Sambocade, Elderflower Flan

As spring turns to summer the creamy, scented heads of elderflower reveal themselves in the hedgerows. They are filled with the smell and taste of summer.
The original recipe for Sambocade comes from the recipe book of Richard II, 'The Forme of Cury'. I have changed the recipe slightly as it was full of cheese , something not used in the small kitchen, however I have said where to put the cheese in if you want to.
First pick your elderflowers, 5 to 6 heads is plenty. Pick them from a tree far away from roads so they aren't full of pollution and remember to say thank you to the Lady of the Elder for her gift! Shake off any bugs that are on the flowers then pour 250mls cream over them; I use soy cream but double cream is fine. Leave them to infuse for 24 hours. If you use dried flowers use about 2 tablespoons and leave to infuse for about 12 hours or the flavour becomes too strong.
For a 6" tart make a pastry with 100g of plain flour and 50g of margarine or butter and a couple of tablespoons of cold water, adjust the water amount slightly to form the pastry. Roll out the pastry and line a buttered and floured 6" flan tin , one with a removable base is best. Pop the unbaked case into the freezer for 10 minutes to stop it shrinking in the oven then line it with greaseproof paper or baking parchment and baking beans. Bake it blind at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes till it is just golden.
Strain off the elderflowers and to the cream  add 3 tablespoons of sugar and 3 well beaten eggs. At this point you can also mix in 100g of ricotta if you wish to.
As an extra special twist I like to line the bottom of the flan with halved strawberries!
Pour over the egg and cream mix and bake in the oven at 180 degrees for about 40 minutes till it is just firm or you can stick a knife point into the middle and it comes out clean. Leave to cool slightly so it isn't piping hot, or you can eat it cold.  Enjoy and savour summer!

Briochey pork loaf

In my fridge I had a tub of garlic mayonnaise that I had been making before realising it contained raw egg and that a pregnant friend couldn't eat it. It had then partly separated out into an eggy mayo and olive oil as I didn't finish beating it. But what to do with it, I hate waste and like to make the most of everything so I decided to do a variation of brioche pastry (without the sugar ) to wrap round  a pork meatloaf.

I started with 300grams of spelt flour, I prefer spelt flour to wheat flour, its less bloaty and indeed tastier than wheat. added the garlic mayo mush which contained four beaten egg yolks, a clove of garlic and 200mls of olive oil. In a separate bowl I mixed 150mls of warm water with a teaspoon of sugar and one of yeast, it doesn't take long to get going and when there was a nice foam on the top I poured it into  the flour mix and kneaded with my dough hook on the Kenwood for about 5 minutes. It was then covered and left on the table for about seven hours, its taken me years to go for the long slow raise when baking any kind of bread rather than the warm place and doubled in size as quickly as possible. The long, slow raise gives a much better flavour.

In a frying pan I heated a little olive oil and then fried a finely chopped onion, four chopped sun dried tomatoes and two large handfuls of mushrooms. (For a fine chop I whizz the lot in a food processor, just quicker and easier than with a knife!)  They need cooking till the fragrance really starts to come out and then add a glass of red wine and leave to reduce.Then add thyme and parsley and leave to cool.

When I was ready to throw it all together I kneaded the dough again and rolled it out thinly, lining my grannies old loaf tin. I then mixed the mushroomey mix with 250grams of minced pork and an egg, poured the whole lot into the pastry case and closed it all up like a little bed. Into the oven at 180 degrees for 45 minutes. The smell of it cooking was fabulous and I couldn't resist opening the oven door quite often to see if it was ready!

I tipped it out and cut into it, the juices had been held in and it was moistly delicious with a moist crust. We served it with roast vegetables.

I have to say its even better cold the next day!

The Veggie Red Lion

We decided to go out for lunch yesterday, not something that happens often as the food from the small kitchen is hard to beat! But go out we did. We had heard of a vegetarian pub just outside Ipswich a couple of years ago but the opportunity to go hadn't really come up so with it being a bank holiday weekend we decided to take a trip through the rainy Suffolk countryside to give it a go. Its a bit out of the wat in a tiny hamlet 10 miles from town in Great  Bricett so if you havent got a satnav or , like us, only have the paper version print a map off from their website, http://www.theveggieredlion.co.uk/ .
We had booked a table after getting cought out in Aldeburgh at Easter and having to find somewhere else. Arriving just after one as we got a bit lost, after leaving the map on my desk at work, the place was packed both with people and charm, a typical English country pub with low beams and painted plaster. We were directed to a small table in the corner and given a while to peruse the menus including the daily specials of which there were many, they also do loads of vegan options and will cater for allergies and intolerances. We both decided to start with an olive and bread platter, I love those starters where you can just pick and this was no excption. Lots of pitted green and black olives marinated with peppers, a bowl of olive oil and balsamic and a basket of freshly made bread.

The main course arrived, I had cashew and shitake mushroom roast with red wine sauce and new potatoes. The roast was moist and packed with flavour and had a couple of triangles of puff pastry on the top to soak up the juices of the delicious sauce. Husband had Mushroom Wellington, a large portabello mushroom stuffed with morzarella and pesto wrapped in a pastry case, it smelt ,and according to husband tasted delicious. We had to order vegetables which is one of my bugbears with restaurants, a meal isnt really a meal wirthout vegetables and I feel short changed if they dont come with the main dish! I need my five portions a day and every restaurant should serve at least two per person as a matter of course! However the vegetables were perfectly cooked, carrot batons -just al dente as was the brocolli and the mangetout still ahd some snap to them. Plates were soon cleaned and we were presented with the dessert menu. Now desserts are my one weakness and there were loads al of which we could have gone for: treacle sponge; summer pudding; rhubarb and apple crumble, bannoffe pie, the list goes on . We were so stuffed though that we couldnt even squeeze a mouthful in so next time we go we will perhaps miss out on the starter to go for dessert! The meal cost around £35.00 which wasn't half bad.
We give it four stars out of five due to the lack of veg! We will definatley go again!
Pictures are from their website as I forgot my camera!

Cassoulet and the joy of bowl food

Haven't posted for a while ,  life has just been so busy. OK so it might be May but it's cold and wet and we needed comfort food to be produced in the small kitchen. How about Cassoulet?

There are as many recipes for cassoulet as there are people in France and like all French opinions all of them say they are authentic. Its one of those recipes where everyones mother has the authentic one. I suppose they all are in a way, there seem to be only two things really needed and they are haricot beans and sausages. this is real peasant food or bowl food as my husband calls it. Steaming hot, it is deeply comforting and nourishing and so easy to cook., though it does take a bit of time on the cooking front and is perfect if you have a slow cooker; which the small kitchen doesn't have due to lack of space!
 I usually make a huge batch of cassoulet after Christmas and freeze it in portions, this is closer to the version from the South of France as it has loads of left over goose in it and is made with goose stock, this is probably due; according to Julia Child; to the fois gras production and they have to do something with the rest of the goose.
However not much goose available in May so we have to manage without it.
So here's the method:
I used a couple of rashers of smokey bacon chopped up and fried with an onion and garlic. Into that six Toulouse style sausages were flung(these were from nowhere more exotic than Sainsbury and they were on special offer! always handy!) I gently fried them off a little just so they weren't really anaemic. Toulouse sausages are great as they are high in meat content and full of garlic and  herbs so are packed with flavour. I then tossed in a couple of tablespoon of chopped sun dried tomatoes that give that deep Mediterranean punch, chopped carrot, chopped celery, a chopped potato and a tin of haricot beans that have been drained. Pour in a glass of red wine and two tablespoons of tomato puree, bring to the boil and cover with stock, any sort is fine but I used chicken as I always have a batch in the freezer. Add salt and pepper to taste and a teaspoon of thyme and one of parsley. Wait till it comes to the boil and turn down to the merest simmer with the lid on for about an hour. Add a couple of handfuls of roughly chopped mushrooms; I hate those tiny thin slices of mushroom, when I bite one I want to taste all that earthy mushroominess!
Simmer for another hour or so making sure it doesn't boil dry, if it gets that way add a little more stock.
Just before serving slake some cornflower, a couple of teaspoons full in a little water and stir it in to thicken.
Serve with crusty bread and enjoy!

Eggs not Benedict

Like most of the food from a small kitchen this started out as 'Eggs Benedict' but then morphed into my version Necessity is the mother of invention after all!. We call it 'Eggs Moley'.
So the original version has  a base of muffins but I prefer crumpets,
The original has no veg in it and we need veg , so spinach goes on top of the crumpets.
The original has ham but I didn't have any but I did have some vegeburgers!
The poached eggs remain the same!
The original has
Hollandase sauce but i don't really like it so a roux sauce with cheese and mustard.
Easy!
Pop the burgers under the grill for 10 minutes , don't forget to turn them after 5 when you pop the crumpets under too. Pour boiling water over the spinach just to wilt it , I can't bear that horrid green overcooked mush!
Poach the eggs one egg per crumpet. I do them in my egg poacher because it reminds me of poached eggs when I was a child! About 5 minutes !
To make the sauce put 1 tablespoon of butter or marj in a pan and melt, add a tablespoon of flour and stir for about a minute, add 1/2 pint of milk and bring back to the boil whilst whisking  add a teaspoon of prepared mustard and a handful of grated cheese.
Place the buttered crumpets on a plate, spinach on top, burgers on top of that, eggs on top of that, sauce on top of that.  A sprinkle of black pepper .
Yum, yum, yum!

The Joy of Toads

There are just some days when only comfort food will do and 'Toad in the Hole' is my favourite. It has to be served with onion gravy for that is the law and let no one tell you any different!
This Sunday was just one of those days  so after a morning spent in the garden pruning a large beech tree and emptying the compost heap I was ready for just this joy!

The secret is in the mix for the Yorkshire pudding.
One egg, large pinch of salt and 300ml of milk whizzed in the liquidiser, add 4 desert spoons of plain flour and whizz again then leave the mix to stand for  at least 30 minutes .
In the meantime cook the sausages, any good quality ones will do, we often have Toulouse or Sicilian with their really pungent herby and garlicy taste but this week we went for meat free sausages with red onion and rosemary. Cook the sausages so they are just cooked and not brown on the outside. Don't worry they are going back into the oven again soon and if you overcook them at this stage they will be hard when you have finished.
Put a heavy bottomed dish into the oven with some oil enough to cover the bottom of the dish, purists use lard but to my mind vegetable oil is better.
This needs to go into the oven at 200C for about 5 minutes till the oil is really hot.
Then put in the precooked sausages and whizz the Yorkshire batter again then pour it straight in and put the dish in the oven for about 40 minutes.
When it comes out it should be firm , airy, golden and delicious. Serve with mashed potato, cabbage with cracked black pepper and cabbage and of course the obligatory onion gravy!

What to do with a teeny, tiny lobster!

Just before Cristmas husband saw an advert for very cheap frozen lobster  at Lidl (?!?!?!).

"That would be nice as a starter" he said,"Well if you go and buy one I'll prepare it " I replied. so dutifully he trecked off and returned with said frozen lobster that was in a frozen packet like a very large sausage, and into the freezer it returned!

We decided to eat said lobster as a starter for New Year  and have Lobster Americane ;and so I took it out to defrost which it did over the next twelve hours. On opening the packet said lobster was about the size on a langoustine!  On  shelling said small, fiddly lobster I get about half a cup of meat from the whole thing. Well bang went that idea, quick rethink!

.

Ok so I have some smoked salmon and a few king prawns in the freezer and by putting them in cold water can have them defrosted in an hour.
I then mixed the prawns and tiny amount of lobster meat together with lemon juice, chives, mayonaise and a little cream cheese and paprika . I then rolled some of the mixture in smoked salmon strips wrapped them tightly in foil (I know you are supposed to use cling film but I hate the idea of that plastic being next to something I am going to eat!) and put them in the fridge for an hour.
Served with a mixed green salad and balsamic dressing. Yum.
Moral of storry any bargain from Lidl is probably a false economy!

Busy life and Japanese soup

Life is just so full on and busy at the moment that i haven't had time to post, though I have taken lots of pics of food for intended posts!
When I'm really busy and pushed for time I love to have this Japanese Miso soup that takes literally five minutes from start to finish. Its so easy and filling I'm surprised I don't eat it all the time!
To start with put one and a half bowls of stock in a pan  (this is the bowl you intend to eat the soup out of when its ready) add a tablespoon of soy sauce, a tablespoon of mirin and a splash or rice vinegar. Throw in a sheet of egg noodles and a bowlful (if you are making two bowls, if you are making one bowl use half a bowl of vegetables!) of finely sliced vegetables, use a mandolin for these if you dont have the chopping skills of a surgeon but mind your fingers. Carrot, mushrooms, leeks, daikon, whatever you have really. If you are using meat throw a handful of finely chopped pre cooked meat in at this point; if you are using fish or seafood wait right till the end. I always like to put in a sheet of chopped seaweed too at this point.
Ok, so bring to the boil but before it gets there remove a ladleful of stock and mix some Miso or fermented soya bean curd into the stock till dissolved. I like the dark Mugi miso  but if you like it sweeter use the white miso use 1tablespoon per serving.
When the vegetables and stock have come to the boil take off the heat and if you are using fish or seafood throw that in at this point. Give a goood stir and then stir in the miso. Leave with the lid on for about a minute and then pour into bowls and enjoy!!!