Archive for September, 2009
Food for Thought – Elevenses with Nigella Lawson
Posted: 29 September '09 by Niall
Nigella Lawson on Food for Thought - BBC iPlayer
There’s a short but interesting interview with Nigella Lawson on BBC’s iPlayer at the minute, in which Nigella talks about her early experiences of food – as a chamber maid in Italy, whisking white sauces for her mother and making veal stew and rabbit with prunes on a teenage visit to France.
She also touches upon her childhood, and the transition from being a reluctant eater to a passionate cook with a healthy appetite.
In the “Food For Thought” series Nina Myskow talks to various celebrities and discovers how attitudes to food affects their lives.
Details:
- Broadcast on: BBC Radio 4, 2:45pm Sunday 27th September 2009
- Duration: 15 minutes
- Available until: 3:02pm Sunday 4th October 2009
- Find it at: Nigella Lawson on Food For Thought
Categories: On TV and Radio
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Hazelnut Biscuits – The X-Factor Substitute
Posted: 29 September '09 by Niall
Hazelnut biscuits
With Kelly glued to another episode of X-Factor on Sunday evening (with so much crying going on, the contestants must be in serious danger of de-hydration), I was at a bit of a loose end. Looking through the cupboard I saw that we had plenty of stuff for doing some baking – and with a little help from Nigella Lawson I came up with Hazelnut Biscuits.
The only down-side is that they really don’t take too long to make – you’re looking at three batches to last an x-factor show..
You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4
Ingredients
- 150g of hazelnuts
- 30g of icing sugar, and some more to dust the biscuits at the end
- 125g of soft butter
- 90g of plain flour
- pinch of salt
Method
- Heat the oven to 175C
- Empty the hazelnuts into a frying pan, and heat over a low heat until the toasted hazelnuts give off a nice, nutty aroma – and before they start to burn!
- Blitz the nuts in a food processor until they are quite finely ground and looking like breadcrumbs
- Empty the food processor into a bowl
- Add the icing sugar to the food processor and blitz to remove any lumps – then add the flour, salt, and butter, pulsing until the ingredients are well mixed
- Add the hazelnuts and pulse – you’ll probably need to use a plastic spatula to ease the mixture from the edges and pulse again
- Line an oven dish with grease-proof paper
- Take a small amount of the mixture and roll in your hands until you have a smooth ball of dough about the size of a gobstopper
- Place the ball of dough onto the grease-proof paper and press down lightly so that the dough spreads into a flat disc
- Repeat this for the remaining dough
- Place in the oven for 15 minutes
- Remove the oven tray and leave to rest for a few minutes – the biscuits will be a little fragile – then take a spatula and ease the biscuits off the tray and onto a cooling rack
- When the biscuits have cooled, sieve some icing sugar oven the biscuits until they are well dusted
Other Information
We ate our biscuits with a drizzle of honey and dipped into Greek yoghurt – all I’ll say is that you should DEFINITELY give it a go!
Categories: Biscuits and Cakes > Featured Post > Recipes
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Les Halles Cookbook – Anthony Bourdain
Posted: 28 September '09 by Niall
Les Halles Cookbook
Les Halles Cookbook begins by saying that it’s not really a cookbook – not very helpful then, you might think!
Although the book DOES contain plenty fine recipes, it’s much more than that – it’s also an insight into the dark world of running a professional kitchen, and a French bistro in particular. And it’s an excellent read at that. I find that lot of recipe-books are dry instruction-books – but Bourdain’s dark-humour pervades this book with asides, anecdotes, and observations (“if you can’t properly roast a damn chicken then you are one helpless, hopeless bivalve in an apron”). Mild abuse aside, Bourdain clearly enjoys the hectic, stressful life of a New York chef, leading his team into battle at the bistro every night – and in Les Halles Cookbook Bourdain treats you as if you’re in the same fight, his latest recruit.
Like every drill-sergeant from every war movie I’ve ever seen, Anthony Bourdain takes his new recruit through basic training before getting into the ‘fight’ proper. Although told from the perspective of his own bistro kitchen, this basic knowledge is just as important to the amateur cook: the importance of preparation; knowing which ingredients are in-season; how to find a good supplier; the types of knives you’ll need to work properly; and how vital a good stock is.
You won’t find any of those ethereal, delicate, haute-cuisine-type dishes in this book – but what you will get are plenty of good rustic, satisfying and flavoursome classic French meals: onion soup; vichyssoise; moules marinieres; rillettes; coquilles saint-jacques; boeuf bourguignon; coq au vin; cassoulet; boudin noir with potatoes; rabbit with olives; creme brulee; and cherry clafoutis. There’s also a section on preparing basic components like pastry dough, bearnaise sauce, and sauce gribiche.
Details
- Title: Les Halles Cookbook
- Author: Anthony Bourdain
- Pages: 304
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
- ISBN: 0-7475-8012-X
- Cost: £15.99
- Where to get it: From www.amazon.co.uk
Our Verdict:
Les Halles Cookbook isn’t an everyday cookbook – but it is a very enjoyable read, a “no-holds-barred” look at the realities of life as a professional chef, and a fantastic resource for hearty, satisfying French dishes. Not a “must have”, but a “should have”.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Other Information:
You can read more about Anthony Bourdain at: www.anthonybourdain.com
You can visit the Les Halles website at: www.leshalles.net
Categories: Books for Cooks
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Spaghetti with Prawns and Chilli
Posted: 28 September '09 by Niall
Spaghetti and prawns
This easy pasta supper is probably the meal that’s made most often in our house, and is great for during the week when you’re not in the mood to spend too long in the kitchen after a long day at work.
Also known as “picchi-pacchi spaghetti with prawns and chilli”, the dish is a Sicilian specialty (the further south you go in Italy, the most prevalent the chilli becomes in the local dishes).
You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5Image 6
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 500g dried spaghetti (i.e. one packet)
- 250g of pomodorino tomatoes
- 4 tbsp olive oil (and some more the drizzle over the finished dish)
- 3 fat garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 medium-hot red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
- A good handful of fresh basil, roughly chopped (don’t use the dried stuff!)
- 350g uncooked and peeled king prawns
- Parmesan to grate over the dish (entirely optional)
Method
- Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the spaghetti and cook according to the packet instructions, until al dente
- Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees
- Take each prawn and run a sharp knife down the back of the prawn, removing any black “thread” that is there and opening the prawn up
- Drizzle some olive oil on a roasting dish and place your prawns on the dish, sprinkling them with a little black pepper
- Gently roast the prawns in the oven until their flesh has turned pink – it’s important not to overcook the prawns at this point otherwise you’ll be left with a dry, tough prawns that really aren’t that pleasant to eat
- Meanwhile, working over the sink, gently squeeze and burst the tomatoes to rid them of most of their seeds, then roughly chop
- Shortly before the spaghetti is ready, heat the oil in a pan over a low heat
- Add the garlic and red chillies and sweat gently until the garlic has become slightly translucent
- Add the tomatoes and increase the heat slightly, cooking gently for 30 seconds until heated through and just starting to break down
- Season to taste with salt and pepper
- Drain the spaghetti well and return to the pan. Add the tomato mixture, prawns and chopped basil
- Toss together until the sauce is thoroughly mixed through the pasta, and plate up
- Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle over the grated parmesan cheese, and serve
Wine Selection
The dish is light and full of seafood-sweetness and zingy tomato, and deserves a similarly light, zesty accompaniment – a citrus-y Pinot Grigio would be perfect.
Other Information
“Picchi-pacchi” simply means a fresh, raw or barely cooked sauce.
We ALWAYS have a good Parmesan to grate over this dish, even though a true Italian would blanch if you suggested add Parmesan to a seafood dish.
Categories: Featured Post > Italian Food > Main Course > Pasta > Recipes > Seafood
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Kelly’s Strawberry Swirl
Posted: 24 September '09 by Kelly
I am usually of the thinking that a dessert is not a dessert unless it is oozing and dripping with chocolate. BUT my mind was changed (well sort of) when I tried a Gordon Ramsey dessert he made on the ‘F’ Word. I can’t remember the name so I have decided to name it ‘Kelly’s strawberry swirl’. You can obviously change the name to your own…
It is a really simple dessert to make and you can make it in advance and keep it in the fridge for whenever your guests arrive. Simple and delicious…
Ingredients
- 2 Punnets of strawberries, quartered
- Balsamic Vinegar
- One large tub of vanilla custard
- Small tub of double cream
- Approx 80g of meringues crushed
- Sugar
Method
- Cut the strawberries into quarters and place them in a bowl
- Add about half a small bottle of Balsamic vinegar
- Add 5 tablespoons of sugar to the strawberries and balsamic (or enough so whenever you taste the vinegar has lost some of its acidic taste)
- Put all of this into a pan with NO oil and simmer until the strawberries have cooked and created a ‘jam like’ consistency
- While this simmers you can now start to make the rest of the dessert
- Place the custard into a bowl and add half of a small tub of double cream and stir
- Once the strawberries are almost ‘jam like’ you are ready to construct the dish
- Get a large tall glass and add the custard and cream first
- Add the crushed meringues
- Add the strawberries
- Repeat this until your glass if full
This really is a delicious dessert, very tasty and simple to make.
Enjoy
Categories: Dessert Course > Recipes
