A cookie that even Santa would eat

Our Christmas dinner couldn't go without a dessert, and I had the brilliant idea of making choco-chunk cookies.  I decided to follow Nigella Lawson's recipe.  Prior to eating and cooking my lovely house mates gave me a really cute Santa faced baking tin, and Eva suggested that we use the tin rather than make separate cookies! Pure genius. Why wouldn't we? It's Christmas? Santa...cookies...Santa AS a cookie! Great.

So put everything together, and then started shaping:

Baked... and this is what we got...

We oiled the pan, but it was stuck around the face. Sadly...don't think Santa would come down our chimney to eat this cookie.

Sorry Santa. Maybe next year?!

Sharing the Christmas Cheer

"That time of year" has finally arrived, and what better way to celebrate it than with friends!  This year I decided to keep it simple and intimate. The dinner: simple. The friends: intimate.  But boy! was it a juggling act to make 3 courses with limited kitchenware AND no running water in the kitchen. Nonetheless I succeeded in getting everything done by the time everyone arrived, but of course without lacking some hiccups AND an interesting finale... in the tub (details to follow).

The menu:

Drink: Apricot Bellini

Starter: Scallops with Cauliflower puree and Spanish chorizo

Main: Cannelloni 

Dessert: Choco-Chunk cookies (not really, actually)

The Apricot Bellini was (and is) quite easy to make. For my version I chose to warm the apricots with a bit of caster sugar.  We had to wait a bit for them to cool before pouring the prosecco, obviously.  My house mate, Eva, had some assembly-necessary champagne glasses layin' around so we used those.

What resulted was an-okay tasting Apricot Bellini. I was hoping for there to be more a sugar kick from the fruit and sugar. Though I could taste the apricot, and that's about all I remember about it, I had to keep stirring the glass as the fruit chunks would sink to the bottom! (Note to self: buy a mixer and a shaker). And, I guess they must have been quite good that I had more, many! more, glasses after. I have a nice headache this morning to show for it!

Next up was the starters. I was excited about making the scallops as I've never made them before and they're very simple to make.

For the puree:
1 head of cauliflower--take off the leaves and stems, keep the florets

...just to add: I dislike cauliflower. I cannot remember the last time that I actually ate the veg, but all the recipes call for cauliflower with scallops, so I made this sacrifice for the sake of coking and the pleasure of my friends. (Awwww. What a nice friend I am!).

Okay, so...
Salt
Pepper
Medium-sized sauce pan
cream

This is how I did it:
Put all the cauliflower florets into the pan and covered with water
Boil until the florets were absolutely soft, almost mushy on bite
Drain half the water
Add the cream

Now, before I go on, it important to point out some mistakes that almost cost me the puree, and would have really made the starter quite bland and thus a major FAILURE. First, when the cauliflowers were cooked in the water, I drained the pot, but left half the water.  I then added 200ml single cream to the water and cauliflower and let that boil.

Blitz all the ingredients together

What was then produced was a very, very, very liquidy solution of cauliflower, water, and cream.  Yes, it sounds off-putting but the point is that I needed to bring it "back"; I had to save the puree.

This is the liquid puree.  Though the picture doesn't quiet capture how liquified it was but you see that on the spoon the liquid is quite grainy, rather than smooth. If it was a proper puree it would have a thicker, consistency, it would appear less grainy in this photo.

So I went into A&E mode and began saving my puree. My process was to:

1) dump half the concoction  (I know, I know-- I'm wasting. But honestly, what more could I do with a liquid veg thing that was cooked in milk?)

2) chopped two hand-fulls of baby potatoes

3) boiled the potatoes, dumped the water, added the potatoes into the liquid cauliflower, and blitz everything in the food processor

The puree was SAVED!!!

Okay! So back to the starters:

Slice spanish chorizo into thick slices

Place in a medium frying pan on low-medium pan

Cook long enough that the fat comes out and covers the bottom of the pan

Remove from heat

Take scallops and place into the same pan

*the chorizo oil has now served as a flavourful oil for your scallops

Cook on both sides until a big brown and tender but tough to touch

Dress your plates

I choose to use small plates as they would look more appealing with the size of the scallops.  Most of the recipes that I saw plopped the scallops on the puree, on large plates.  I chose small plates because I thought they looked better in proportion of size.  

MAIN COURSE: CANNELLONI

I went for simple, for this meal. I bought pre-made cannelloni tubes rather than make them at home. When making cannelloni you can't more classic and simple than ricotta with spinach. First, and most importantly, pre-heat the oven at 190C.

500 grams of spinach

300 ricotta

salt

1 egg

pepper

flour

150 g butter

milk

1 tin can (400 g) of chopped tomatoes

1/4 carrot

1/4 celery

small white onion

FOR THE CANNELLONI

Cook the spinach until it is all wilted down

Cool for a bit

Mix in the ricotta and egg

Stuff the Cannelloni tubes

FOR THE BECHAMEL

*A chef friend of mine showed me a really great, and fault-proof way of cooking bechamel

In a medium sauce pan, slowly melt the butter 

Add flour gradually whilst whisking

Continue adding flour until the butter and flour are evenly mixed, should kind of look like sand

Then pour in the milk, slowly and in batches, whilst whisking

Mix and continue mixing until you get a liquid white sauce-- the bechamel

TOMATO SAUCE

Finely chop the carrots, celery, and onions

Sweat these ingredients in a sauce pan

Add the can of chopped tomatoes

Fill the can with water, and add this to the pan

Simmer for 20 minutes

In an oven-proof pan, lightly butter (or oil) the sides and bottom

Fill the cannelloni tubes with the ricotta and spinach mixture

Line the pan with the tubes

Pour the béchamel sauce of the tubes and then the tomato sauce

Cover with parmesan cheese

Place in the oven at 190C

Back for about 30-40 minutes

Serve. Eat. Smile.

Carrot, Beetroot, and Polenta Fish Cakes

I had a really exciting end of the week last week and in the holiday spirit I decided I was going to treat myself to something.  What could this 'something' be? you ask...well, a juicer, OF COURSE! I have been wanting a juicer for a while now but with limited space and the consideration of lugging it around every time I move, I just felt it wasn't the right time. But this weekend the time had arrived.  I went to Argos and got myself a spiffy (and rather, cheap) juicer, then bought carrots, beetroot, and some ginger.  I again stuck to the something familiar to make sure that the juicer (for its cost) was going to be able to stand the...erm...juicing.  After dinner the experimentation began.  I had NO idea that the amount of juice that actually gets excreted out of veggies is like 1/100th of the actual size of the vegetable. So in went the 1kg!! of carrots (uncooked, peeled, and quartered), 4 cooked beetroots, and a thumb-sized, peeled, piece of ginger, and out came about 24oz of a concoction that tasted different every single glass I poured.  Some of the problems we encountered were: 1) the funnel the veggies get pushed through is quite narrowso we weren't able to rapidly throw in chunks of bulky carrots; 2) the juice catcher was quite small and by the time I had pushed through 4-5 carrots, it was almost full and this was before I had even put in the beetroot and ginger; 3) the core of the ginger was quite tough and jammed the juicer, so I had to dissemble it, clean out the filter, and then chop the ginger into small bits; 4) I tried to cut corners by buying pre-cooked beetroot but it is essential to buy raw beetroot, otherwise the juicer can't do it's job; it pushes out a drop of juice and the rest is fiber.

Some of my housemates preferred the juice without the strong taste of the ginger, but I much prefer it with the zing.  Apart from the drinkable stuff, the juicer also chucked out what I like to call the 'veggie fibre'. I'm not sure if this is the "official" name for it but it is the part of the veggies that you chew.  In the end, I had a big collection of veggie fibre that, to the brilliant suggestion of my housemate, I managed to re-juice to extract as much liquid as possible. And as I don't like to waste, especially when it comes to food, I held onto the fibre knowing that I would make good use of it later. In fact, later on that evening I made brownies that called for way too much sugar and the fibre was really sweet from the carrots and beetroot so I halved the sugar and added the fibre.  It worked and apart from the odd chunks of carrot or ginger that weren't processed thoroughly, we couldn't tell that we were eating a dessert with VEGGIES in it.

Now, you may be asking yourself, was the whole point of this blog to document how I juiced and re-used? Well, not really.  What I really wanted to write about was re-using or replacing ingredients with others, as long as you know their potential.  For quite some time I used to be a vegetarian and for a short period I used to be a vegan. All vegans and vegetarians know the challenges of creating yummy foods with alternative ingredients. By "alternative" I really mean using non-meat/animal products in place of where a recipe calls for such.  For example, my friend Leah and I used to make brownies a lot as teenagers and would replace the butter and eggs with apple sauce making them entirely vegan and DELICIOUS! So with this background knowledge and experience I decided I was going to do the same with the veggie fibre. The only problem was: what could I use it for?

The solution: Fish Cakes!

I know this isn't a vegan or vegetarian recipe but take out the fish and add soy protein and you've got yourselves a non-meat-eating-friendly fo-fish cake!

I also used the left overs of polenta from the Monday's brunch.

Ingredients:

250g (8oz) Organic, Authentic Italian Polenta

5 Spring Onions (depends, really on how oniony you want your fish cakes), coarsely chopped

1 Tbsp Salt

1 Tbsp Pepper

100g Organic Salmon

Veggie fibre

Bread Crumbs

Veggie Oil

For the polenta:

In a medium, heavy-bottomed sauce pan, add:

2 cups water

2 cups veggie stock

BRING TO BOIL

Then, add 2 cups of Polenta and stir with a large whisker

Reduce heat and let the polenta pop and bubble

Continue stirring intermittently making sure that the polenta doesn't stick to side or bottom of the pan

When the polenta has finally cooked (and you know by tasting it--it shouldn't be grainy or too mushy)

Turn the heat off, and add 25g (1tbsp) of butter. Mix and let cool

As I mentioned above the polenta made hours before so by the time I used it for this recipe it was very cold, and it should be this way for the fish cakes

For the Salmon:

Grill the fillets for about 2 min on each side, on a low-medium heat

Remove from heat

Break them up into chunks with a wooden spoon

Let cool

If the salmon are still a raw-pink colour in the middle, no worries...remember sushi is raw!

In a large bowl, mix together with a wide-toothed fork:

Cold polenta

Veggie fibre (I have no clue how much I used in the end, but I just added as much as I wanted)

Spring onions

Salt & Pepper

Salmon

I had some left over crispy breadcrumbs from before so I added those for a bit of crunch

Make your fish patties and pat both sides with a bit of fresh breadcrumbs

In a medium pan, heat 2 tbsp veggie oil (don't let it smoke, but make sure it's hot)

Place your fish cakes in the pan and cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side

I ate mine with a mixed green-leaf salad dressed with unfiltered extra virgin olive oil and a couple of squeezes of lemon.

Mistakes: I forgot garlic, which I think would added a nice kick and I probably needed to add more salt than I did (this may be a reoccurring theme).

Success: The fish cakes came out really yummy, and I didn't expect them to.  Usually fish cakes call for potatoes and flour, but I thought that the polenta and fiber would be just as good for making the patties. However, if you expect the fish cakes to have a more starchy consistancy, these won't as the polenta and fiber are quite mushy, if you like, add more salmon (or whatever fish you prefer) for a more tougher chew.

Next time: I think I'll add a bit of English mustard or wasabi in the mix. I have a feeling it will give it a really nice, un-expected kick

Lazy Monday Brunch

So it's the week of Christmas, work has come to a stall, and it's also snowing in London.  Though most people are probably stuck in long queues at the airport or in traffic jams on the highway, my housemates and I found ourselves cozily stuck...at home. And what better thing to do than to brainstorm on a delicious brunch.  The menu: A delicious Polenta with Mushroom Ragu and Poached Eggs.  I first came across this recipe while looking for inspiring cheap and easy-to-make foods. I especially like these bloggers way of documenting their cooking it is unpretentious, simple, and about making good food with good ingredients, at a cheap prices! The result was delicious and I'm sure with a few tweaks (didn't add salt to the polenta, because I was a bit afraid to over-do-it; cook the mushrooms longer, so they are more crunchy-- I stuck to using simple cap mushrooms, because I couldn't find shitake).  The good parts? I was surprised the breadcrumbs came out the way they did and as I have made poached eggs before, didn't botch that up at all.  Improvements: I've got to get the timing right. I made the polenta and cooked it completely before starting the mushrooms.  I ended up plating everything and keeping it in the oven whilst poaching the eggs. So if there are any suggestions on how to get it all done at the same time they are welcome.  I followed the recipe by glancing over the necessary steps and then letting my own experience guide me but this was the first time making this, after all.  And we were all really hungry at that point so I didn't want to gamble with acting like a Pro and multi-tasking the food. Here's to the old adage: practice makes perfect.