Eggs Baked in Tomatoes with Prosciutto and Basil Puree

I have been meaning to make this dish for a few weeks now, but had not found the time for a leisurely Sunday morning where I could afford to try it out and take the time to appreciate the result. This morning, the timing was just right: I had a couple tomatoes just asking to be cooked, and Oliver and I were both in the mood for a nice breakfast. I really enjoy making dishes like these that are hearty, fairly easy and fail-safe and that look and feel so deliciously rustic. I've taken a liking to serving food in my cast iron at the dinner table, and this would a great opportunity to do just that.

I got this recipe from Delicious magazine and slightly adapted it. It was truly one of the best meals I've had in the past few months. The salty prosciutto gets crispy in the oven, the tomato flavor intensifies, the basil smells wonderfully fragrant and the egg yolk breaks as soon as you dig in. Need I say more?

Recipe (for 2)
2 large tomatoes
A handful of basil
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and Freshly ground pepper
2 slices of prosciutto
2 eggs, at room temperature

Preheat your oven to 350F. Cut the top of the tomatoes with a sharp knife and gently scoop out the seeds and juices with a spoon. Lay them upside down on a couple sheet of paper towels to soak up extra moistness. In the meantime, using a mortar and pestle, smash the basil until it forms a paste. Add a pinch of salt, and drizzle a little olive oil to loosen the basil. Add some black pepper. Check that the tomatoes are dry inside, and dab the inside with an extra paper towel. Wrap a slice of prosciutto around the tomato, and, using a toothpick, seal both ends so they fit snugly around the tomato. Smear some of the basil paste inside the tomato.

Drizzle a little olive oil in a cast iron and lay the tomatoes in the pan. Cook for 15 minutes. Gently add the egg inside of each tomato and cook for another 8-10 minutes or until the egg is cooked to your liking. Remove the toothpicks and add a little salt and black pepper. Enjoy!

There's No Place Like Home

These past two weeks have been pretty hectic. Christmas is coming up, the booze is flowing, and everyone seems to be in a partying kind of mood. I feel like I've been either drunk or hungover this past fortnight and December is going to be even more manic, what with work parties and a trip to Berlin approaching. So, this weekend I gladly took myself off to the country (well, Surrey) to see Mum and Pops.

I've never lived in their current abode save for a week last Christmas, but it still feels like home. One question asked frequently by my family cropped up again: "What shall we eat?" It didn't take long for me to request something fishy and nothing to do with pasta; as much as I love it, I seem to have existed on pasta for a week now.

This is my dad's recipe, but as I was lurking around the kitchen I managed to get a glimpse of what was going on.

Spanish Seafood Stew

For 4

4 fillets of white fish (we used tilapia)

A handful of raw tiger prawns, deveined

2 tubes of squid and tentacles, cleaned and sliced into large pieces

1 tail of monkfish, deboned and chopped into large pieces

8 scallops, roe attached

6 tomatoes, deskinned and chopped

1 large onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 head of fennel, chopped roughly

1 green chilli, sliced finely

1 Romano pepper, cut into large chunks

Pinch of saffron

1 tsp hot paprika

A glass of white wine

Large handful of curly parsley, chopped finely

In a large saucepan, fry the onion until translucent. Add the garlic and the green chilli and sweat gently. Then add the fennel and fry until it's softened, and then add the Romano pepper and the chopped tomatoes. Add the white wine, bring to the boil, and then turn it down to a simmer until all the tomatoes have broken down into a thick sauce. Add the saffron and the paprika. Add about 200mls of boiling water. Add the monkfish and keep on a low heat. Meanwhile, dredge the white fish fillets in a little seasoned flour and pan fry in some vegetable oil until cooked. Add to the serving bowls. Then fry the scallops on a high heat in a clean pan, ready to place on top of the stew. Turn the heat up on the stew and add the prawns, and then the squid. When the prawns have turned pink, take off the heat and add the parsley.

To serve, ladle the stew over the white fish fillets, and then add a couple of scallops per person on top. Serve with some fresh bread to mop up the juices.

It was a very decadent dish, what with the monkfish and scallops not being the cheapest of seafood. It was a great mixture of textures, from the slightly crunchy squid tentacles to the soft scallops. The saffron really brought out the flavour of the fish, the paprika gave it a spicy hit, and the parsley, always a great match with fish, freshened it nicely. It's surprisingly rich; we were stuffed afterwards, but not in a heavy, stodgy way. I'm wondering if I can move back home...

Caramel Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting

Let me preface this by saying that I am a little uneasy with making caramel. Most people are quite aware of how dangerous caramel can be but I really learned the hard way. Let me set the scene. I am making 'creme caramel' at culinary school, and am at the stage where you melt the sugar, turn it into amber caramel and pour the liquid into the bottom of ramekins that will then be filled with custard. In an effort to get a perfectly even layer of caramel, my finger slipped in the boiling hot caramel.. and I lost more skin that I ever thought possible. The whole class stared, I had to be sat down (I was pale and livid and it seemed that I might pass out).. and was obliged to wear a 'finger condom' for the next couple weeks. Restaurant kitchens all have a stack of these tiny little finger condoms (they are literally minuscule latex tubes meant to fit your finger)that cooks wear when they hurt themselves to make sure that they don't infect the food. It's not exactly the most flattering accessory and a clear (and visible!) reminder that you did something wrong. That was by far the worst injury I ever experienced while cooking and probably the most pain I've ever been in!

However, my love for cooking and trying new things has always forced me to go beyond my fears, and when I saw this month's Daring Bakers challenge from Shuna Fish Lydon , I knew it was a great time to face the (delicious)caramel monster again. I had already made caramel a couple weeks ago to accompany a pear clafoutis, and everything had gone smoothly..so why not with this cake? Oliver helped me in the kitchen for this one, and he insisted that he would pour the water in the amber-colored sugar to finish off the mixture. I felt like I was standing in the lab of a mad scientist for a couple seconds, as the sugar started to bubble furiously, the pot fumed to the ceiling, and Oliver jumped back with a somewhat shaky empty glass.

The rest of the cake was easy to make, so easy in fact that I was worried it might taste quite ordinary. Quite to the contrary, the cake was moist, rich in caramel flavor combined with a subtle mix of sweet and salty.

Recipe (found here)
10 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 Cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 Cup Caramel Syrup (see recipe below)
2 eggs, at room temperature
splash vanilla extract
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter one tall (2 – 2.5 inch deep) 9-inch cake pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.

Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup (recipe found below) into the bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.

Sift flour and baking powder.

Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}

Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Turn batter into prepared cake pan.

Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it.

The cake will keep for three days outside of the refrigerator.

Caramel Syrup
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup water (to "stop" the caramelization process)

In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.

When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back.

Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}

Note: For safety reasons, have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.

Caramelized Butter Frosting

12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound confectioner’s sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup
Kosher or sea salt to taste

Cook butter until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.

Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add confectioner's sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioner's sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.

Good Oil For Good Health

I was recently invited to a dinner party held by Glynis Murray and Henry Braham. They wanted to tell us about their product, Good Oil, that is made with hemp seeds. Intruiged, off I went to Westbourne Park. We were very well looked after indeed; they have an admirable story of years of struggle to get their product launched from using this sustainable and ethically sound crop. The dinner menu, cooked by their talented son Ben, was all made to showcase the oil.

When I think of hemp oil it brings to mind crusty old hippies, and visiting dodgy shops full of 'ornamental' bongs, the heady scent of incense, and horrible shoulder bags made of hemp. I cast this out of my mind when we tried the starter, a pea and pecorino crostini. You could really taste the oil in this, as it made it taste a lot more earthy and lent a nuttiness to it. Venison and cranberry casserole followed with a great mash potato, but for me the best way for using the oil was drizzling it over vanilla ice cream. Don't ask me how it worked, but it most certainly did.

So, armed with a bottle I decided to give it a go for myself. Special oils seem to work well on pasta dishes, as the pasta works well as a bland background for you to dress.

Good Oil Spaghetti & Rocket

For 1

100gr dried spaghetti or linguine

50gr cured pork product - chorizo, bacon or spicy salami works well

1 handful of washed rocket

1 clove of garlic

Squeeze of lemon juice

1 tbsp Good Oil

Parmesan

Cook the spaghetti until al dente. Meanwhile, in a dry, non stick frying pan, fry the pork on a low heat with the clove of garlic, cut in half. When the pork has released some fat (or has cooked, if it's bacon) remove the garlic and discard it. Once the spaghetti has cooked, add this to the frying pan along with the oil, rocket and lemon juice. Toss well, sling it on a plate, and top with plenty of Parmesan and lots of black pepper.

So perhaps cured pork products aren't particularly healthy, but Good Oil is. Not only does it contain half the saturated fat of olive oil, it also has a higher content of Omega 3, 6 and 9 than any other oils. Out with the old (olive oil) and in with the new.

Classic Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know, you've probably seen a zillion chocolate chip cookie posts on a zillion different food blogs, so why should you care? Well, maybe because I've tested a lot of them. Maybe because sometimes you want a moist and soft chocolate chip cookie and you end up with a hard crackling cookie and you just don't know where the recipe failed you! First, let me share a little secret. I have a newfound love for chocolate shards. I always used to use chocolate chips to make cookies until one day, I found myself out of them. I used a good quality chocolate bar instead, and coarsely chopped pieces of dark goodness that I then folded into my batter. I've been making cookies like this ever since. Sure it takes a couple extra minutes to chop the chocolate, but the end result is a cookie where some pieces are melted and gooey and others are just specks of dark chocolate seeping throughout the dough.

Now for a good, reliable recipe. This one really did the trick. It's a recipe from the Martha Stewart Cookie book and the batter is the best cookie batter I've had yet. It's fluffy, sweet, but not too sweet and absolutely delicious. Should I confess that a few of these cookies-to-be were eaten raw? The cookies were delicious - so good in fact that we had to give them away because the pile of them was mysteriously getting smaller during the course of the day.

Recipe (makes about 3 dozens)
2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1 cup of light brown sugar
1 teaspoon of coarse salt
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups of bittersweet chocolate shards (about 12 ounces)

Preheat your oven to 350F. Whisk together the flour and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter and sugars. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy for 2-3 minutes. Reduce to low speed and add the salt, vanilla and eggs. Mix until just incorporated. Mix in the flour mixture. Fold in the chocolate.

Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Leave a 2 inch space between each. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until the edges turn golden but the centers are still soft, 10 to 12 minutes. Let them cool on cooling racks. The cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Herb Frittata with Feta, Green Onions and Arugula

We had some of our friends over for brunch Sunday morning."Why don't we make them poached eggs?" Oliver asked seconds after we were brainstorming brunch ideas. Oliver has a sort of obsession with poached eggs and has spent weeks (or is it months?) perfecting his poaching skills. But, true to habit, we still went browsing through our ever-growing cookbook collection when we stopped on one of Jamie Oliver's recipes for a shrimp frittata. I had made it a few months ago and I remembered it being easy and delicious. "Maybe we should make a version of this instead? It would be easier to prepare beforehand, don't you think?". Oliver didn't look entirely convinced, but as soon as I suggested a mix of herbs, feta and green onions topped with market fresh arugula, he was sold.

The thing is, when you have guests over, there is nothing more annoying than having to run back and forth to the kitchen. Don't get me wrong, getting your guests in the kitchen to all cook together is on the top of my list of great entertaining, but sometimes it's just not what you want. Frittata made our brunch preparations a breeze. I had everything ready in a bowl and just popped my cast iron into the oven as my guests were coming in, and 5 minutes later - literally - it was on the table, warm and rustically served in the cast iron. I also made a batch of chocolate and candied orange muffins the day before, our guests brought a lovely fruit, coffee and hot chocolate, and we were set.

Recipe (for 4)
8 eggs at room temperature
1 tablespoon of finely chopped parsley
1/2 tablespoon of chopped chives
1/4 teaspoon of dried oregano
1/2 lemon zest
1/4 cup of crumbled feta
3 spring onions, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
A small handful of arugula
Extra virgin olive oil
Squirt of lemon juice

Preheat your oven to 400F. In bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the parsley, chives, dried oregano and lemon zest. Stir gently. Fold in the feta and green onion. Season with salt and pepper. Place a cast iron (or any oven-proof pan) on medium heat and add a good drizzle of olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add the egg mixture and stir with a wooden spoon for 1 minute. Place the cast iron in the oven and cook for 5 minutes or until the egg has set.
In a bowl, add the arugula. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Serve frittata in the cast iron, topped with the arugula.

Braised Pork Belly & Cucumber Salad

It snowed today, the first snow I've seen this winter. It was pretty horrible; grey, cold and it didn't settle. Happily enough, as it's proper rib-sticking stuff, I had some leftover braised pork belly to have, but as I've had a particularly unhealthy week I wanted something green to go with it.

I have made this Sichuan Cucumber Salad before, but once I'd peeled and chopped the cucumber up, I realised I was out of chilli bean sauce. I had a good ol' rummage around the fridge and instead came up with this recipe, which I think worked very well. It was spicy, sour and sweet at the same time.

Hot & Sour Cucumber Salad

Serves 3 as part of a main meal

1 cucumber, peeled, quartered lengthways and deseeded

1 handful of frozen peas

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 red chilli, deseeded and sliced finely

2 tsp rice vinegar

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp Hoi Sin sauce

1/2 tsp yellow bean paste

1 tsp ground Sichuan pepper

In a wok, heat up a little vegetable oil and fry the garlic and the Sichuan pepper. Add the peas and fry on a low heat until the peas are defrosted. Take off the heat and leave to cool. Slice the cucumber into 1" pieces and salt in a sieve for 5 - 10 mins to remove the moisture. Rinse and pat dry. In a bowl, add the Hoi Sin sauce, sugar, yellow bean paste, vinegar, sesame oil and chilli. Add the pea mixture and the cucumber and toss well. Leave for a few minutes to let the flavours mingle.

Pork belly is one of my favourite cuts of meat. The fat in the meat is crucial in making it tender and tasty, although I try and keep consumption of it down as I'm not sure it's particularly good for you. Still; it's cheap and tasty, as long as it's treated properly. Long, slow cooking is the best way to keep it succulent and tender.

Chinese five spice is traditionally used when braising or roasting meat and not for quick cooking. It's a pungent combination of star anise, cloves, Chinese cinnamon (cassia), Sichuan pepper and fennel. Many brands add salt to this mixture and it's entirely unnecessary, so I always look out for that in the ingredient list. The five spice lends a great depth to the pork. For the health conscious, cook it the day before and refridgerate it before thickening it with the cornflour and you should be able to skim some fat off. I don't bother.

Chinese Braised Pork Belly

Serves 3

600gr pork belly slices, cut into chunks. I leave the skin on, as I like the texture

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2" ginger, chopped finely

3 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine

1 heaped tsp of Chinese 5 spice powder

2 tsp dark soy sauce

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp of cornflour, mixed with 1 tbsp cold water

2 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal

Heat some oil in a wok, and brown the pork belly chunks thoroughly. Remove with a slotted spoon, and tip out the fat, reserving about 1 tbsp. Fry the ginger and garlic, then add the pork back in. Add the 5 spice, soy sauces and enough water to just cover the pork. Simmer gently with the lid on for about an hour, if not more, and thicken with the cornflour. Serve with rice, garnished with the spring onion.