Lady Lou's Food for Friends: 2009

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Creme Brulee....far too easy

Now I know some of you will say that this is not the true creme brulee...and you are right. So get yours eggs, milk, vanilla pods etc etc out and stand over a double saucepan for quite some time or just do it without any of that fuss like this.

Make your own custard or even easier, buy it in a carton at the local grocery shop (make sure it is at room temp). Pour it into a heatproof dish eg individual ramikins or a larger dish such as the one on the left. Cover the top with Demerera sugar (not fine Brown sugar) and place under grill on high, being careful to watch the top as it will bubble and then brown and can burn easily if you are not keeping an eye on it. (Alternately use a browning torch which are now available from various kitchen shops). Remove from grill and allow to return to room temp when it will harden and serve with some lovely berries in season and a sprinkle of icing sugar....absolutely delicious.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Pound Cake or should we say Grams Cake!

Yes, it is true, this cake was named Pound cake due to it's ingredients consisting of a pound of this and a pound of that...hence should it be the Grams cake due to metric conversion?

Oven temp: 180C

Ingreds: 250 g butter, 250 g caster sugar, 3-4 eggs (depending on size), 1 tspn vanilla extract, zest of 2 lemons, 250 g SR flour,

Icing: Philadelphia cheese (approx half a block or 1 tub of cheese), lemon juice, icing sugar.

Butter, flour and line a square cake tin with baking paper. Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Add eggs, one at a time, then the lemon zest and vanilla. Sift the flour and fold it in to the mix. Pour out into prepared tin. Cook for 40-50 mins until golden on top and knife returns clean when poked into centre of cake. (This cake can be frozen prior to icing).

Icing: Mix cheese and a couple of tablespoons of juice and enough icing sugar to give you are firm icing consistency. Ice cake when cooled. Absolutely delicious!

Tomato Marmalade

This is my interpretation of traditional fruit marmalade. I have a glut of home grown cherry tomatoes now and I wanted an alternative to tomato sauce. I make a lot of lamb fritters with left over roast lamb to make the fritters. I think they need a slightly sweet accompaniment to them to give them a lift so this is my recipe and it tastes fantastic.

Ingreds: Butter and oil (the mix prevents the butter from burning), finely sliced red onion, brown sugar, Balsamic vinegar, cherry tomatoes cut in halves or quarters.

Method: Melt butter and oil in pan, add onions and saute. Add a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar, Balsamic vinegar and all the tomatoes. Cook on high to reduce the liquid to thicken it, approx 15 mins, stirring occasionally.

This is wonderful served on toast or savoury biscuits too. I have served this wonderful marmalade on top of haggis on biscuits.....my Scottish hubby absolutely loves it this way.

Best scones ever....

These are such a hit..we have made them so many times and yes, we are always asked for the recipe so enjoy.........we discovered the recipe when watching the food channel.....it seems that many cooks/chefs have claimed the recipe....funny that!

Oven temp: 200C -250C - depending on oven....I use 200C.

Ingreds: 500 g SR flour (extra for rolling out) , 250 ml lemonade, 250 ml cream, milk to "wash" tops with. (Jam and whipped cream for serving).

Method: Mix flour, lemonade and cream together in a bowl to form dough. Roll out dough on floured board/bench and cut out using scone cutter/suitable sized glass or whatever takes your fancy.

Place each scone on baking tray, fairly close together. "Wash" each scone top with milk. Place in pre-heated over for approx 15 mins or until tops turn golden brown. Please keep an eye on them as ovens vary and these cook quite quickly. Serve warm with jam and cream.....absolutely fantastic!!!!!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Pumpkin Soup

Fabulously easy and so so yummy.

Ingreds: Butternut pumpkin, peeled and diced, 1-2 large onion peeled and quartered, 1-2 cloves garlic peeled and grated, approx 2 litres of chicken/vegetable stock, oil, cream, salt and pepper.

Method: Place diced pumpkin and onion in a baking dish and coat the veggies with a little oil and salt and pepper. Cook on 200C for approx 30 mins or until just tender. Remove from oven and allow to cool a little. Process/blend the cooled pumpkin and onion. Add this mix to a large pan with the heated stock, salt and pepper to taste and bring to a simmer. When ready to serve add a little cream or milk and mix well. Serve with some crusty bread or garlic/herb bread. Enoy.

Irish Colcannon

I want you to feel very special when you make this wonderful traditional Irish dish. I wrote this down whilst sitting in an Irish pub drinking a pint with my darling hubby at Kings Cross, London last Christmas. We were lucky enough to go over to the UK for Christmas and my hubby and I had a few days without children so we indulged ourselves. I felt like I was 21 again! On the walls of this wonderful pub were various Irish recipes and as I had ordered a meal with Colcannon as the accompanying vegetable dish which was superb, I wrote their recipe down on my BR train ticket (which I have now taped into one of my many personally written but not published recipe books) so here it is....

Ingreds: 8 peeled potatoes, 1 small cabbage washed and shredded coarsley (traditionally the Irish use curly Kale), one eshallot chopped, 1 oz (30 gms) butter (yes they still utilise Imperial measurements in the UK) , 1/3 pint (150 mls) milk, parsley and salt and pepper.

Method: Cook the potatoes in salted water until just tender and mash adding the butter first and then the milk. Cook the cabbage for about 1 minute in salted boiling water. Remove the cabbage from the pan and drain. (Optional: put the cabbage and half the eshallot into a food processor and "blitz" for 10 seconds). Add the spring onion, cabbage and parsley to the mashed potato and mix in. Add salt and pepper to taste....enjoy.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Nigella Beckham's FABULOUS FOOD

Coming soon....FOB's Hot Cross buns and Gingerbread Men......

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Toasted sammies......scrummy

You know I have never really had much luck when it comes to toasted sandwich makers. For some reason, no matter how much butter I put on the external side of my bread, my sandwiches always end up sticking like cement!

Here, however, is a recipe for wonderful toasted sandwiches, which my QH created for us recently. The egg wash really makes them lovely and rich no matter what your filling is.

Ingreds: Butter and oil (for the pan - I use a combination as the oil prevents the butter from burning), bread with crusts removed (or leave them on if you wish), fillings eg cheese, ham, tomato, avocado etc, 2 beaten eggs with a little milk added (egg wash) in a dish which will be able to fit the sandwich in it.

Heat pan on low on stove and add approx 2 tblpsn butter and oil. Take one slice of bread and place your fillings of your liking in centre. Place a second piece of bread on top and seal the edges gently with your fingers by simply pressing down on along each edge and then place the sandwich into the egg wash dish, covering both sides of the sandwich with the wash and then place the sandwich gently onto the heated pan. Watch carefully as these cook quite quickly. The egg wash, I think, acts as a great heat conductor as well as sealing the sandwiches well keeping all the yummy filling nice and snug. Flip sandwich over carefully with an egg lift once golden on first side. Allow to cook on second side, remove and enjoy......really really delicious. Thanks QH, you are a fab cook.

Pizza pizza everywhere

Please try this when you have an hour to prepare....These pizzas are fabulous.

Firstly, make the bread mix as per instructions in my previous posting below and also the tomato sauce as per previous posting too. Heat your grill to a hot temperature. Decide what toppings you will want and prepare eg ham, prawns, sausage (I usually cook sausages prior), pineapple, olives - pitted, anchovies, satay chicken, mozarella cheese or whatever your crew like. As you can see Fob actually made this dough mix - they are her baker's hands - so get the family involved in this one....they will love being able to pick and choose their toppings.

Divide the bread dough into approx 6 portions. Roll a portion out on a floured board to approx 0.5cm thickness. Cover top with tomato sauce and anything else and top with the cheese. Place pizza on some foil and put on top shelf of oven closest to grill area. Watch carefully as depending on the temperature you will only need to cook this for approx 5-7 mins. Once the dough has a golden tinge and cheese has melted and is bubling...remove and cut up. These are delicious and beat any bought pizza hands down!!!!

Banoffee Pie....ooooooh yes please

Wow, you can't beat this for a quick and delicious desert. My family absolutely love this and quite frankly so do I.

Oven temp: 200C then down to 180C

Ingreds: a sheet of short crust pastry (I actually make my own but bought pastry is absolutely fine), 2 tins caramel, cream for whipping, vanilla essence or a tblspn icing sugar, bananas and chocolate to decorate.

Place the pastry on the base of an approx 20 cm pie dish, prick the pastry with a fork and place some foil or baking paper over top and some raw rice or ceramic beads to weigh the paper down as we will need to "blind bake" the pastry. Place the dish in a preheated 200C oven and cook for 10 mins, then reduce the heat to 180C and cook for a further 10 mins then remove the foil/paper and rice/beads and cook pastry for another 10 mins. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Meanwhile whip your cream with a little vanilla essence/icing sugar if you wish. Place in fridge to keep cool. Once pastry shell is cooled to room temp pour caramel into shell and smooth out. Peel and slice the bananas and place on top of the caramel then cover with the whipped cream. Sprinkle some grated chocolate over the top to make it look pretty! Too easy.

Now see if your family will allow you to place the finished pie in the fridge as my family have supersonic hearing and just know the minute I have finished assembling this pie and consumption time is unable to be recorded!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Bread-a-licious

I know, many of you will say no way to making bread and that is fine. I however absolutely love this bread (which really needs to be eaten the day of cooking or at least the next day

) as I add my own flavours to it and turn it into Italian or whatever. It is very easy.

Oven temp: 200C. Two round cake tins.

Ingreds: 200 g fine semolina flour, 800 g plain or bakers flour, 2 x 7 g sachets of yeast (Tip: Store your yeast in the fridge and it will last quite a while), 1 tblspn caster sugar, warm water approx 700 ml (warm from the tap is fine) and anything you want to add eg olives, basil, sundried toms, garlic (crushed), herbs of your choosing etc.

Method: Mix the flours together in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Add 325 ml of warm water to the centre and mix in the yeast and sugar with a fork, remembering not to disturb the flour surrounding the well. Let sit for about 2 mins and you should see the yeast/sugar mix start bubbling. Mix in with fork until you get a consistency similar to porridge. Add a further 325 ml warm water and mix. Knead for 5 mins and then remove the dough and spray the bowl lightly with oil (or wipe with some butter or oil) as this will stop the dough from sticking. Place the mix back into the bowl and cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap and allow to sit for 20 mins. This will it allow to "prove"....I just love that word. Cup of tea time while you wait then.......

Remove towel and punch centre with your fist.....very therapeutic.....allowing the air to escape. Roll out half of the dough and add your own goodies at this stage. I usually make one loaf with added herbs etc and leave the other plain. Place the dough in oiled round cake tins and again cover with towel and alow them to prove for another 20 mins. Place in oven, middle shelf and back for 25-35 mins. Fabulous to serve at BBQ lunch or wherever.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Seafood Pasta

Too easy....

Ingreds: packet of pasta/spaghetti/linguini (enough for your family), seafood collection (I use the marinara mix I buy frozen from my local fish shop or buy fresh eg mussels, prawns, calamari, scallops etc), enough oil for cooking onions, 1 clove garlic - crushed, diced onion, 1/2 cup white wine or champas, 1 cup cream, cornflour and water mix, salt and pepper. Heated garlic/herb bread-optional.

Method: Boil enough water with a little salt for your pasta. Add pasta and boil for recommended time. At the same time over a moderate heat, add the oil to a pan along with garlic and onion. Cook until onion is translucent. Add white wine/champas and cream. Bring to boil and add the cornflour and water mix, stirring until mix is thickened well. Reduce heat to low and add seafood, stiring occasionally and until seafood is cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste. Drain pasta and serve with seafood sauce and some lovely garlic/herb bread.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Vietnamese dressing.......fab for salads

Easy peasy dressing for salads.....

1 long chilli, chopped and deseeded, 1tblspn grated ginger, 1 clove grated garlic, 1/4 cup fish sauce, 1/4 cup water, sugar, 1tbspn lime juice, red wine vinegar, a few drops of soy sauce, chopped mint and coriander.

Mix together so that sugar is dissolved....pour over your favourite salad. This is fab over a beef or lamb salad.

Lemon Tart......gorgeous

This is one of my all-time favs....

Temp 200C for tart shell then 150C for completion of tart.

Ingreds: 1-2 sheets shortcrust pastry (no I don't make my own though one day I will), 1 tblspn finely grated lemon rind, 1/2 cup lemon juice, 5 eggs, 3/4 cup caster sugar, 300ml thickened cream.

Place pastry gently into a slightly oiled tart container, press sides to fit and trim. Place a large sheet of baking paper to fit snugly in tart shell and pour

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Wonderful Tomato Sauce

This is too easy to be real. You can use this sauce in a plethora of other recipes eg the base sauce for your bolognaise, a pizza sauce, savoury quiche base mixes and I have also used this in my bread making experiments for flavoured breads. Marvellous.

Ingredients: A little olive oil, a crushed clove of garlic, 1-2 onions peeled and diced; 1-2 cans of tomatoes, diced or whole; salt and pepper and if you are as clever as me, some home-grown oregano, basil and thyme picked fresh from the garden......bliss!

Method: Very easy. Pour a little oil into moderately warm pan and add onions and garlic and cook til onion is just translucent. Add tinned toms and stir well. Now, people will tell you not to cut the basil with a knife as this bruises it and it loses some of it's flavour, so, just to please them, I rip the basil up with my fingers, followed by tearing the thyme leaves off the gorgeously fine stems and the same with the oregano. There is no need to use the knife here as the leaves are small enough. Mix well and add salt and pepper to taste.

Lady Lou's Food for Friends