Cream Palmiers

One thing that I love about food blogging is that it's not about me. It's not even about you . . . it's about the recipes and the food!



It's about being able to cook and taste some of the best and most indulgent foods ever . . . and exploring the culinary delights my adopted country has to offer me.




It's about stretching my skills . . . both in the kitchen and . . . behind the camera . . . and about making food that not only tastes delicious, but food that looks good.



It's about waking up every morning and making YOU believe that what I am presenting to you on this page is the absolute best thing ever . . .



and about making you want to go into your own kitchen and cook it for yourselves, because you have just got to taste it for real, and because I have inspired you to do it, and given you the confidence to believe that you can!



Your comments are like me winning the "X Factor of food" every day of my life, and I thank you for that. Here's to 2011. Let's begin as we mean to go on.



Cream Palmiers . . . tasty little bites of fluffy crisp buttery pastry, filled with a soft cloud of sweetened whipped cream and sticky sweet strawberry jam. Kind of like a de-constructed jam tart . . . with puff pastry . . . and CREAM. A delicious teatime treat.



The only down side is they all have to be eaten on the day they are filled . . . so NOT a problem!



*Cream Palmiers*
Makes 8
Printable Recipe

Absolutely delightful on the tea tray!

225g (1/2 pound) of all butter puff pastry
1 1/2 ounces granulated sugar (a scant 1/4 cup)
1 TBS icing sugar, sifted
400ml of double cream (1 3/4 cups)
a few drops of vanilla
2 TBS strawberry jam

Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Slightly dampen a baking tray. Set aside.

Dust the work surface with half of the sugar. Roll the pastry out on the sugared surface to a rectangle 10 by 12 inches in size. Sprinkle evenly with the remaining half of the sugar. Gently press the sugar in with a rolling pin. Starting at the short sides, roll the pastry towards the middle from both edges into the centre until they meet. Press together gently. Cut across the rolls into 16 slices. Place onto the baking tray. Press down to flatten slightly.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 18 minutes until crisp and golden, turning them over halfway through the baking time so that they caramelize equally on both sides. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Whip the cream along with the icing sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Sandwich together pairs of the palmiers with some of the whipped cream and some of the jam. Serve immediately.

Black Eyed Peas with Pork and Greens – Good Luck with This!

I love the New Year's day tradition of eating beans and greens to bring luck and prosperity. This video was posted a few years back, and features black-eyed peas, and not one, but three kinds of pork. How can that not bring good fortune?

This is a very old tradition, and I don't mean colonial America old, I mean really, really old. There are records of black-eyed peas being eaten for good luck on New Year's Day all the way back to ancient Babylonia. It must have worked, because look at all the good fortune that has befallen the middle east since then. Okay, maybe that's not the best example.

This video recipe is my variation on something called "Hoppin' John," which is black-eyed peas, rice, and pork stewed together, usually served with some kind of greens and cornbread. Speaking of which, I highly suggest clicking on my cornbread recipe video and doing this thing right.

I want to wish you all a Happy New Year! May your 2011 be filled with much happiness, and lots of new adventures. Stay safe, party hard, and as always, enjoy!



Ingredients:
1 pound black-eyed peas, soaked overnight
3 strips bacon, sliced in 1/2-inch pieces
1 pound pork neck bones
6 oz smoked ham, diced
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced carrot
3 cloves chopped garlic
6 cups water
1 (10-oz can) diced tomato with green chilis
1 tsp salt
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
cayenne to taste
1 tsp dried thyme
1 large bunch kale, leaves torn
cooked rice

The Year's Best for 2010

I've just spend several hours going through my archives trying to pick out some of my best recipes that I've cooked and presented to you over these past 12 months. It was a really hard job! I never put anything on here unless it is wonderfully scrumptiously tasty! It was really tough narrowing it down to just a dozen or so! There are ever so many more tasty recipes than just these ones I am showing you at the moment . . . you'll just have to dig around and hunt for them.

I think I just gained ten pounds just looking at these! Happy New Year to you all and all the best to you in the months to come! I'm looking forward to an even tastier 2011, and I hope you are too!!




Strawberry and Mint Scones - I am fairly certain that when you bite into one of these you will be in scone heaven. The dough is buttery and short, with just the faintest hint of mint throughout. The strawberry jam is like a sweet surprise in the centre and that lemon drizzle, well . . . it's just the perfect capper! Printable Recipe




Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon Icing - Now these dear friends . . . are totally moreish. I think it's the lemon glaze . . . that is, well . . . the icing on the cake! (Of course the preserved ginger in syrup on the top doesn't hurt either!!) Printable Recipe



Creamy Parsnip Soup with Ginger and Cardamom - I think the hazelnut/dried cranberry garnish on this soup makes it something really special. I really hope that you will try it. I just know you will love it as much as we do. And that, my friends, is quite an awful lot!!! Printable Recipe



Sticky Toffee Cake - This cake moreishly filled with dates with a scrummy toffee icing gilding the top is just to die for. You'll find yourself getting up in the middle of the night and raiding the larder for . . . just . . . one . . . more . . . piece. Printable Recipe.



Creamy Courgette Lasagna - A tasty vegetarian Lasagna filled with lovely courgettes, lots of cheese and a spicy sauce! Printable Recipe.



Lemon and Pistachio Cake - A lovely moist and buttery cake, filled with crunchy pistachios and lemon, and topped with lucious candied lemon and lime slices and of course, some more crunchily addictive pistachio nuts. (I love, LOVE pistachio nuts!) Printable Recipe.




Creamy Mustard, Sausage and Pasta Hot Dish - Imagine little meaty bites of a well flavoured sausage, in a creamy sauce filled with not one . . . but two tasty mustards, caramelized onions and cabbage, and a rustic homestyle pasta . . . perfectly shaped to hug and soak in all those lovely juices. Printable Recipe.



Bakewell Whoopie Pies - My attempt to create a truly "British" Whoopie Pie. What could shout out England more than the good old Bakewell Tart! These tasty little cakes have all the characteristics of a traditional Bakewell tart . . . an delicious cake batter, containing ground almonds . . . raspberry jam, the almond icing on top and the glace cherry. The only thing that is not traditional is that gorgeous whipped marshmallow filling. Printable Recipe.




Fudge Brownie Pie - A fudgy mouthful of rich moist chocolate brownie . . . stuffed with toasted pecans and then topped with oooey, goooey, sweet marshmallow . . . all smoothed over with a rich chocolate fudge frosting. Printable Recipe.



Tasty Tuna Baguettes - A fantastically delicious tuna baguette! Filled with lots of lovely flavours . . . lemon, onion, celery, mayo, sweet pickle, Dijon mustard . . . Perfect Picnic Food. Printable Recipe.




Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and Oat Bars - Deliciously oaty bars with a creamy peanut butter filling, and stogged full of rich chocolate chips and crunchy toasted walnuts. Printable Recipe.



Rice Pudding - Perfectly baked rice pudding . . . with creamy, milky, sweet rice beneath a scrummy golden buttery crust . . . a feast for the eyes, stomach and soul . . . Printable Recipe.



Beef Stew with Herbed Dumplings - The meat . . . fork tender and the gravy thick and rich and filled with deliciously simmered root vegetables . . . the dumplings . . . rich and meltingly tender on the insides . . . herbily soaking up that lucious gravy. Comfort food at it's very best. Printable Recipe.



Bakewell Scones - Yummy sweet seedless raspberry preserves, sandwiched between two scone layers made all buttery and flakey with marzipan and butter having been rubbed in . . . with a touch of flaked coconut (not traditional I know) for some added texture, and then topped with an egg wash and flaked almonds. Baked until scrummily flakey and crisp on the bottom and top and then drizzled with an almond glaze and topped with a glace cherry half. Printable Recipe.



Sticky Ginger and Orange Chops with a Parsnip, Potato and Mustard Mash - Deliciously sticky chops with a hint of warmth, atop a bed of luscious parsnip and potato mash. Scrumptious! A feast for the eyes and the stomach! Printable Recipe.



Christmas Pudding Trifle - Without a doubt, hands down . . . this has to be the most delicious Trifle ever! There is just enough Christmas Pudding in it to give you a gentle hint of spicy flavour, without it going over the top. I don't think any die hard Christmas Pudding hater would be assaulted by it in the least . . . don't even tell them it's there. They probably won't even notice what it is, and even if they do, they will forgive you because it is that delicious that they will wonder how they ever got by in life without it thus far! Printable Recipe.

Doing the Limbo

For me, this time between Christmas and New Years is the laziest week of the year. Many are off work, and those that aren't are probably doing a half-assed job anyway. Generally people are tired, distracted, and really not into any heavy thinking. This is exactly how I feel. 

Anyway, to help make up for this just-phoned-it-in post, I will say that I have so many exciting things planned for the new year, including a video on how to do your own sous vide steaks at home (my first test pictured here), using absolutely no special equipment. Spoiler alert: it was awesome. Stay tuned!

Top 10 Dishes of 2010

I like lists, especially when I get to look back on the nice things I ate. In no particular order, here are my top ten dishes that I ate in 2010 - some of them from restaurants, some of them my recipes.

Beef Rendang - so rich, so tasty.


Stuffed artichoke at The Magdalen Arms, Oxford - I kept meaning to recreate this but never got round to it, so it is now but a happy memory.

1.2kg bone-in ribeye at Hawksmoor, that I demolished in under 20 minutes as part of a bet. It still stands as the best steak I've had yet. It was bigger than my head.


Scallops with horseradish snow and kohlrabi, at The Ledbury. Pure joy.

Cheese souffle in double cream at Le Gavroche - unbelievably light and unbelievably decadent. Eating it was a happy memory.

I wailed when I found out that osso bucco was no longer on the menu at Polpetto, but its replacement, beef cheeks with polenta was a more than adequate substitute. How do they get their polenta so creamy? I love it.

Salted caramel butter. Holy shit, that was one sexy ice cream.

Cold udon with miso and walnut hot broth at Koya. I get weekly cravings for this and it's a favourite lunch spot.

Perhaps the most recent addition in that I ate it last night, but the Veal Holstein at Bob Bob Ricard truly is outstanding. The deeply savoury 'secret sauce' bursts out from underneath the breaded veal, lubricating the truffled mash.

The pork and century egg congee, from Hong Kong City, a few doors down from my flat. The pork is always gorgeously tender, and it's a life-saver having it so near; many a time I've staggered over in my pyjamas poorly concealed by an overcoat to get my restorative takeaway congee that soothes and nourishes.


So, they were my favourite dishes of 2010. And what about the worst?

That accolade can only go to Cantina Laredo's vomit-inducing chicken mole. Five months later and I am still traumatised.

Baked Potato and Leek Soup

Potato and Leek soup is a real favourite over here in the UK. Thick and creamy and filled with lovely leeks and potatoes. Filling and delicious.

I like to put my own spin on things though, and so today I made a baked potato and leek soup.



Lovely leeks, softened in lots of butter along with some garlic . . .
and then simmered in rich chicken stock. Blitzed with a whole baked potato until smooth and creamy . . .



Rich and tasty cheddar cheese is then stirred in to melt, along with some milk and sour cream. What could get any better . . .



Nothing . . . well, not unless you consider adding a topping of more grated cheddar cheese, some chopped spring onion and fried bacon . . .

Everything tastes better with bacon, does it not!!!!





*Baked Potato and Leek Soup*
Serves 4

A delicious version of the always popular leek and potato soup!

2 medium baking potatoes (about 8 ounces each)
4 TBS unsalted butter
2 medium leeks (white and light green parts) washed, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 fat cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pint of chicken stock (2 cups)
1 pint water (2 cups)
4 ounces milk (1/2 cup)
250ml of sour cream (1/2 cup)
4 thick slices of dry cure smoked streaky bacon, cut into 1/2 inch dice
4 ounces of strong cheddar cheese, grated
2 spring onions, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Wash the potatoes really well, pick with a fork in several places, and then place into the heated oven right on the rack and bake for about 1 hour, until tender. Let cool completely.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks and garlic. Cook ,stirring occasionally until softened, about 10 minutes. Season with some salt. Add the chicken stock and water. Simmer until the leeks are very tender, about 20 minutes.

While the leeks are cooking fry the bacon pieces in a skillet over medium heat, until crisp and browned. Drain well on paper towelling and set aside.

Cut one of the baked potatoes in half lengthwise and then into quarters. Remove the skin and chop it up. Set the potato flesh aside for later. Cut the remaining potato into chunks. Add this along with the skin of the other potato to the leeks. Puree the soup with an immersion (stick) blender until smooth. Whisk in the milk, sour cream and half of the cheese, whisking until the cheese is melted. Cut the potato flesh into 1/2 inch chunks and add to the soup. Taste and adjust seasoning as required with salt and pepper. Keep warm, but do not allow to boil.

Serve hot and ladled into heated bowls. Sprinkle with the remaining cheddar, some of the bacon bits and some spring onion.

When it Comes to Beef, I Usually Leave Wellington Alone

Photo (c) David Blaine's Flickr Photostream

I get lots of requests for Beef Wellington, especially around the holidays. In case you don't know, Beef Wellington is a whole tenderloin of beef, covered in foie gras pate, coated with a rich mushroom paste, wrapped in buttery puff pastry and baked to a golden brown. Sound good doesn't it? That's the problem.

The idea of Beef Wellington is amazing, and the aforementioned list of ingredients is spectacular together, but I've always considered the actual dish more of a risky showpiece than anything else.

I can sear a filet mignon steak, top it with mushrooms and foie gras, serve it on or near some perfectly baked puff pastry, et viola! That way I can control each component of the dish. When you take the same ingredients and try to perfectly cook them wrapped in puff pastry, you're adding significantly to the degree of difficulty.

Having said that, I'll admit it really does make an impressive special occasion dinner centerpiece. So, maybe I'll throw logic to the wind and try and film one soon. It won't be before New Years Eve, so to hold you over, here is the irrepressible Gordon Ramsey doing his Christmas version. Enjoy!

Wuli Wuli Now Do Takeaway

This will mean absolutely bugger all to you if you don't live in South East London, but for those who do, the excellent Sichuan place, Wuli Wuli in Camberwell now do takeaway and they deliver. Where the delivery boundaries lie I have no idea, but they delivered to us in Peckham Rye / East Dulwich borders.

We called them while pissed on mulled cider shouting things like "something porky! Spicy! Oh and some tripe!" and they came good. 35 minutes later, smacked cucumbers, twice-cooked pork, an aubergine dish, a cold tripe and ox tongue in chilli oil dish and some Northern-style chilli udon turned up. It came to a bargainous £27 and they even threw in some free prawn crackers and two bottles of Tsing Tao. They obviously knew our faces were going to be on fire, and on fire they were. Most pleasing.

Wuli Wuli

15 Camberwell Church Street
London SE5 8TR

Tel: 020 7708 5024

Peppermint Brownies

I love Brownies . . . all chocolatey and fudgy . . . I can't get enough of them. I also love the white version . . . called blondies. Filled with chocolate chunks, or nuts, they are moreishly scrumptiously good!



Sometimes though . . . I get to craving a brownie that's a little bit different . . . like brownies filled with caramel, or after dinner mints, or turkish delight thins . . . You've seen them all on here before.



No less scrummy or delicious than regular brownies.



Today though I made a fabulous brownie which is peppermint flavoured and topped with a yummy chocolate glaze and white chocolate trim!



It gets it's deep peppermint flavour from peppermint tea leaves, which you blitz with the sugar in the food processor until very fine and peppermint essence, which you can buy here. (It can be a bit hard to find over here in the UK, although I have no idea why?) You can also get it in some of the better grocery stores like Waitrose.



These brownies are wonderfully fudgy . . . beautifully pepperminty . . . and moreishly chocolatey!



If you can stop at eating just one of these . . . you're a much better person than I am!



*Peppermint Brownies*
Makes about 30, depending on how large you cut them
Printable Recipe

Delicious brownies that get even better tasting after a couple of days! Fantastic!

8 ounces of unsalted butter (1 cup)
8 ounces of good quality unsweetened chocolate
2 tsp peppermint tea leaves
14 ounces caster sugar (2 cups)
4 large free range eggs
2 tsp peppermint essence
pinch fine seasalt
4.5 ounces plain flour (1 cup)

For the chocolate glaze:
2 ounces unsalted butter (1/4 cup)
2 ounces good quality unsweetened chocolate
2 ounces semi sweet chocolate
2 TBS golden syrup

For the White chocolate trim:
2 ounces white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 9 by 13 inch baking tin and line with parchment paper, allowing it to overhang by at least 2 inches above the long sides so that you can lift them out easily once baked and cooled. Butter the parchment paper.

Heat 2 inch of water in a small pot to a gentle simmer. Place the chocolate (chopped) and butter (chopped) for the brownies into a heat proof bowl. Set over the simmering water without allowing the bottom of the bowl to touch the water. Cook and stir, until the butter and chocolate have melted and are uniform, some 6 to 7 minutes. Turn off the heat, but leave the bowl over the water.

Place the sugar and the peppermint tea in a food processor. Blitz until the tea is finely ground. Stir this mixture into the melted chocolate mixture. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then stir in the peppermint essence and salt. Sift the flour over top and then fold it in. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bang lightly on the counter to settle and then bake in the heated oven for 35 to 40 minutes until well set and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out almost clean. Allow to cool to room temperature in the pan, on top of a wire rack, before proceeding. Once cool, lift out by the paper handles and peel off the paper. Place onto a foil lined board, or tray.

To make the glaze bring the water in the pot back to a gentle simmer. Place both of the chocolates (chopped) along with the butter (chopped) into a bowl and set over the simmering water, again without allowing the bottom of the bowl to touch the water. Cook and stir until smooth and melted. Stir in the golden syrup. Spread the chocolate glaze over the brownies in an even layer using an offset spatula.

Place the whit chocolate in another bowl and set over the simmering water, stirring until completely melted. Drizzle the melted white chocolate over top of the chocolate glaze in lines. Run a toothpick the opposite way through the white chocolate lines to make a decorative pattern. Allow to set for several hours before cutting into squares to serve. Keep well covered and serve at room temperature.