly tell me is weird. So, I love shortbread because they are a good excuse to eat huge amounts of butter and not much else and not be told that I’m a freak.

The recipe that I normally use is completely different from the Good Housekeeping method. For one thing, my usual recipe contains semolina, and for another the proportion of butter to flour that I normally use is quite a lot higher. I was a wee bit sceptical about the end product of the GH method, but curious enough to give it a go.

The GH recipe

I haven’t changed the recipe at all, just dropped off a few of the ‘alternatives’, and rewritten it slightly into a much easier to follow form.

1. Preheat the oven to 170-180°C

2. Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl.

3. Rub in the butter and add the sugar.

4. Continue lightly kneading the mixture until it forms a dough.

5. Roll or press out the dough into a 15-18cm circle and put it onto a papered baking sheet.

6. Crimp the edges of the shortbread using your fingers and mark across it into six to eight portions and prick neatly with a fork.

7. Bake it in the oven for about 40 minutes-1 hour, until just coloured.

8. Take it out of the oven and cool it on the baking sheet. Dredge with caster sugar and break into portions when cold.

I like the the whole rustic handmade aesthetic, but if you prefer a properly round shape then of course you can use a 15-18cm sandwich tin, greased and with the bottom lined with greaseproof paper. According to GH you can also use a shortbread mould, which I’d never heard of until today. A quick google found one for sale at Lakeland, and now I want one!

The result

Despite my scepticism, what came out of the oven was actually pretty good. Not as good as the butter heavy semolina ones that I normally make, but a pleasant suprise.

The only real problem is that they were slightly burnt, which is odd because I had my oven at the bottom of the specified temperature range, for the shortest time listed, and with the fan off. The recipe is good, super quick and super easy, and the shortbread are tasty, just keep a careful eye on them in the oven and whip them out if they look like they are getting too dark.

As tasty as it is unpretty

Bigos isn’t either of those, it looks like an unappetising mess with lumps of fatty meat swimming in a strange brown water, and it smells like something you might run a mile from (especially while it is cooking), but the taste, oh the taste, more than makes up for it.

This is not something that you are likely to find on any fine dining menu, and it is tricky to imagine how you could present it to look like Michelin star food, but when it tastes like this, who cares.

Bigos and the bleak midwinter

The Polish winter isn’t the most hospitable climate in the world. Fields carpeted with snow and ice covered trees glistening in the crisp wintry air can be breathtakingly beautiful, but they aren’t the best conditions for growing anything very much.

The solution to the lack of fresh produce has always been to pickle, smoke, salt, and otherwise preserve fruit, vegetables, meats and fish.

Apart from the fact that you can’t find anything much fresh, there is also the fact that when it is 28 degrees below zero outside, you really want some meaty warming food inside you.

Which leads us neatly into bigos, a mixture of pickled cabbage, dried mushrooms, and smoked meats, which is very meaty and hearty and warms you right up right away.

A million variations

Like traditional food the world over, every grandmother and aunt in Poland will give you a different recipe (or two) for bigos, and everyone will staunchly defend the one that they ate in childhood as the best in the land.

I haven’t tried every variation of bigos in the whole of Poland, but since I love the stuff, I have tried quite a few. Of all those that I have sampled, my favourite comes from ciocia (aunt) Karolina, and the recipe that follows comes from her.

Some parts of the recipe may seem quite vague. This is due to the fact that the ingredients are so variable, and will take different lengths of time to cook every time you make the dish. After you have prepared it a few times you will learn to judge when it is and isn’t the right moment to add the next ingredient, or how long to simmer something for.

Notes on ingredients

Polish kapusta kiszona is very simply cabbage preserved in salt. In most of the rest of the world, what you will be buying is German sauerkraut. The sauerkraut is pretty much the same thing, but you should be careful to buy one without the anything added to it, i.e. carrots or white wine.

Both the pork and the beef should be tougher cuts of meat with a good amount of fat in them. If you have anything too delicate or too lean then it will disintegrate during the long cooking time of the dish.

You can use either smoked or unsmoked bacon, but smoked is better as it adds an extra dimension of flavour to the whole dish. Like the other meats the bacon should have a decent proportion of fat in it. Note that you need a joint of bacon, not slices.

The best ham to use is a pack of offcuts from your local butcher or supermarket, then you don’t even really need to chop it up later.

Ideally, the sausage should be lightly smoked, but if you can’t find one then any decent pork sausage will do.

In Poland, you would use grzyby leśne, which you’ll find in any supermarket and are a mixture of dried forest mushrooms. You can probably find something similar just about anywhere, but make sure that they are wild forest mushrooms and not something like champignon as they simply don’t have enough flavour.

Let’s do it then

1. Put the dried mushrooms in a bowl with enough warm water to cover them completely, and leave them to soak.

2. Fry the pork and beef in half of the fat until it is browned. Add the sliced onions, cover and braise until the meat is half cooked.

3. Squeeze the excess liquid out of the sauerkraut, either using your hands, or put it in a colander and press it down with a wooden spoon.

4. Put the sauerkraut and bacon together in a large pan with a little water, some allspice and the bay leaves. Bring it to the boil, and then turn it down and let it simmer.
   There are a couple of important things to note at this point. Firstly that the finished dish should be quite thick and not swimming in liquid, and that you will be adding wine as well as liquids from the mushrooms and the meat a bit later, so you should add just enough water now to prevent the cabbage from burning and allow the bacon to boil.
   Secondly, it is important not to add any salt to the dish at all until the cabbage is completely cooked, otherwise it will prevent the cabbage from softening.

5. When the bacon is half cooked, remove it, and leave the cabbage on the heat.

6. Strain the mushrooms, and cut them into slivers, then add both the mushrooms and the water they were soaked in to the cabbage.

7. Cut the cooked pork and beef, together with the bacon into medium sized chunks, and add them all together with the onions and any juices from the meat to the cabbage.

8. Cook over a medium heat till the cabbage and the meat are cooked through and soft. Sauerkraut has a tendency to stick, so it is very important not to use too high a heat, and to remember to give it a good stir from time to time.

9. While it is cooking, cut the sausage into half moon slices, and the ham into cubes, and fry them in the rest of the fat. When they are cooked, add them to the cabbage, together with the remaining spices and red wine.

10. Bring the whole thing to the boil, and then lower the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.

At this point your bigos is finished and ready to eat, and it should taste wonderful. If you want to be really traditional and really get the very most flavour into the dish though, you have a lot more work to do.

(optional)

Traditionally bigos was cooked, cooled down and then reheated and recooled for seven days in a row in order to ensure the perfect mingling of all flavours.

11. After cooking allow your bigos to cool completely and then refrigerate it overnight.

12. The following day slowly and gently bring the whole thing up to the boil and then turn the heat down and simmer it for 10 minutes. Take it off the heat and let it cool completely before putting it back into the fridge for the night.

13. Repeat for another 5 days.

(end optional)

14. Drink either with shots of good quality frozen vodka or a bottle of the same red wine that you put into the bigos itself.

Liége cathedral - As pretty as the salad.

Liége is in the French speaking bit of Belgium, which makes it slightly simpler, because Flemish is just plain strange.

Anyway from the lovely city of Liége comes this salad (or so they call it, what is the definition of a salad anyway?). I can’t get enough of the stuff, we eat it whatever the weather, at any time of year, and anywhere in the world.

I usually make it a day after we had boiled potatoes and green beans for dinner and some are left. That means that the major part of the prep is done and the lunch can be on the table in about 5 minutes. Just in case your former dinner consisted of something else then here is the whole recipe:

Notes on ingredients

The proportions of the ingredients are really variable, and depend on what you have that day..

Sometimes the salad borders on vegetarian (when the very little and lonely bit of pancetta had been found in the fridge after all butcher’s shops had been closed), sometimes it looks like a bean field, because that is Emma’s favourite version. Enjoy tinkering then!

You can use any kind of bacon, but smoked works better, and gives a more flavourful dish. It’s not traditional, but also works well with pancetta, smoked sausages, or chorizo.

And so to work…

1. Peel your potatoes, cut them into good manly chunks, and boil them until tender in lightly salted water, and then drain. Be careful not to overcook them, as they will still be spending a moment in the frying pan.

2. Top and tail the beans, and if you feel like it, then cut them into pieces. I don’t bother to cut them, I like them long and lean. Maybe it’s because my wife is short and slightly round, and I think they contrast nicely? Boil the beans until al dente and drain well.

3. Put a large frying pan onto the heat. Anoint it with a drop of oil (and not much more as the lardons will exude the fat too) and throw the aforementioned lardons in.

4. While the lardons are frying, dice a largish onion (or if you are lazy or have a blunt knife, just cut into half moons) and add to the lardons. Reduce the heat and cook the two together until the onion is cooked, but not brown.

5. Season well with freshly ground pepper, then add the potatoes and fry all together.

6. When the potatoes are hot, add the beans and continue to cook for a couple of minutes until they are heated through, adjusting the seasoning to your taste.

7. Take the pan off of the heat and add a good glug of the vinegar. Give it a good stir so everything gets an even coating of salt, pepper and vinegar.

and then:

8. Throw it onto some plates, or just put the pan straight on the table.

9. Open a nice cold beer.

10. Drink to Begium.

11. Eat.

This is where you need a smellable screen.

You don’t actually have to write anything about how caprese tastes, smells, or looks, what it is or how to prepare it. A simple ingredients list is enough to get me salivating.

I ♡ Caprese.

You can scrawl it on a wall, sing a silly song about me and caprese sitting in a tree, I don’t mind, I’m not ashamed.

I’m also incredibly fond of social eating, of sharing things. I love mezze, tapas and finger foods. It’s partially the fun and joy of sharing many things, discussing them, passing them around the table, and partially the fact that I am greedy and curious, and like to try as many different things as I can.

So, what I really needed to find is a way to combine this kind of fingery foody way of eating with caprese, so that I could be full of happiness. I’ve found it, and now I’m sharing it, so that you can be all happy and shiny people too.

You can serve them as an appetiser, or just eat them as an evening snack with a couple of bottles glasses of nice crisp wine.

Notes on ingredients

You can use either grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes. They are very close to each other in texture and taste, the biggest difference is the shape. Use whichever you prefer, preferably whichever are more locally grown.

You can use any decent quality mozzarella, but I love mozzarella di bufala, it’s softer and creamier, slightly saltier and with a more robust taste than mozzarella made from cow’s milk. Sadly, it’s also more expensive and harder to find, but I really do believe that it’s worth the effort/expense.

Pick the most fragrant bunch of basil that you can find, and don’t chop it too many times as it bruises easily.

Let’s get skewered

1. Wash the tomatoes and chop each one in half.

2. Cut the mozzarella into thick slices slightly larger than the diameter of a tomato.

3. Pick large basil leaves and cut each one in half down the centre of the leaf.

4. Whisk together olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a ratio of about 4:1, then add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Onto each skewer, thread 1 tomato half, followed by a piece of basil, a slice of cheese, and then finish with the other half of the tomato.

6. Drizzle the dressing over each skewer, and sprinkle with a little sea salt.

Perfect for a sunny Sunday morning

The problem is that, like most people, I just can’t think of enough things to do with them. I might never have thought of putting them into a breakfast/brunch dish, but Mark Hix did and I love the idea.

Ham and eggs are very Sunday brunchy, and the addition of a few padróns, some olive oil and coarse sea salt turn it instantly into a very Mediterranean Sunday (or any other day) brunch.

Notes on ingredients

The really important thing here is the quality of the ham. You should use nice thick slices (about ¾cm thick) of a good cooked ham.

The eggs can be either ducks or hens, but should be large. As always, free range eggs not only are much more ethical but do taste much better as well.

What to do

1. Heat 2 tbsps of the olive oil in a heavy frying pan, and when it is hot add the padróns and fry them for about 3 minutes, turning occasionally.

2. Put a slice of ham on each plate.

3. Fry the eggs in a tbsp of the olive oil, drain, and put one on top of each slice of ham.

4. Divide the padróns between the plates, scattering them over the ham and eggs.

5. Sprinkle with some coarse sea salt and a little paprika.

Poland - home of the grey noodle.

szare – grey kluski – noodles Anki – by Anka

or Anka’s grey noodles

Yes, I know, but they really are better than they sound. Grey noodles (they aren’t actually all that grey) are a traditional Polish peasant dish. Anka is a gorgeous wonderful person who makes fantastic kluski (she is Polish, but not a peasant).

Moving on

So, what we are actually talking about here are noodles made of potato and flour. They differ from other potato noodles, e.g. gnocchi in the fact that the potato is raw when it is noodleised, and in the fact that they don’t contain any egg.

Just potato and flour might not make for the most exciting dish in the world, but these kluski are served with lardons of bacon, onions and sauerkraut.

Notes on ingredients

All of the stories and childhood recollections that I hear of this dish are of home grown and pickled cabbage, and bacon from grandmothers pig. It’s almost enough to make me weep that I’ve missed my chance to try it in that form, but the world has changed.
Slaughtering a pig is messy though, and pickling cabbage is a bit of a trauma if you don’t have to, so this easy modern version does have good points.

There aren’t a lot of ingredients to play with. The potatoes you use should be a starchy variety, and a smoked bacon imparts more flavour than an unsmoked one.

Przepis (the recipe)

1. Peel the potatoes, and then using a fine grater, grate them all into a large bowl. What you will end up with is a kind of potato pulp. Leave this to stand for 20-30 mins.

2. By now the potatoes will have given out a lot of water, and seperated into two layers in the bowl, with the potato pulp at the bottom, and the liquid on the top. Pour the liquid off, or ideally strain it through muslin, so that you are left with just the pulp. Don’t drain them too thoroughly, because you need some of the starch in the liquid.

3. Add the flour, and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Then, mix it together well using a balloon whisk, until you end up with a thick (and not very appetising looking) mass.

4. Bring a very large pot of salted water to the boil, if you don’t have a huge pot then use two, because the kluski won’t cook properly if they are too crowded together.

5. Use a spoon to form large noodles from the potato mix and drop them into the boiling water.

6. Boil them gently for about 5 minutes from the moment they rise to the surface of the water.

7. Drain the kluski thoroughly.

8. While the kluski are cooking, peel and finely chop the onion, and fry it together with the lardons in a little sunflower oil.

Now, either…

• Mix the bacon/onion mix with the kluski, check and adjust seasoning and serve immediately with sauerkraut.

or…

• Make sure that the kluski are well drained, and then fry them in a little sunflower oil, adding the bacon/onion at the last minute.

• Serve hot with sauerkraut.

Why you should buy a Mandolin.

So, I thought I’d have a play and see if I couldn’t come up with a more summery version of the classic recipe.

Less hearty, more citrusy, and generally lighter was the direction that I was aiming for, and I think I’ve achieved it.

Apart from a slight change in ratio between the ingredients, I’ve swapped the beef stock out for chicken, picked a fruitier wine and replaced the cognac with a couple of suprises.

And it tastes…

… shockingly good.

It’s much lighter than a traditional French/Spanish/Italian onion soup, it’s also quite a bit sweeter.

It still manages to retain a rich deep flavour, but now also has a nice hint of citrus which makes it perfect for summer evenings.

Notes on ingredients

As with any onion soup, the quality of the stock is probably the most important thing in terms of ingredients. You can use stock that you’ve made yourself, or buy a decent quality chicken stock. If buying it then get a fresh stock from your local butcher instead of stock cubes. If you are using your own stock, then make sure that you have skimmed and strained it well, because you don’t want bits of meat or fat in the soup.

I like to use a fruity Riesling, but you could substitute it out for another dry fruity white if you have a personal preference. The citrus vodka should be something with a good strong lemon taste, I like Tanqueray Sterling Citrus, because it has a slight herbal tang as well that works really well in this soup.

The trickiest ingredient is cheese to top the croutons. The ideal is a nice zesty goats cheese that melts well. I’m not sure that there is a globally available cheese that fits the bill, but there are plenty of options, just ask your local cheesemonger for a recommendation.

The recipe

Make the croutons

1. Heat the oven to 180°C.

2. Crush the garlic.

3. Drizzle olive oil onto a good (not all bendy) baking tray, throw on the crushed garlic, and rub the oil/garlic mixture all over the tray.

4. Cut the baguette into 1cm (⅓”) thick slices. These will be much prettier if you cut them on a diagonal, instead of straight.

5. Put the bread slices onto the baking sheet, shake them around slightly, and then turn them over so that both sides are lightly coated with the oil/garlic.

6. Bake the croutons in the oven for about 20 minutes, until they are crunchy and crispy.

Make the soup

1. Very thinly slice the onions, and crush the garlic.

2. Melt the oil and butter together in a thick bottomed pan.

3. When the oil/butter mix is very hot, add the onions, garlic and sugar all together.

4. Cook for about 6 minutes, turning them over occasionally, until the edges of the onions have turned dark.

5. Turn the heat down as low as it will go, and then leave the onions to cook slowly for about half an hour. When they are done, the bottom of the pan should be covered in a caramelised film which will be a nutty brown colour.

6. Pour in the chicken stock, wine, vodka and Pernod, season with salt and black pepper and use a wooden spoon or spatula to scrape the caramelised onion from the bottom of the pan.
   Turn the heat up stir occasionally while you bring the soup up to simmering point.

7. Turn the heat back down as low as you can get it and leave the soup to cook really gently, uncovered, for about an hour.

Assemble and serve

1. 10 minutes before the soup has finished cooking, pop the bowls or tureen that you are going to serve it in, into the oven on a very low heat to warm up.

2. While the bowls are heating, grate the cheese.

3. Take the bowls out of the oven, and turn the grill onto the highest heat

4. Check and adjust the seasoning, and transfer the soup to your pre-warmed bowls or tureen.

5. Float the croutons on top of the soup (as few or as many as you like), and sprinkle the cheese thickly over the croutons.

6. Put the soup under the grill until the cheese turns golden brown and is bubbling.

I know that people say you shouldn’t have wine with soup, but in my opinion this tastes great served with the half a bottle of wine that you have left over from making it.

Ok, so this bit is Moroccan

Anyway, I’ve made quite a lot of changes to the book recipe, and now it has absolutely nothing to do with Morocco at all, apart from the inclusion of dates and orange flower water, which are both hugely popular and cheap there.

Wherever it is from and whatever you want to call it aren’t really important anyway, what is important are what it is, and how it tastes.

It’s a simple salad of lambs lettuce, with carrot, orange, dates and almonds, all enveloped in a lovely citrusy dressing.

It tastes orangey and summery, and datey and yummy. Somehow it tastes even better when eaten al fresco and washed down with a nice cold bottle of rosé.

Notes on ingredients

Choose good juicy oranges, they should be firm to the touch and feel heavy for their size. If you want to sexy it up a bit, then you can always use blood oranges for the visual contrast between the green of the lambs lettuce and the intense red flesh.

If you can’t get hold of orange flower water, then don’t worry about it, just use half the amount of freshly squeezed orange juice in your dressing instead. It’s not the same, but it still tastes fantastic.

The recipe

1. Toast the almonds in a thick bottomed pan. Keep them moving around so that they don’t burn, and tip them out when they have turned a nice golden brown colour on all sides. Let them cool slightly, and then slice them.

2. Wash the lambs lettuce, drain well and put it into a large salad bowl.

3. Peel and segment the oranges, and set them aside.

4. Stone the dates, cut each one into 6 pieces, and set aside.

5. Combine the lemon juice, orange flower water, olive oil, sugar and salt in a cup or small bowl, and mix well.

6. Toss the lambs lettuce well in half of the dressing and transfer it to a clean bowl.

7. Grate the carrot over the lettuce.

8. Arrange the orange segments and dates on top of the salad.

9. Pour the remaining dressing over the salad.

10. Sprinkle the toasted almonds over the top.

11. Chill for about 10 minutes to give all of the flavours time to combine, but not too long or the leaves will go all soggy.

]]> http://johnonfood.com/recipes/not-moroccan-salad/feed/ 0 http://johnonfood.com/recipes/3x3-cake/ http://johnonfood.com/recipes/3x3-cake/#comments Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:33:31 +0000 John http://johnonfood.com/?p=805


Get yer plums out.


It’s a bit of an oddly named thing, the 3×3 cake, but I couldn’t think of anything better at the time.

The name comes from the recipe itself, and if we were being pedantic, then it should be called the 3×300 cake, but we aren’t, so it isn’t.

It’s equal parts sugar, flour and fat, with the addition of some eggs, all mixed together in one bowl and then thrown into the oven with some fruit on the top. So, not only does it taste great, but it is also quick, easy and doesn’t leave much washing up.

It’s a cake for all seasons. In the summer leave it to cool, and eat it at room temperature with a fruity white wine. In the winter, eat it straight from the oven with a nice cup of tea.

Fruit

You could really use any fruit for this cake, as long as it isn’t too soft, so plums, apricots, apples, pears, etc. are in, and berries are out. Pick whatever firm fruit is in season at the time you are making it, and then adjust the amount of sugar that you sprinkle on at the end, to fit the tartness of the fruit.

We normally make it with plums, but we’ve also tried it with apricots and apples, and they both work well. If you are using plums or something of a similar size, then cut them in half and remove the stones from the middle, if you are using apples, then core them and cut them into wedges.

The recipe

Ingredients

• 300g plain flour
• 300g sugar
• 300g margarine
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp baking powder
• Fruit (see notes)
• Sugar (for sprinkling)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, and prepare the baking tin by greasing it with butter and sprinkling with breadcrumbs.

2. Cut the margarine into cubes, sift the flour, and combine them with the other ingredients in a large bowl.

3. Pour the mixture into your prepared baking tin.

4. Cut and deseed the fruit, and lay the pieces on top of the cake mixture, with the cut sides facing upwards.

5. Sprinkle with sugar (the amount depends on the tartness of the fruit you are using).

6. Bake for about 40 minutes

Fiddle with it

Because it is so simple, both in execution and in flavours, this recipe is a perfect base to play around with.

Try adding cinnamon or other spices when you sprinkle the sugar over the fruit before baking, or maybe adding some vanilla to the base. Try different combinations of fruits as well, as long as they aren’t too soft, it really is hard to go wrong.

]]> http://johnonfood.com/recipes/3x3-cake/feed/ 2 http://johnonfood.com/recipes/aubergine-caviar/ http://johnonfood.com/recipes/aubergine-caviar/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:00:38 +0000 John http://johnonfood.com/?p=729

It's not fishy at all.

It’s not fishy at all, and actually it’s not very much like caviar in any other way (which some people might think is a good thing), but it is a fantastic way to get the very most flavour possible out of an aubergine.

The name comes from the texture, which is vaguely caviarish, and probably would have been much more so in the past when aubergines were much seedier than they are today. It really doesn’t look all that attractive, but the taste and the texture more than make up for it.

I actually have no idea what the origin of this dish is. The first time that I saw it was from a Gordon Ramsay recipe, but I’ve made a hell of a lot of it since then. It’s easy and flexible, you can vary the amount of garlic, oil and herbs to your own taste, and it’s pretty difficult to not get a great result.

Probably the best thing of all about this aubergine caviar is that it’s really versatile. It’s great served hot, warm or cold. You could put it in little canapés, or just serve it in a big bowl with plenty of fresh crusty bread or breadsticks to dip in it.

and the recipe goes like…

Ingredients

• 2 medium aubergines
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp rock salt
• Few sprigs of thyme and rosemary
• Olive oil, to drizzle
• 150ml sour cream
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Small bunch of coriander
• 1 lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.

2. Cut the aubergines in half lengthways, and score a diamond pattern into the flesh with the point of your knife. Take care not to cut deep and go through the skin of the aubergine.

3. Peel the garlic cloves and cut each one in halves. Rub one piece of garlic thoroughly over the surface of each half aubergine.

4. Push sprigs of thyme and rosemary into the cuts in the aubergine flesh. Rosemary on one half of each aubergine, and thyme on the other half.

5. Drizzle olive oil over each half, and sprinkle with salt, then sandwich each aubergine back together, and wrap it tightly in foil. Twist the foil tightly up at each end of the aubergines, like a Christmas cracker.

6. Put the foil wrapped aubergines into the preheated oven and bake them for about 35 minutes, then take them out and allow them to cool slightly.

7. Unwrap the aubergines, take out the sprigs of herbs and throw them away. Scrape all of the flesh out of the skins onto a chopping board, and throw the skins away.

8. Finely chop the flesh until you are left with a coarse paste. Don’t worry about the fact that this doesn’t look very appetising, it is going to taste fantastic.

9. Heat a little bit of olive oil in a saucepan, and then add the aubergine paste. Cook it over a high heat for about 30 seconds, stirring it all of the time, until you can see that the juices evaporate and the pulp thickens.

10. Take it off of the heat, and stir in the coriander and sour cream, add a good squeeze of lemon, and transfer it into a bowl.

Eat it hot, leave it to cool, or if lasts that long you can even keep it in the fridge for a day or two.

]]> http://johnonfood.com/recipes/aubergine-caviar/feed/ 0 http://johnonfood.com/recipes/pa-amb-tomaquet/ http://johnonfood.com/recipes/pa-amb-tomaquet/#comments Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:20:54 +0000 John http://johnonfood.com/?p=690

Tomàquet

For everyone (like me) who doesn’t speak Catalan, here is a translation:

Pa amb tomàquet = Bread with tomato

Now there are two very important things to bear in mind, the first is that this is soooooo much better than the name implies that it is going to be, and the second is that this is NOT just a Spanish/Catalan version of bruschetta.

The Catalan national dish

Pa amb tomàquet embodies everything that is great in Mediterranean food. Crispy bread, pungent garlic, beautiful sun ripened tomatoes, sea salt, and bewitchingly good olive oil.

Catalans eat pa amb tomàquet morning, noon, and night, and it is beloved that many people refer to it as the Catalan national dish. It can be breakfast, lunch, supper, a snack for children coming home from school, or as tapas at any moment of the day.

It could be eaten on its own, but is more often served with cured sausages, cold meats, anchovies, cheeses, or grilled vegetables.

It’s fantastically simple and shockingly good!

Notes on ingredients

This isn’t really cooking, this is just combining fantastic ingredients and letting magic happen, so the ingredients have to be the best they can be.

The bread should be white and rustic, denser and chewier than a French baguette.

Your tomatoes don’t have to be from the Mediterranean, and in fact unless you live there they really shouldn’t be. They should be locally grown, ideally ripened on the vine, and as ripe and juicy as you can get them.

You can use whatever good quality extra virgin olive oil you like, Spanish is obviously traditional, but that doesn’t mean you have to use it.

Now, the Mediterranean countries do produce some very good sea salts, but my favourite to use for this dish is actually Maldon salt from England.

The recipe (if you can call it that)

Ingredients

• Bread
• Garlic
• Tomatoes
• Olive oil
• Salt

As with so many great dishes, the recipe is ludicrously simple.

1. Lightly toast a thick slice of bread on both sides. Ideally do it over a wood fuelled fire, but since most of us don’t have one handy most of the time, a grill or a toaster will do just fine.

2. Cut a clove of garlic in half and rub it all over the surface of the bread.

3. Cut a ripe tomato in half, and rub the cut side into the bread, so that all of the juice and pulp of the tomato is left on the bread, and you end up with just the skin in your hand.

4. Drizzle a good amount of olive oil over the tomatoey bread.

5. Sprinkle on some rough sea salt (to taste).

That’s it, sit back with a glass of cava and eat it while it is still warm.

]]> http://johnonfood.com/recipes/pa-amb-tomaquet/feed/ 0 http://johnonfood.com/recipes/cheeseonsticks/ http://johnonfood.com/recipes/cheeseonsticks/#comments Sat, 30 May 2009 11:57:56 +0000 John http://johnonfood.com/?p=641

Ready for cheese and ???

Is there anyone out there who has never eaten cheese and pineapple on a stick?

They are a staple of both adults and kids parties everywhere.

Whether you serve them just standing up on their ends, or stuck into a foil covered potato to make the ubiquitous ‘hedgehog’, everyone will think they are tragically tacky, but that won’t stop them from eating their own body weight in them.

Reinvention

Of course there is nothing wrong with good old fashioned chunks of cheddar with chunks of pineapple, but sometimes it’s good to have a change

First off, you could just add something extra to your cheese/pineapple combo. You might like to add a small picked onion, or a cocktail cherry, or a cherry tomato.

Sometimes though, you want to go even further than that, and just say ‘bugger tradition’. Be bold, keep the stick, but change the cheese to a different variety, and drop the pineapple completely. There are an almost endless range of possibilities, but here are a few ideas for reinventing this fiesta classic.

Suggestions

Mahon and membrillo

Mahon is a classic Spanish cheese, so why not pair it up with something else hugely spanish. Membrillo (quince paste) is hugely popular in Spain, and you can buy it pretty easily in the rest of Europe as well.

Membrillo can be quite sweet, so in order not to overpower the cheese, make your cheese cubes double the size of your membrillo ones. Also, be careful to pick a paste that is thicker and more jelly like, so that you can cut it.

Parmigiano and sundried tomato

A nice firm chunk or Parmigiano Reggiano (or other similar hard cheese), skewered together with a sundried tomato not only looks great, but gives you a taste explosion as your teeth hit it.

Gorgonzola and pear

It’s a classic combination, gorgonzola or something similar just works with pear, the flavours fit together like pieces of a jigsaw, and it makes you smile as you pop it into your mouth.

Wensleydale and apricot

Dried apricots will work the best for this, simply because they are easier to work with and because they won’t leak juice all over the cheese and make the whole thing messy and soggy.

A nice cube of wenslydale with half a dried apricot makes a very summery feeling cheese on a stick.

Goats cheese and bacon

Little pieces of very crisp bacon sharing a stick with a nice firm goats cheese. Yum!

There is really nothing else to say about it, the ration of bacon/cheese will depend on the intensity of the goats cheese and the saltiness of the bacon. You will have to have a play around with it.

Stilton and port jelly

I love stilton, especially when it is good and ripe and smells like my old socks.

If you can find a port jelly in the shop then that’s great, if not you can easily make one with nothing more than port and gelatine.

Or, you could always do stilton and apple.

]]> http://johnonfood.com/recipes/cheeseonsticks/feed/ 0 http://johnonfood.com/recipes/ms-lazy-chlodnik/ http://johnonfood.com/recipes/ms-lazy-chlodnik/#comments Thu, 14 May 2009 22:40:01 +0000 John http://johnonfood.com/?p=585


It's a reddish radish


Tradition is good, and sometimes recipes are classic and should be left alone.

The rest of the time though, we can take a recipe and play around with it a bit, because we do or don’t like one ingredient, to alter the taste in some direction, or just because we are feeling lazy and want something quicker and easier than the original.

This recipe fits in a couple of those categories, it’s enough of a departure from the original to have a distinctly different and unique flavour, and it is also quick and easy enough to be perfect for people who are feeling lazy.

Chłodwhat?

For any of you who might not be well versed in Polish cuisine, chłodnik is a cold soup traditionally made of cream, radishes, cucumber, dill, beetroot and veal.

It’s a cold pink soup, but in spite of that it’s actually really pretty good.

We had it served as the first course at our wedding, for double joy. First there was the fact that it tasted delicious, and secondly there was the fun of watching all of the non Poles present try to decide what the hell it was and what to do with it.

M’s lazy version

So, in order to make this as quick and easy as possible, here is what we are going to do.

We are going to bugger tradtion, omit the veal, leave out the beetroot, not cook anything, and sit back and have a nice Polish wódka while we are waiting for the flavours to develop.

Notes on ingredients

Since this is a lazy version of chłodnik, it would be kind of self defeating if you then had to go and hunt out overly specific ingredients. For this reason, there are plenty of possible substitutions here.

This recipe calls for kefir, but if you don’t have and/or can’t find kefir, then you can use buttermilk.

To thicken the mixture we are using natural yoghurt, but you could also use either sour cream or a thick fresh cream. If you are using something low in fat, then it is a good idea to throw a spoonful of olive oil into the mixture.

If you don’t have chives, you can use finely chopped spring onions (scallions if you are in North America) in their place.

The recipe

Ingredients

• 500ml Kefir
• 125ml Natural yoghurt
• Dash of lemon juice
• 1 Large cucumber
• Bunch of radishes
• 3 Ripe tomatoes
• 2 Cloves garlic
• A large bunch dill
• Bunch chives
• 1 teaspoon white sugar

1. Throw all of the liquid ingredients into a bowl, and mix them together.

2. Finely chop the radishes and cucumber (you want these as thin as possible – use a mandolin if you have one).

3. Dice the tomatoes into pieces about half a centimetre square.

4. Press (or crush and finely chop) the garlic.

5. Roughly chop the dill and chives.

6. Throw everything into the bowl with the liquids, season with salt and black pepper, and mix together.

7. Leave it in the fridge to cool for a minimum of 2 hours and preferably overnight.

It should be slightly sour with just the tiniest hint of sweetness. Take it out of the fridge for a few minutes before eating, and enjoy it outside on a hot sunny day.

You could…

… finely grate half of an in season beetroot, and add it to the chłodnik for a funky pink colour (both the soup and your wee after eating it).

]]> http://johnonfood.com/recipes/ms-lazy-chlodnik/feed/ 0 http://johnonfood.com/recipes/french-onion-soup/ http://johnonfood.com/recipes/french-onion-soup/#comments Thu, 14 May 2009 18:48:34 +0000 John http://johnonfood.com/?p=573

Stop me and buy one!

It’s almost summer, and things like asparagus, beautiful cherries, and new potatoes are in season. It should be the time for light food and chilled white wine, but the weather today isn’t really inclined that way at all.

It’s weather for staying indoors, for hearty red wines, and for the sort of comforting food that warms you up and hugs you inside. The perfect weather for a rich French onion soup.

Most people would recognise this dish by the name French onion soup, but both the Spanish and the Italians have traditional onion soup recipes that are practically identical, these are traditional peasant dishes, with nothing fancy or complex about them.

Onion soups are rich and deep in flavour with the sweet caramelised onions, combining with the richness of the beef stock and the wine to make them homely and heartwarming. Pay a little attention to the ingredients that you use, don’t burn it, and you will find it difficult to find many dishes that will be as satisfying and put a smile on your face like this one.

Notes on ingredients

It might be called onion soup, but the most important ingredients are the beef stock and the wine.

Always use the best stock that you can get your hands on, because this is where most of the flavour in the soup comes from. You can either use stock that you have made yourself, or you could buy the stock. If you are buying it then try to get a packet of fresh stock from your local butcher, rather than stock cubes.

I have made this soup once with a vegetable stock, when we had a vegetarian guest. It was ‘nice’, but that’s about the best that I can say about it, it lacked all of the heart and warmth of the beefy version.

The wine doesn’t have to be expensive, the most important thing is that it is dry. The sugar and the caramelised onion carry a lot of sweetness, and you need a dry wine to offset this. Traditionally it should be French of course, but don’t worry about that, just try to pick something quite robust and not too fruity. If you don’t have cognac don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be in there, but I do think it adds a lot and gives an extra warming layer to the soup.

The cheese on the croutons should be gruyère. Apart from the taste, the main reason for this is the way that it melts. If for any reason you can’t get gruyère then look for a cheese that is not too intense in taste, and that will melt and brown nicely under the grill.

The recipe

Ingredients

• 700g Onions
• 2 tablespoons Olive oil
• 50g Butter
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1.2 litres beef stock
• 275ml dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons Cognac

For croutons

• 1 Baguette
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 225g Gruyère

Make the croutons

1. Heat the oven to 180°C.

2. Crush the garlic.

3. Drizzle olive oil onto a good (not all bendy) baking tray, throw on the crushed garlic, and rub the oil/garlic mixture all over the tray.

4. Cut the baguette into 1.5cm (⅔”) thick slices. These will be much prettier if you cut them on a diagonal, instead of straight.

5. Put the bread slices onto the baking sheet, shake them around slightly, and then turn them over so that both sides are lightly coated with the oil/garlic.

6. Bake the croutons in the oven for about 20-25 minutes, until they are crunchy and crispy.

Make the soup

1. Thinly slice the onions, and crush the garlic.

2. Melt the oil and butter together in a thick bottomed pan.

3. When the oil/butter mix is very hot, add the onions, garlic and sugar all together.

4. Cook for about 6 minutes, turning them over occasionally, until the edges of the onions have turned dark.

5. Turn the heat down as low as it will go, and then leave the onions to cook slowly for about half an hour. When they are done, the bottom of the pan should be covered in a caramelised film which will be a nutty brown colour.

6. Pour in the beef stock, wine and cognac, season with salt and black pepper and use a wooden spoon or spatula to scrape the caramelised onion from the bottom of the pan.
   Turn the heat up stir occasionally while you bring the soup up to simmering point.

7. Turn the heat back down as low as you can get it and leave the soup to cook really gently, uncovered, for about an hour.

Assemble and serve

1. 10 minutes before the soup has finished cooking, pop the bowls or tureen that you are going to serve it in, into the oven on a very low heat to warm up.

2. While the bowls are heating, grate the gruyère.

3. Take the bowls out of the oven, and turn the grill onto the highest heat

4. Check and adjust the seasoning, and transfer the soup to your pre-warmed bowls or tureen.

5. Float the croutons on top of the soup (as few or as many as you like), and sprinkle the cheese thickly over the croutons.

6. Put the soup under the grill until the cheese turns golden brown and is bubbling.

Serve it immediately, but be careful when you eat it because it one of those things that hold their heat like the surface of the sun.

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