Christmas Huts and Pasta

Jenny and I went to visit the Bath Christmas Market this year. It was a surprisingly British assault of the senses - politely queuing crowds, neat rows of wooden huts and a pervasive sweet, slightly spicy smell. This it transpired was one of the several stalls selling caramelised nuts, roasted in big round copper pans right there on the stalls. To further the culinary excitement hiding round the corner was a very friendly French man from near Lyons selling half a dozen types of saucisson from which we purchased a paprika saucisson - to be enjoyed over Christmas.

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New Houses, Autumn and Peanut Brittle

A lot of changes have happened since my last post. Since my birthday we have gone house hunting, bought one, moved in, done a whole load of d.i.y. and now are starting to settle. Autumn seems to have crept up on me and it is already showing signs of being over! Autumn is the time for lighting fires (our new house has a wood burning stove in the lounge!),  apples and burnt sugar. This week I have enjoyed all these things.
I have wanted to plant apple trees the moment we had our own house but deciding what varieties will be a challenge. Today was Chepstow's "Apple Day" so the wife and I went down to try the varieties on sale. It is very satisfying to now be sat looking at 4 different types of apple sat on our work surface awaiting further contemplation! Some culinary work will be needed to assess each apple. It may be a difficult week in the Hickson household - apple based puddings all week! All this in the hope that in a few years time we may be able to pick apples in the garden that we like. You can't get fewer food miles than that and hopefully they will be local varieties too.
I thought I would share this weeks burnt sugar recipe with you. By burnt sugar I mean caramelised sugar - if its actually burnt that is probably a step too far! My choice of burnt sugar recipe was inspired from a few hours in Stratford-upon-Avon. Whilst wandering the town we went past a sweet shop with great piles of peanut brittle in the window. Having spent our pennies (and most of our weeks calorie allowance) in Hobsons patisserie I decided to save peanut brittle for some home experimentation. A few batches later and a recipe has emerged. It turns out peanut brittle is rather easy to make so this will be a quick recipe!

Peanut Brittle

• 300g Sugar
• 60ml Water
• 200g Salted Peanuts

Grease a tray to set the brittle in.
Dissolve the sugar in the water over a gentle heat and once it is all dissolved turn the heat up and boil until a medium colour caramel is achieved. This should be about 160 degrees Celsius if you like temperatures but the colour is a better guide.
Remove from the heat and stir in the peanuts, quickly turning it out into the greased tray (adding cold peanuts makes this mixture go very stiff).
Once the mix has cooled, turn it out onto a chopping board and smack it with something hard to break it up. A rolling pin is my preferred weapon.

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Lemon Sorbet

One of my fondest memories of the Italian exchange (way back in my school days) was eating gelato with friends almost every day. If we were on a trip somewhere we would find a gelateria, and if we were spending a day in the local town, then there was a gelateria beside the river that we would all descend upon. Ever since then I have had a love of lemon sorbet.
I was delighted to discover how simple it is to make lemon sorbet - provided you have a few hours to interrupt regularly or an ice-cream machine! Alas this is one of the kitchen gadgets I lack so it was time to become well acquainted with our freezer!

Recipe:

• 200g sugar
• 350ml water
• 6 unwaxed lemons

Add the sugar to half the water until the sugar dissolvesr. Zest the lemons and juice. Mix everything together and chill. If you have an ice-cream machine use it now. For the rest of us, put all the ingredients in a glass bowl and sit it in the freezer. Once it starts to freeze stir it every 15 minutes. If it seems a bit coarse blend it until smooth again. And you're done!

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Salmon Gravlax with Sourdough

Jenny and I first encountered gravlax whilst on honeymoon in Scotland. We decided to treat ourselves to dinner out at a nice pub and, being near Aviemore, wound up at The Old Bridge Inn. Being  indecisive we got a starter to share and, having never had gravlax, we decided to try it. Having thoroughly enjoyed our dinner I wanted to learn more about how it was made. The finished dish is rather akin to smoked salmon but without the smoke.

Upon returning home to the joys of google, I was intrigued to discover that gravlax required only store cupboard ingredients, dill, salmon and a fridge (ticking some of my "like to cure / preserve traditionally" boxes). I have now made this a few times and it is one I like to pull out as a starter - British salmon that I have cured myself is very satisfying.
In my opinion, cured salmon sits wonderfully on a good solid loaf. Rather than just bake a wholemeal loaf, I decided on a fresh sourdough starter to bake a loaf with more tang. For those who haven't come across sourdough before, it's a loaf baked with natural yeast and bacteria, in this case out of the air (some people use grape skins that have collected the natural yeast on the outside).  It makes a slower-rising loaf that has lots of tangy flavour. One word of warning - you need 48 hours to make this dish!

Recipe:

• 1 quantity sourdough starter
• 400g wholemeal bread flour
• water
• 1 side of salmon (about 600g)
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp juniper berries
• 1 small bunch of dill plus a sprig for the dressing
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 2 tsp salad oil
• 2 tsp cider vinegar
• a pinch of lecethin or other emulsifier (optional)
• Salad

For the sourdough, mix the starter with 1/2 the flour and enough water to make a wet dough. Leave this overnight to sponge. Knead in the remaining flour to form a nice dough and leave to rise in a covered bowl for an hour. Knock back and allow to rise (I have taken to using a well-floured basket to give a nice texture). Bake the bread at 200C for 45 minutes, with a tin of boiling water on the shelf underneath. Allow to cool.

For the gravlax - grind up the salt and pepper coarsely, add the juniper berries and crush lightly before mixing in the sugar. Sprinkle this over the side of salmon and add the coarsely-chopped dill. Wrap the salmon up tight and leave in the bottom of the fridge for 36-48 hours, depending on thickness, turning regularly to ensure the cure is worked in. 

Once cured, rinse well, pat dry with kitchen towel and slice thinly with a very sharp knife - cured salmon gets very sticky.

To make the dressing, grind the mustard with a little salt and add the remaining dill, grinding to a paste. Add the vinegar, oil and lecethin and mix to a smooth consistency (so I got lazy adding the emulsifier - I just happened to have some around as I was making apple foam).

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The Birthday Dinner

For some crazy reason, this year I decided to cook a dinner in honour of my birthday. "Why not?" I foolishly thought. So after many weeks of head-scratching and much practice, the menu was pinned down as follows:

Gravlax and Sourdough

Traditionally cured salmon served on fresh sourdough, with a leafy salad and a dill mustard sauce

Lemon Sorbet

Haggis Ravioli

Fresh Ravioli filled with haggis and served with a whisky cream sauce

Baby Plum Tomatoes and Pesto Topping

Baked Hake

Hake baked whole on-the-bone, served with a butterbean puree and crispy bacon

Apple Foam

Triple Beef Pie

Slowly-cooked brisket, chuck and shin of local beef served in a suet pie with mashed potato

Rosebud Tea Granita

Profiteroles

A trio of flavoured profiteroles, berries, white chocolate and caramel

Caramel Macchiato Panna Cotta

Coffee and Chocolate Terrine

A dark chocolate terrine served with fruit coulis

Six full dishes, 5 smaller between course things. To add to my burden I thought I would try and record it all for your reading pleasure. I was hampered by a combination of forgetting to take photos at key stages and a flat battery half way through service so I might fail on my original plan of writing up every dish, but expect to see more posts over the next few weeks!

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Excuses

January has passed and it transpires I haven't written a single post since before Christmas! My sincerest apologies. I have been working on learning lots of new skills and planning a dinner party for the end of the month. All of the recipes will be being blogged after the event to try and make up for this long silence. To help you wait here are just a few of the things I have been working on:

Fresh Ravioli

Cooking with Bones

Curing Fish

Sous vide

Sourdough

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