Don’t hate me, I made a cake with margarine !

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I love butter. I love butter so much it sometimes seems as if I have stuff with my butter rather than the other way round. Toast is simply a vehicle to carry the butter to my mouth, mashed potato just a means of getting as much butter into me as possible, I bathe lobster in drawn butter, anoint asparagus with melted butter, add a  butter sauce to fish and would suggest that my favourite sandwich filling is, you might have guessed, butter adorned only with a little Maldon salt for seasoning. So that is why I am a little shamefaced about today’s post. Yesterday I made a sponge cake using Stork margarine.
Now that confession is out of the way I can explain the mitigating circumstances. I have a friend called Sue. She and I met when we were training to be nurses and have been good friends ever since. We couldn’t be more different. She is married to a farmer, lives in Norfolk and loves country life whereas I am truly, deeply metropolitan. She is a very plain cook, it does her no disservice to say this as, whilst she only has a couple of recipes at her fingertips, one of which is know as “Sue’s Goo” and involves sherry, cream and ginger biscuits, her dinner parties and lunches are legendary. Large roasts and a mountain of potatoes plus a lake of wine, what’s not to like?
I’m not sure she’s ever cooked pasta, she has a spice rack stocked with jars whose labels and contents are so faded it seems pointless to worry about what is within and she buys sliced bread.
But, and the but here is huge, Sue makes the best sponge cakes I have ever eaten. If you have visited the tea rooms at Holkham Hall you too might have eaten them, her cakes have recently starred in an auction for a cancer charity where £150 was offered for Sue to bake a cake a month over the year. These are good cakes. They come in three flavours: plain, coffee and chocolate. None of your red velvet, pumpkin spice, rose petal jam malarky for Sue it’s sponge that’s it.
I was reminded of just how good the cake is when my daughter Amber asked Sue to bring one over for my recent birthday. Sue is Amber’s godmother and so naturally said yes. The cake was splendid. There is not a lot of room in my life for cake what with the 5:2 diet plus my well documented passion for chips, it’s cake that slips far down the list. But that cake awoke a need in me, not quite Proustian but something similar, a reminder that few things are better than a slice of cake and a cup of tea with an old friend.
Yesterday I phoned Sue to ask for her recipe. Once she had stopped laughing at the role reversal she admitted that she only ever used soft margarine for her cakes, Stork being the marge of choice, that she made them in a free standing mixer and having put the marge and sugar in, switches the power on and goes off and does something else for 10 minutes. Eggs are added alternately with self-raising flour and thats it.
I am a snob about butter in cakes so it took a bit of effort to buy the margarine but in Sue’s opinion it gives a much lighter texture to the sponge. I followed Sue’s recipe to the letter. The cake is delicious. Confession over.

Sue’s Sponge cake 
Weigh three large eggs and then use that weight to measure the rest of your ingredients: margarine, castor sugar and self-raising flour.

Mix the margarine and castor sugar and beat until very light and fluffy. Break the eggs into the bowl, one at a time and beat in with approximately one third of the flour. Give the mix a final whisk once all the eggs/flour are in and then divide between two greased and floured sponge tins.
Bake at 170 for 25-30 minutes or until a mid golden brown. Allow to cool on a rack before filling with jam and cream.
For coffee sponge dissolve a tablespoon instant coffee in a little hot water and add with the eggs, for chocolate substitute an once of flour with an ounce of cocoa.

My birthday cake

My birthday cake

Malaga, so much more than an airport.

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Back to Malaga again. Its a place I return to when in need of a certain type of solace. Last year I went simply to feel the sun on my skin, to be warm through to my bones following our ghastly spring. This year, whilst that would have been reason enough, I went to have a period of adjustment following my elder daughter’s departure for Seattle with her husband and my beloved grandchildren.
My first trip to Malaga was about 20 years ago. When I mention I’m off to Malaga most folk think I mean I’ll fly into the airport before turning right and heading along to the many beach resorts on the coast. But I’m talking about the city here, not the region, the beautiful old town centre, sitting as it does on the shores of the Mediterranean with miles of sandy beach and a wealth of history etched into it’s streets and buildings. We stayed, on that first trip, at the Parador, perched high on the hills overlooking the town centre, the bull ring and the harbour. I was enchanted. Unused to Spain I found the easy way of holidaying addictive. You can have a long leasurely breakfast, a late morning snack of churros and chocolate and still not be the last to sit down for lunch mid afternoon. Think on this France, with your 12.30 lunches and your snotty staff, sniffing when you enquire whether an omelette might be possible, as it’s 2pm and the kitchen is closed. I’m on holiday I don’t want to have to force down a croissant at dawn.

Breathe. So back to the lovely city of Malaga. Founded by the Phonecians in about 700 BC it is the sixth largest city in Spain and the birthplace of two seriously hot men: Pablo Picasso and Antonio Banderas. Packed with roman, moorish and christian buildings you can stand at the foot of the amphitheatre and look up to the Alcazaba so taking in a good 10 centuries of  culture and architecture in one glance. In the civil war Malaga was on the side of the Republicans, with the Republican navy based in the harbour, thus it suffered severe bombing which accounts for some of the brutalist architecture to be found around the docks. But now the old city of Malaga is a charming place, much of the centre pedestrianised, it’s marble streets overhung with recently restored, balconied buildings that almost make me weep at their beauty. Museums there are aplenty and of all shapes and sizes. Love Flamenco? Yearn to know more about Spainish costume? Have an abiding interest in European crystal and glass? You’re in luck, there are museums for each and more. Plus of course many, many museums dedicated to the rich heritage of this important city port, it’s architecture and to the art of their most famous son Picasso.
There are small orange groves scatted about, lovely shady public gardens, miles of walks for the obligatory evening paseo and now a wonderfully revitalised harbour where a dozen or more differing gardens line the waters edge offering everything from a sound garden for children to a scented one to be enjoyed not only by those who are visually impaired but all who love to sit and breathe in the soft perfumes of thymes, orange blossom and Alyssum.
Enough delights then to tempt anyone back time and again And I’ve not even mentioned the food!!!
Malaga has become, in the years I’ve been visiting, one of the most wonderful places to eat. Whatsoever you want, you can find. At almost any hour day and night your every need is catered for, from churros to tapas, from simple, age old, beach restaurants where you eat freshly grilled sardines with sand between your toes to Michelin starred places where the touch of El Bulli and Ferran Adrià can be felt as strongly as the whack on your credit card when you pay for the meal. The food is little short of amazing.
It has not always been this way even five or six years ago you would mainly eat traditional, good but uninspired, Andalusian dishes, where chunks of chorizo and cheese would be the tapa most often served alongside a slice of pan con tomate or the Malaga fish fry and hearty stews or large steaks of pork or beef  would be served as main courses with either hake and bacalao representing the fish.
Not a thing wrong with this but today, today you can feast on morcilla made with tuna blood, aijo blanco whipped to a froth served with a scoop of highly flavoured almond ice cream floating in the centre of the soup giving one of the most delicious sweet/salt combinations I’ve eaten, whisper thin slices of octopus with mango and croquettas that are exploding mouthfuls of meaty or fishly loveliness, light as an angels kiss and I would imagine just as wonderful.
The wine too has undergone a complete transformation with new winemakers making a range of wines from traditional grapes that are light, fresh tasting or deep and complex. We drank Ribera, Albariño and many more served by the bottle or glass. Sherry was notably hard to find but the local sweet wine the Malaga Virgin is experiencing something of a surge in sales due in most part to the extra finesse show by the modern wine makers with Jorge Ordonez No 2 being served at the prestigious Nobel dinner recently.
As anyone knows to have local knowledge is to be king and we had so much help from the delightful Michael (British) and Laura ( Canadian) both Malaga residents who run Tapas in Malaga, guided tours that take you to the places only local folk know, They will organise pretty much anything and offer advice on restaurants, flamenco and wine tastings as well as the Tapas mention in their name.
For a different slant on this lovely city I also highly recommend We Love Malaga run by the delightful Malaga born Victor Garrido. I’ve done a tapas tours with both these companies and enjoyed every minute, learning so much about this city I have grown to love.Don’t miss the central market, churros at Casa Aranda and the walk, about 40 minutes, along the beach front to Pedregalejo for Sunday lunch at Andres Maricuchi.

El Meson de Cervantes
Los Patios de Beatas
La Moraga
Tapadaki
Alumbre

The Cookbook Club

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Just a few of my cookbooks

Just a few of my cookbooks

Thane Prince’s Cookbook Club at The Drapers Arms

I am a great fan of book clubs, so a cookbook club peopled by those like myself, obsessives who talk of the next meal while eating the present one, has to be a good idea.
The club is still evolving but here is where we are so far:

We plan to meet every four to six weeks and each meeting will be themed so it might be Indian food, vegetarian, classic books or perhaps a handful of newly published books.

I’ve spoken to a couple of publishers who are happy to let us have new books to look at and review on our blogs, if you don’t have a blog it couldn’t matter less, I do want this club to be inclusive and for everyone to feel welcome.

I also hope to get authors to come and talk to the group. We, who write books, know we’re usually contracted on publication to do a series of events and our club might be one such venue.

I hope to set up a cookbook exchange or swap, I can’t be alone in having books I don’t use that others might want.Many more ides will evolve I hope, the plan is to make the club organic, fitting the needs of us members.

We’re holding our meetings upstairs at the wonderful Draper’s Arms in Barnsbury Street Islington. Transport is tube to either Angel or Highbury and Islington and a wealth of buses on Upper Street.

http://www.thedrapersarms.com/index.php

Nick the landlord is just the best and has offered us the room gratis so there will be no joining fees, attendance fees or any other charges and you can come to all or any of the meetings. We will no doubt want to lubricate the evening and I think the simplest way might be for each of us to put £10 into a kitty to provide wine, beer soft drinks etc. and work out what to do when that runs out.
The pub has a splendid kitchen so snacks etc. are readily available but I think we might also want to cook something and bring it along. This would not be compulsory nor, I stress, competitive but it might be nice to pick something transportable, that will sit happily under your desk for others to try.
The first three dates are June 19th, July 30th and September 4th we will start at 7pm but the joy of the venue is if you’re early you can have a drink in the lovely garden if you’re late just join in.The club is open to anyone so do bring friends if they have lively minds, love food and wine and enjoy a gossip. Oh and whilst it would seem, by those that have enquired, that we will mainly be women naturally men are welcome too.
Any questions my email is below

See you on the 19th when the theme will be “The book I use the most”.  Good luck with that!

Thane

thane@thanecooks.com

Tea parties, cucumber sandwiches and goodbyes

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Chocolate!!Anyone who follows me on Twitter will know that my daughter and grandchildren are about to move to Seattle! While we have all known about this for many months the move is finally very close so this weekend I threw a party for her and the children so she had the chance to say good-bye to some of her friends. We’ve had Jade and the children, Maisie 2 1/2 and Gabriel 8 weeks living with us following the removal of the final tranche of their furniture and I’d forgotten just how exhausting toddles and babies can be!! I used to sleep at night, have a clean, calm home, listen to classical music whilst embroidering. Actually I didn’t do the embroidering bit but you get the gist. I am now sleep deprived and leg shackled to the washing machine, but the invites had been sent out so the show or in this case the party had to go on.
I thought an English tea party would be fitting, cake and finger sandwiches were called for – cucumber sandwiches to celebrate a great British tradition and cupcakes to herald the new American era. Smoked salmon sandwiches added a touch of luxury and then I tried a new mix of red pepper hummus and tuna salad.

We obviously needed lots of cake and as Maisie is a dab hand making chocolate crispy crackles we made several batches of those. This had the double joy of using up the two packets of cereal I’d inherited from Jade. We made a batch of coconut cup cakes using a recipe from The Barefoot Contessa At Home cookbook. I strongly urge you to make these for your next party, they are truly delicious and made in the American way by adding a quantity of milk, or in this case buttermilk, to the batter. To ice the cupcakes I used my own favourite buttercream recipe, one which incorporates a tub of marshmallow fluff into the icing. The fluff is an import from the USA and can be found quite easily in many specialist food shops of supermarkets. It is, I’m sure, chock full of chemicals and sugar but the icing is quite wonderful.

Cheese straws finished the deal and all that was left to add were a dozen of so bottles of chilled Prosecco  and some juice for the children. The sun shone, the toddlers played happily (!) and all was well with the world. Quite definitely a good sendoff. Oh, but I am going to miss them!

Cucumber sandwiches
Not so much a recipe more a set of guide lines!! These were a bit of a faff to make but  a huge success .

1 1/2 English cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon fine salt
bread and butter
Peel the cucumber then slice by hand I find a food processor too quick to get even slices.
Lay some kitchen paper on a tray and then lay the cucumber slices on this in a single layer, sprinkle with salt and cover with more paper. Continue until all the slices are salted. Chill for 1-2 hours or overnight. Before you make the sandwiches wash the cucumber well in cold water and then pat the slices dry with more kitchen paper or a clean tea towel. Make the sandwiches using thinly sliced bread and butter, remove the crusts and cut into triangles.

Red pepper hummus and tuna sandwiches
This combination worked really well, a bit like a good relationship which each bringing something to the party but neither being too dominating.
I bought ready made hummus from Sainsbury’s

1 pot red pepper hummus
Tuna Salad:
200gm tin rod and line caught tuna in olive oil
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoon finely chopped gerkins
1 tablespoon finely chopped capers
3 spring onions chopped fine
a squeeze of lemon juice
Seasonings: salt, pepper and Tabasco to taste
Medium sliced brown bread
Drain the oil from the fish then mix it well with the remaining ingredients to make the tuna salad.
Make the sandwiches by spreading one slice of the bread with hummus and the other with tuna. Sandwich together and cut into triangles. I always remove the crusts from afternoon tea sandwiches.

Chocolate Crispy Crackles
Make these with high quality chocolate and you will find them a much more grown up treat!
100 gms butter
200 gms of at least 70% cocoa solids plain chocolate
4 tablespoons golden syrup
1 heaped tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
200 gms cereal: cornflakes, Rice Crispies etc

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a large bowl along with the syrup. I find a microwave set at around 650W works well if you use two 2 minute blasts then stir the mixture till the final lumps have melted. Add the cocoa and vanilla and stir in. Now fold in the cereal making such everything is well mixed.
divide between paper cases and chill till needed. Overnight is best.

Best ever cupcake frosting
I find I get the best results using a free standing mixer filled with the paddle blade

500gms icing sugar
150gm very soft butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 jar Marshmallow fluff

Beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla together until mixed then beat on high speed for 5 minutes.
Add the fluff beating just enough to mix it in fully. Colour and use.

 


 

 

Four brasseries in four days or my week eating chips!!

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Pommes FritesThis week has turned into a bit of a chipathon. It was not meant to be so, but sometimes the best laid plans, or in this case, restaurant reservations fail. Sunday I had tried to eat at the Chicken Shop in Kentish Town, in the end we had to pass as one of the party thought the place too noisy. I’m quite keen on noisy myself as often it means atmosphere and people enjoying themselves, but it seems some prefer the more sombre ambiance of the traditional restaurant. We ended up eating at The Kolossi Grill and it was so completely dreadful I’ll say no more about it. I’m trying to wipe all memories of the worst kebab I’ve ever eaten from my mind.

Monday should have brought lunch at The Bull and Last, a “gastro” pub on the lower slopes of Highgate HIll. This time one of my lunching companions was taken sick and so once again there was a change of venue. To play safe we went to Côte on Islington Green. I am extremely fond of the Côte chain having eaten at their restaurants often and in many different locations. They provide simple, well cooked food at very affordable prices. On Monday there was a good pear, endive and goat’s cheese salad garnished with caramelized nuts and then a beautiful (and large) fillet of hake on mashed potatoes with a tomato vinaigrette, the two courses for £9.95. I had the steak frites and thus began my chip eating week. The frites here are good but a little pale in colour and the portion size feels small, I always find myself wishing for a few more…… Unusually service on Monday was patchy, the waiter and waitress were young and friendly but seemed more interested in each other than the customers. I don’t like overweening service but I hate having to stand up to get attention.

Cote restaurants

On Tuesday I had lunch at Balthazar. So much has been written about this New York import, with some really quite harsh words being said and for the life of me I can’t see why. It seems to achieve exactly what it sets out to. It is a glossy, buzzy brasserie in a beautiful room with a menu that offers sufficient choice but one that can be cooked and delivered all day. I’ve not yet been for breakfast but have had both lunch and dinner here and really enjoyed the meals. I may be doing them a disservice by suggesting that Balthazar is not trying to serve the best food in town, just to serve well cooked food graciously. This they have achieved to my great satisfaction each time I’ve eaten here. And as for the chips they are very good indeed. I had a palliard of chicken with salad and a side of the most delicious fries. Crisp, light and a lovely golden brown with lots of crunchy bits. It was a huge portion and they were served with mayonnaise and a fresh new bottle of Heinz Ketchup. Lovely touch but it’s hard to look elegant whilst bashing the bottle of a bottle of recalcitrant tomato sauce.

Balthazar

Wednesday I was back at Brasserie Zedel. I love this place and eat here on all sorts of occasions: before the theatre, after the theatre, lunch with girlfriends and lunch on my own. I love the cocktails in the Bar Américain especially the Spritz Américain which is a heady mixture of grapefruit liqueur, bitters and Crémant and I’m longing to try their cabaret club The Crazy Coqs. This time though I was having a gossipy lunch with one of my daughters. We ate very simply: Pollock with fennel salad and a black olive dressing, a bottle of house Sauvignon and, naturally, a side of fries. The fries were good, not quite the heady crispness of Balthazar, but a reasonable sized portion served with little dishes of ketchup and mayonnaise. The service is lovely, the room golden and glitzy with a lovely vibe. We had floating islands for pudding. What’s not to like about meringue, custard and pretty pink embellishments? A real girly pudding if ever I ate one.

Brasserie Zedel

Thursday saw me at Brasserie Chavot. This is a hot ticket in town, Eric Chavot having opened a new restaurant in the Westbury Hotel on Conduit Street. The cooking here is sublime we ate a meal of such deliciousness I  almost suffered separation anxiety on leaving the restaurant. Unlike the previous three brasseries I mention, this is essentially a place for the very serious eating of lunch or dinner. A place where classic French food is cooked to the highest standard but without all the frills and furbelows that now seem essential in top eateries.
There were no added little courses, no amuse bouche, no petit dessert just top notch French peasant cooking served with style and class. I ate a chiffon smooth, beautifully seasoned chicken liver parfait with a smear of fig compote (not keen on smears myself a little too close to home) followed by a tiger prawn on chickpeas and chorizo. The prawn was grilled and sauced with something reminiscent of the best aioli you’ve tasted. This leaked into the jus and created a flavour that made me rue my plate licking days, at least in public, were over.
I also tasted the soft shell crab, crisp and greaseless and dunked in saffron Aioli, the steak tartar, the lamb on cous cous with olive jus and the spatchcock poussin. This meaty bird was served with a sensationally soft, sweet, salt preserved lemon that was a show stopper coming from the less is more school of cooking.
And as if all this delicousness was not enough we had some chips, well pommes frites and they were simply sensational. Crisp, golden sweet with loads of crispy bits especially designed to catch the flakes of salt. They immediately jumped to first place in my “Chip of the Week” competition. The portion was huge, we ate every one.
I don’t need to tell we were too full for pudding, but then one should always leave a little something to go back for…..

Brasserie Chavot

 

An easy supper for a late spring evening

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Rabbit with cream and mustard sauce

Rabbit with cream and mustard

Top with orange slices

Blood orange and almond cake

I’m trying not to give up but I can now fully appreciate just why our forefathers worshiped the sun and even why they made human sacrifices to ensure it’s return. I’m not quite at the stage yet when I’m building an alter in my garden but I have been sussing out likely candidates for the lead role, beginning with anyone who cycles on the pavement! So to cheer up this dull patch I’ve been doing quite a lot of cooking.
I recently watched Stephan Gates talking, on the new Food and Drink programme, about one of his favourite subjects, eating insects. It seems to me that whenever I see Stephan he’s extolling the virtues of a worm omelette or mealy bug sandwich!  His emphasis is always that we are running out of protein that is carbon efficient and that we must turn to bugs to add that certain something to our diets.
I remain unconvinced. I am quite happy to cut down on the amount of meat I eat and I do “get” the anomaly that means I love prawns but really don’t fancy potted cockroach, but there you have it. We are programmed, by our upbringing and culture, to enjoy certain foods and worry about others. No insects for me then but the following news programme told of a worrying increase in the deer population in the U.K. which led me to thinking that there might be a more acceptable answer to the meat issue, the proliferation of wild game such as venison and rabbit.

Rabbit is one of my favourite meats: it’s inexpensive, tender, low in cholesterol ( which actually bothers me not one jot ) and can be cooked in any number of ways as it takes to sauces at treat. Quite why Stephan isn’t telling us all to eat rabbit burgers is beyond me, although I can see that might not have the same Yuk appeal! I cooked a large farmed rabbit from France as that was what my butcher had but this recipe would work just as well with young wild rabbit.

My dessert is a blood orange and almond cake. These lovely spring oranges will be available for another couple of weeks and this fresh tasting cake is a perfect pudding to follow the creamy sauce of the main dish. I served my rabbit with Pappadelle but rice of boiled potatoes would be fine.

Rabbit with Mustard
1 large farmed or 2 small wild rabbits cut into joints
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 banana shallots chopped fine
2 plump cloves garlic chopped fine
a good slug of brandy
a large glass white wine
2-3 teaspoons Dijon or other mild mustard
100 ml double cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper

The most important part of this recipe is the initial browning of the meat so don’t rush this.
Melt the butter with the oil in a heavy shallow casserole over a moderate hear and then, a few at a time, brown the well seasoned pieces of rabbit on all sides. Take the browned pieces from the pan and keep them on a plate while you cook the remaining rabbit .
When all the rabbit is golden put the chopped shallots into the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes until soft, add the garlic and continue cooking for another 2-3 minutes stirring occasionally. Put the rabbit joints  back in the pan and turn up the heat a little. Pour on the brandy to deglaze the sauce. I like to flame it, actually I find it lights itself over my gas burner, but don’t fret the flaming isn’t strictly necessary. Once the liquid has boiled off add the wine , about 200ml water and cover with a lid.
Place the casserole in a preheated oven 150C 300F gas mk 3 for 30 -45 minutes. You can simply cook this on the slow plate of an Aga if you have one.
Take the dish from the oven and take of the lid. If you have a lot of sauce simmer to reduce then add the mustard and creme and simmer for a further 4-5 minutes until the sauce has thicken slightly. Taste to correct seasoning I find that once the cream has been added you need another good wack of salt.
Serve at once with rice, pasta of boiled potatoes.

Blood Orange and Almond cake 

4 large eggs weighed
Weight of eggs in softened butter and caster sugar
1 teaspoon each vanilla and almond extracts
200 gms ground almonds
60 gms plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
grated zest of 1 blood orange
To finish
4 blood oranges peeled with a sharp knife a finely sliced
icing sugar
Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature
Heat the oven to 180C 360F gas mk.4.
Beat the butter and sugar together till light in colour then add the eggs one at a time, add the vanilla and almond extracts.
Mix the flour, almonds and baking powder together well, then fold these into the batter.
Pour into a prepared 8″ tin and bake till golden brown and pulling from the sides of the tin.
Cool before topping with orange slices and dusting with icing sugar.

 

Mazanec or a really big bun

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Mazanec

Mazanec

In another life I worked as a practice nurse for a group of GPs. I wasn’t yet writing about food but was already passionate about cooking and ingredients. We had a Czech doctor at the surgery and she and I would talk for hours over coffee about many things including her home and the food she grew up with. She spoke of choice being very limited and the food, to todays eye, quite heavy. Treats were looked forward to with relish as seasons and celebrations were marked with traditional and luxurious dishes.
The custom of home baking was strong in Czechoslovakia and Lenka gave me this recipe for an enormous “hot cross bun” traditionally eaten in on Good Friday.

As this is an enriched dough you will need to judge how long you leave it to rise for yourself. In a cold room it will naturally take longer. I’m afraid this part cannot be rushed so if you are in a hurry for your bread crank up the heating!  I have been trying an electric prover to help control the rising of my bread and whilst I was at first sceptical I have found, in this especially cold weather, the help the prover gives to be a god send.

Mazanec

500gm strong white bread flour
1 sachets easy blend yeast
60gm caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
grated zest of a 2 large lemon
100gm mixed peel
100gm golden raisins
55gm 2 oz slivered almonds
140gm  5 oz melted butter
225ml  warm milk
4 large egg yolks beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

To finish:
beaten egg to glaze
30gm 1 oz slivered almonds.
Glaze: 50gm sugar cooked to a syrup in 50ml water

Mix the flour, yeast, sugar , salt , lemon zest, almonds, peel and raisins in a large bowl.Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
Tip the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead for 2-3 minutes. The dough is sticky but try not to add to much flour.
Return the dough to the bowl, cover  with cling film and leave in a warm place to rise for about 2 hours.
When the dough has doubled in size turn it onto a floured surface and knead lightly, shaping it into a large round bun. Place this on a greased baking sheet, cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave to rise. This may take another two hours especially in cold weather.
When the bun has doubled in size brush with beaten egg, sprinkle on the almonds and using a very sharp knife cut a cross on the top.
Bake the bun in a pre-heated oven 200C 400F gas mk 6 for 30 minutes or until golden brown and hollow when tapped.

As soon as the bun comes from the oven brush the top with sugar glaze then leave on a rack to cool.

 

Colourful Cake from a less colourful time

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Colourful cake !

Colourful cake !

North Norfolk in the Fifties was a dull, drear place. The war was over but the peace left a lot to be desired. Huge tracts of land had been requisitioned by the Air Force both it’s proximity to Northern Europe and it’s flat topography making Norfolk a choice position to create much need RAF and USAF bases. Work was scarce and treats few and far between. I have only the sketchiest of memories but I know that food was scare too and there was little variety. To say we ate intensely seasonal produce would not be to claim virtue but to point out necessity. I have blurred memories of a meat safe on the wall, a man knocking on the back door selling black market sea trout and food parcels arriving from cousins in Canada. It was here in Norfolk in our cliff top home, I developed my loathing of Agas. My mother had had one installed and it was her pride and joy, but she had reckoned without the vagaries of the wind that is such a constant on that exposed Eastern coastline.
The Aga provided the only warmth there was in the house, heated the hot water and was used to both boil the kettle and make the toast plus do all the cooking. This had been the argument with which my mother had persuaded my father to have this expensive foreign monster installed. I still can picture the scenes when on far too many winter’s mornings I would arrive in a freezing kitchen, to find my mother tight lipped, my father on his knees riddling the clinker out of the Aga and more importantly to me no tea, no toast and not even a hot flannel to wash with!
But while I hated the Aga my mother loved it, I see now it was a warm companion in those cold post war days and she worked out a good relationship with the stove, in and on which she cooked our every meal.
My mother was and still is a very good cook. Indeed I have always believed that it was through eating such good, unadulterated food early in life that gave me my love of food and cooking.

But enough nostalgia today I’m talking about colourful cake. It was in order to brighten up my childhood tea parties that my mother would colour each layer of her towering sponge sandwiches a different and vibrant hue, so imagine my surprise when last week I saw a picture of the exact cake on sale in Harrods! Then my daughter sent me a link to one of Dan Leopards recent Guardian posts and there where his colourful cup cakes! Add to the mix a party to celebrate those wonderful flavourings from Nielsen Massey which had me return home with a goody bag of small brown bottles and the die was cast. I would bake a patchwork cake this time with each colour a different flavour.
I was surprised at how well it was received, the colour seemed to brighten even this dull March weekend proving that as usual, mother”s know best!

Rose, lemon, orange and chocolate layer cake

Heat the oven to 180C 360 F gas mk 5 and make sure the eggs and butter are at room temperature. I like my pans with reusable silicon paper but you can grease and flour them if you prefer.

250gm butter
250gms caster sugar
4 large eggs ( weighing 250gms)
250gms plain flour sifted with 2 teaspoons baking powder

To colour and flavour the cakes:

lemon zest, 2 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 teaspoon lemon extract, yellow food colour

Orange zest 2 tablespoons orange juice 1 teaspoon orange extract, orange food colour

30gm cocoa, 2 tablespoons milk 1 teaspoon chocolate or coffee essence

1 teaspoon rose water, 2 tablespoons milk, red food colouring

Beat the butter and sugar together till light in texture and colour. Now add the eggs one at a time and when they have been fully incorporated  fold in the flour. Don’t worry if the mixture curdles (splits) mine did and the cake was delicious.
Divide the mixture between four bowls about 250 gms in each and add a different colour/flavour to each one.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the prepared tins and bake for 18-25 minutes. The actual time will depend on your tin size and your oven. The cakes are cooked when well risen , firmish to the touch and are just pulling from the sides of the tin.
Cool on a rack and sandwich together with cream or butter cream.

 

Neilson Massey vanillas and extracts are available from Lakeland

Neilson Massey

 

Salt Yard Cook Book

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Salt Yard Cookbook - Front Cover (Flat)

When I wrote for the Telegraph I would be sent most, if not every cook book published. I would see books on every subject imaginable and those on some you really might have thought a niche market! Food from the North American Mennonite Communities  volumes one and two anyone?

Now I buy my own books so they have to score quite highly to be worthy of sitting beside the 700 or so that survived my most recent cull. I am a huge fan of the “Salt Yard” restaurants, I eat as often as I can at Opera Tavern and slightly less often at Dehasa mainly as I find it seems always to be more expensive.

I love the food served at both. There is a real feeling that the skill base in the kitchen is high, the sourcing of ingredients is carefully thought through and that the cooking shows a clear intent to satisfy and delight.

So to their newly published cook book: Salt Yard Food and Wine from Spain and Italy with Recipes by Ben Tish and wine words from Simon Mullins.  The book also credits Sanja Morris as co-ordinator, Sanja is co founder with Simon of Salt Yard Group so someone who knows a thing or two not only about this food but also about how to run a pretty decent restaurant.

It’s attractive black and silver cover and tempting pictures of food by Jason Lowe could make this the perfect coffee table book for there are pieces on the production of Jamon Iberico , how to wait on table and the diaspora of grapes and wine making from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean. But to leave this book in the sitting room would be a mistake as the recipes simple scream out to be cooked. I score cookbooks by their “jump off the bus factor” i.e. would I get of the bus to buy the ingredients on my way home as I simply HAVE to cook a dish, even if it was raining!!

Salt Yard scores at least an 8/10 , the recipes are approachable and seem to my central London eye made with ingredients that can be assembled without too much fuss. Nor are there too many ingredients in each recipe, another bonus. Out of towners might need to turn to the magic that is internet ordering  for ‘nduja and such but then they might have a good local source of fresh crab, mackerel or pigs cheek, stuff we inner city folk have to search for.
I’ve made two dishes so far and both were simple: Mussels teamed with creamy Borlotti bean and basil and for supper tonight Chorizo stuffed baby squid. The finished dishes are tasty and look good and they both challenged me to make something I’d not tried before which is surely the point of a cook book.
I have my eye on the crab, squid and saffron arancini , the Trevise salad with fresh chestnuts and marjoram and the stunning sounding barbecued lamb served with a burnt butter and anchovy dressing.
There are lots of lovely puddings including churros but here I disagree with Ben, I much prefer my churros made with a yeast risen rather than a baking powder risen dough. I can see it takes more time but to me the texture is so much better.

So a definite yes to this book It will sit in the kitchen for a while yet and then graduate to the “much used” shelf in my cook book library

Salt Yard Food&Wine from Spain and Italy is published by Piquillo Publishing

Opera Tavern

Dehesa

 

 

 

Brisket, Buffers and Barsac plus a decent lunch time claret!

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Waiter at the bar Rules Maiden LaneI last ate at Rules many years ago. I was taken there after a performance  at the ROH where I had listened in awe as Placido Domingo sang Otello. It is a tribute to the food and atmosphere at Rules that I remember anything  at all about the meal so entranced was I by the music. The man I dined with was wondrously old fashioned, indeed he wore opera slippers and a cloak, and he loved the service and attention to detail that Rules provided. He was also a committed gourmand and would never have chosen a place purely on the attentiveness of the waiters, so I expected, and found, the food to be good.

I went back yesterday for lunch with a girlfriend and it felt as if only days had passed since that late supper long ago. The red and gilt rooms, the black clad waiters, the general feeling of having stepped back in time were all exactly as I remembered them . I was tempted back to Rules by a review by Marina O’Loughlin , restaurant reviewer for The Guardian. I went with another Guardian columnist, wine writer Fiona Beckett, who much to her chagrin, was seated under a splendid but very odd mural of Margaret Thatcher. My being an ex Daily Telegraph writer meant I could only witness, rather than feel, her pain!!

We started with a cocktail me a Gin and It and Fiona a White Lady, this provoked the first of many benign but bufferish remarks from the two men eating at the adjacent table! The drinks were stellar, served in frosted cocktail glasses with all the swish and charm of old. Each came to the table in it’s own tiny cocktail shaker. The pouring of these drinks and then the anointing with the finest curl of lemon zest was itself a theatrical act.

Sadly the starters were less joyous. My potted brown shrimps were simply bound with mayonnaise rather than steeped in spicy, mace flavoured butter and a rather drear granary roll was served alongside when I had specifically ordered toast. Fiona’s ham hock salad was attractive to look at but a little too chilled for the flavours to shine.

Things looked up spectacularly when our main courses arrived. We, or rather Fiona had seen something she liked the look of more than the steak and kidney pudding she’d ordered and had asked if she might change her order. Anyone who has any knowledge of restaurant kitchens will know that the timing of the main going out is crucial and so the charming way the changed order was taken was a sign of a really  grounded relationship between front and back of house.
It was the ruffle round the dish that held the cottage pie that had charmed us. Indeed there was a wonderful wave of nostalgia that we felt when my deeply succulent and richly flavoured braised brisket of beef arrived in one of those lovely old battered silver serving dishes. The vegetables also came in silver boats reminding me that whilst modern serving pieces are very smart these warhorses of the restaurant trade have a lasting charm.
The beef was fork tender and luscious, the serving huge another reminder, if the glance around the dinning room hadn’t been enough, that Rules is used mainly by men.
We drank a carafe of a “good lunchtime claret” 500ml of Chateau Le Pey which at £23.50 was towards the less costly end of the list!!

The sponge syrup pudding, for yes by now I was in full school dinner mode, was sumptuous : light, sweet and served with cream, custard and ice cream…..We halved a glass of Barsac to the Buffers delight then walked out into the sunshine, noise and bustle of Covent Garden only to discover it was 2013 after all!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Rules 35 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7LB
020 7836 5314
www.rules.co.uk