Mother in Laws Birthday part 3 -Strawberry ice cream

We are having three desserts on Sunday and this is the first.
It could have been done ages ago but there were two very large salmon filling the freezer. As they came out today my favourite ice cream could be made. This is so easy and soooooooooo delicious I have to restrain myself from eating it before any one else does. It only works with strawberries though, there must be some alchemy with the acidity and the sugar, but who knows and actually I  think I want to keep the delicious mystery!
Two punnets of strawberries were hulled and finely chopped and then frozen. I should have frozen them on a tray but there was no room so they were crammed in to a plastic pot. Tonight they were removed and as they had frozen into a big lump, bashed with a rolling pin till they were back in bits. These were then whizzed in the food processor with two tablespoons of vanilla sugar, normal sugar is fine with a bit of vanilla essence but I made the vanilla sugar weeks ago and just had to use it. (Its a vanilla pod in a jar of sugar; nothing too taxing, and left for a few weeks.)Then when all pureed 1/2 litre of double (heavy) cream is poured in and whizzed again. Before your eyes it will change to baby pink ice cream as if by magic. When I was given the recipe I was very sceptical by this stage, but just wait! Taste it and enjoy a piece of heaven before popping in to the freezer.  The joy is no need to rewhizz after an hour or so , it is ready to go!

Maybe I just need to recheck it! nom, nom, nom ,nom!

And the price £3.00 for about 1 kilo.

Mother in Laws birthday stage 2

I want to say that I bubbled 2 kilos of ham hocks in a huge cauldron for hours but to be truthful , said ham hocks were cooked in the pressure cooker. Pressure cookers are much underrated and I do love them for things that need to be boiled or steamed forever.  So into the pressure cooker went said 2 kilos of ham hocks which had been soaked in water for to days to remove a lot of the salt. These were bathed in a bottle of mead, an onion, two carrots and some celery and placed on full steam for 40 minutes.

They were left in the stock to cool till the next day then taken out and shredded by hand into a large pile.

250 grammes  of cornishons (baby gerkins) and silverskin onions were then finely chopped with 50 grammes of fresh parsley and stirred in with the ham.The mix was then put into a large glass bowl. The stock was then strained and measured to 1/2 litre and boiled with 4 sheets of gelatine and when the

gelatine melted it was poured over the ham and a plate and cast iron pan were placed on top and into the fridge.

Ready for starter 'Jambon au persille' to go with the blackberry chutney. So looking forward to turning it out and tasting it.Yum , yum, yum. The whole thing cost £5.50, as the mead was home made! Bargain yum!

So it's been awhile, well a long time since I posted , life events and all that and starting a new business www.theelvishtailor.co.uk. Anyway the elf is now back in the kitchen with a vengeance  Posting regularly this week as we prepare for the biggest function of this year. Next Sunday is the mother-in-laws 80th birthday. This is no little old lady, well she is little but he is bright and feisty and stubborn and keeps her three boys in check and we love her. So her birthday present is a banquet for the whole family  cooked by yours truly!!!!

I have gone through about 50 cookery books looking for recipes but went back to the old favourites last week . The problem at this time of year is the weather , after about 6 months of freezing temperatures , greyness and snow  ; spring has finally decided to grace us with her loveliness and next Sunday will be lovely . So going from ideas for heavy pork with a Parmesan and pine nut crust we decided to go lighter and classically French . But that means lots of preparation and lots of work through the week to make things easier for next weekend.

I started two days ago making a blackberry chutney, the blackberries were gathered back in September from  mother in laws favourite place on the Suffolk coast. Not with any thought of this celebration but just because they are lovely. But they seemed perfect to go with the rest of the starter, more of later. 400g of blackberries were boiled up with 400g sugar, 1 chopped onion, 200g raisins, 1/2 litre malt vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon each of mixed spice, smoked paprika and sumac and 3 cloves garlic. This was simmered for 2 hours the smell was incredible and not in a good way , overpowering and vinegary that took the linings off your eyes! I thought it was going to be a disaster but once your half way there you may as well go to the finish. So it was left to cool.
Blackberries have a gazillion seeds and these need to be removed but rather than go through that  mammoth task first we decided to let it cool and taste.
The taste was sublime, sweet, sharp and slightly smokey. The perfect combination with the rest of the starter.
So the next night it all had to go through the vintage mooli ; a mooli is like a sieve with a handle that presses the given substance through thus removing seeds etc. It takes for ever, we ended up with just over a kilo of chutney before going through the mooli. After 2 hours of filling , winding, scraping and cleaning the result is a of a perfect molasses smooth blackness all jarred up and ready to roll.

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!