Tangy blackberry and apple tart recipe
The success of Orangette’s Apricot Tart fired up my baking enthusiasm and I planned to make the same again when my mum came to lunch on Sunday. I decided to follow Orangette’s pastry recipe exactly – using all butter this time. Fresh apricots were on the shopping list until I spotted some plump juicy blackberries in the garden. Why buy fruit when we have free fruit hanging on our fence? In twenty minutes I had picked enough to cover the base of the pie, plucked a cooking apple from our tree. I devised an alternative filling...
read moreGuest spot: how to build a home cold smoke room and a smoke generator by Smoking Methusala
Here is the second part of Smoking Methusala’s post. Here he gets down to the nitty gritty. Smoking Methusala’s cold smoker journey. Part two. Here are the instructions for creating both the home built smoke room and the smoke generator. Making the smoke room: The fridge part is easy. Assuming you have a larder fridge with no freezer box in it and the cooling element is a panel at the back of the fridge. Remove any internal bits like the on off switch, light and leave the gas parts in place as they will cause no problem left in...
read moreGuest spot: preparing to build a cold smoker by Smoking Methusala
I’ve been chatting to Smoking Methusala for a while. He cures and smokes his own bacon on a hillside in Wales. He has agreed to share his knowledge with all would be bacon smokers out there. I’ve heard of a man who smokes fish and bacon in an old wardrobe but this story takes the ticket for best smoking tale that I’ve read so far. Smoking Methusala’s cold smoker journey. Part one. I’m going to tell you a something about our setup here. We live in a little Welsh village, way up in the mountains in a very isolated...
read moreDanny’s zingy mushrooms recipe
There’s nothing like chilling in someone else’s garden on a Bank Holiday Monday. It might be the last day of the three day weekend but a day snatched from the working week makes it extra special. I used to work on Bank Holidays. Now I try and take the time off. My clients expect me to curl up for the day and it’s a chance to catch up, flop and appear vaguely normal. Last Monday we enjoyed a few hours with Tessa and Colin having lunch in their garden. Their pair of ducks had produced five tiny ducklings two months ago. These...
read moreBirthday food: Gambas al pil pil recipe revisted
It’s Danny’s birthday. “What would you like to eat this evening?” “Well, I don’t know really.” “How about Diana Henry’s Spiced Chicken breasts on melting onions with preserved lemon? They’re delicious Even Bunty asked for the recipe.” “They sound great but I don’t remember them.” But I couldn’t find the chicken breasts in the freezer. “How about a takeaway from Arif?” D’s eyes lit up. This Indian restaurant is very good since they...
read moreOrangette’s apricot tart recipe
A couple of years ago I found a wonderful blog – Orangette. I read her post on bananas and was totally hooked. In fact, I often think about that post. Her writing is superb, it nips you gently and you remember it forever. A week or so ago a new friend emailed me. She had tried out Orangette’s recipe for apricot tart. Apparently it was dazzling. My friend’s a wonderful writer and the combination of two good writers and one great recipe made me desperate to make this delicacy for our next supper party. Even though I don’t...
read moreThe Pickled Walnuts project: stage two. Plus original recipes for spiced pickling vinegar
Good pickled walnuts are a wonderful accompaniment to strong cheese or cold meat. They are an English tradition. Often they are made with malt vinegar and can be very challenging to eat. This year I was determined to try to make the ultimate pickled walnut. Part one of the challenge can be perused here. After the two week saline soak (changing the solution after one week) I rinsed the walnuts and moved them down to the greenhouse to dry. This can take from 3-5 days. They turn a greyish black quite quickly. Not knowing how black the walnuts...
read moreCrisp fried or baked cheese recipe
“Even though we’d been vegetarians for years we sometimes had a yearning for bacon.” Teresa was running a vegetarian restaurant at the time. “What did you do?” I imagined Teresa hot footing down to the local town wearing a large brimmed hat and scoring a wad of bacon from a backstreet butcher. “We fried cheese.” Her face softened with the memory. “How on earth do you fry cheese?” “It’s easy. Grab a non stick frying pan. Heat it to a medium temperature and cut your cheese fine....
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