Green King

With the season for certain fresh vegetables drawing quickly to a close I recently took some time out to make a mint and green pea soup while fresh peas were still in season.

As I began the rather dull task of shelling nearly one pound of garden peas I put on the CD player Led Zeppelin's fifth album Houses of the Holy; a record which brilliantly combines hard rock brutality with shimmering ambient passages.

After  the peas were prepared and washed I cut up into fine pieces two white onions and then sliced up three medium sized potatoes. I next poured some cooking oil into a high sided pan and lightly fried the potatoes and onions with a teaspoon of black pepper for ten minutes stirring them occasionally to avoid them sticking to the pan.

I then took four small sprigs of fresh mint from the garden and added them to pan together with a tablespoon of dried mint, a pint of chicken stock and the fresh peas. I stirred these items into the potatoes, onions and pepper and left them to stew on a low light on the hob for forty-five minutes.

After forty-five minutes I turned the hob off and left the pan and its contents to cool for an hour. I then blended the contents of the pan and returned it to the pan. Some recipes for soup of this type suggest mixing cream into the soup at this stage but I prefer to use plain pro-biotic yogurt as it lends flavour to the soup without making it unnecessarily rich.

The results were well worth the earlier tedium of shelling all the peas as the fresh mint, peas and yogurt gave the soup a refreshing taste which helped me to cool down after experiencing a large dose of very humid weather earlier in the day. If you get the chance to before fresh peas go out of season I certainly recommend making this soup.

The finished soup; a luxury that can only be enjoyed at its best when fresh  peas are in season

Chili from scratch

Last Sunday having wound down sufficiently from an excellent night out comprising of first rate Italian Food and even better company I decided to follow the lead of one of the guests at the meal who has a great talent for cooking homemade chili.

The record on the player for this piece of cookery was Neil Young's 1974 dark yet triumphant epic On the Beach which covers topics including divorce, drugs, vampires, music critics, Young's first band and ambulances . The album was unavailable on CD until 2003 which is why it is perhaps one of his most overlooked albums despite being one of his best.

I took three garlic cloves and three red onions and sliced them finely. I find that when making chili the taste of red onions is better suited to the overall flavour of the dish than white onions. I poured some olive oil into the bottom of my Le Cresceut dish and then added the garlic and onions together with half a box of Quorn Mince. At the same time I put half a tea spoon of paprika in the dish together with a hint of chili oil, which was part of a chili gift set two of the guests at the meal the previous night had kindly bought me. When making dishes of this type it is crucial to put your spices in right at the start of the cooking process so as to get the best flavour out of them. I let the ingredients cook on a low light for about ten minutes and stirred them thoroughly on occasion to stop them sticking.

In the meantime I cut up a large yellow pepper and after the spices, onions and garlic had cooked for ten minutes I added the pepper. I let the pepper cook for around twenty-five to thirty minutes. I find pepper can be pretty tricky to cook properly and there is always the danger of under cooking it which then allows it to ruin the dish it is part of. In this case by cooking it for the length of time I did I was able to ensure the pepper was cooked properly.

I next added three quarters of a pint of vegetable stock and a tin of mixed chili beans. I stirred them into the other ingredients and left the contents to cook on a low light for another half and hour so as to be sure the flavours blended together.

This dish is best with rice and on this occasion I served it with some long grain rice that I prepared by boiling it for twenty minutes. The taste of the food was among the best I have experienced this summer: the chili oil and paprika carried a distinct taste without overwhelming the unique taste of the mixed beans and the vegetables. The rice and homemade cheese and onion bread that accompanied the meal were enough to offset effectively the taste of the chili and paprika.

Chili with long grain rice -a winning combination

Cheese and Onion Bread

I first road tested this recipe during Christmas 2011 when I made it for a wine & cheese evening at a friend's house. I decided to cook it especially for this blog today having had my memory refreshed by the same friend about the recipe at an Italian Themed Birthday Party the previous night.

The album of choice for cooking the bread was Neil Young's 1987 effort 'Life' which was his last record with the Geffen label and first for the best part of a decade with his longtime backing band Crazy Horse. The album was his first step back onto a positive path and mixed songs packed with atmospheric drum machines and synthesizers and expansive acoustic numbers.

I poured 12 ounces of white bread flour into a bowl together with a sachet of yeast, an ounce of margarine and a beaten egg. I mixed the ingredients together with a metal spoon while periodically adding a quarter of a pint of milk. The mixture soon became sticky and then dried like wet cement so I added small amounts of white bread flour to it and tested my limited upper body strength by stirring hard at it until it formed a large ball of dough.

I left the dough on an upstairs window sill in the full gaze of the late summer sun and after an hour it had risen considerably. While the dough rose I cut up a red onion and fried it in a shallow frying pan for twenty minutes until it was golden brown. I then left the contents of the pan on the side as the dough continued to rise.

Once the dough had risen I rolled it out until it covered the surface area of a medium sized dinner plate. I then spread the onions evenly on top together with a hint of black pepper and some grated Red Leicester cheese. I then pulled the edges together so they formed a parcel. After this I cut six slits at equal points apart in the top of the bread and brushed the dough with milk.

Rolled out with the filling on top. 

On this occasion I cooked the bread on a deep baking tray at 170 degrees in a fan oven for forty-five minutes, as I was cooking my birthday cake at the same time. Normally however I would recommend cooking this bread on about 200 degrees ( in a fan oven or 210 for a non-fan oven) for twenty five minutes.

Folded up and ready for the oven. 

The trick in ensuring that the bread is cooked properly is to check that the edges are a golden brown. If you can push a skewer through it that comes out clean this also means that it is ready.

This is one of my favourite breads as the cheese and onion filling is not too overpowering a taste and it complements the thick spongy bread. This was certainly the opinion of the friends I cooked it for at the wine & cheese night judging by the positive feedback I received on Facebook after the event last Christmas.

Ready to eat: on this occasion with home made vegetarian chili 

Toad in the Hole with a Twist

On Sunday afternoon I wanted to wind down after an exciting Saturday afternoon playing cricket against a decidedly rough bunch of blokes and having a very early Sunday morning get up to some charity work. As there was a bit of rain in the air and the temperature was a little cooler than usual for this time of year I decided to make a traditional cooked dish eaten more commonly in winter.

I say 'traditional dish' but the Toad in the Hole I chose to make had one important difference; the sausages were Quorn ones which contained no meat whatsoever. The soundtrack for this part of today's cooking was the Grateful Dead's eponymous debut album which is far removed from the spaced out live jams they are known for and instead comprises of a short, sharp mix of blues, folk and garage rock.

I made the batter by making a well in a mixing bowl with four ounces of plain floor and then poured the contents of one egg into the middle of the well. I gradually added the flour to the egg whilst at the same time adding periodically half a pint of milk until I had a reasonably thick mixture.

As I always do with batter mixtures I left it to stand in the bowl for about an hour. After an hour I poured enough cooking oil into a 25cm wide and 5cm deep baking tray to just cover the bottom of the tray. I then added the batter mixture to the tray and spaced out evenly four vegetarian sausages in the tray.

I cooked the Toad in the Hole for twenty-five minutes at 210 degrees (220 for non-fan ovens) until the batter was golden brown and the sausages were a deep shade of ocher.

The resulting meal was every bit as tasty as a traditional Toad in the Hole as the batter was cooked enough not be sloppy but still moist enough not to be too crisp. The sausages had the same taste as normal meat ones but without the worry of having any fat or gristle to pick out. To complement the dish I served it with homemade onion gravy, mashed potato and boiled peas.

Out of the oven and ready to eat; I cooked it for just the right amount of time to avoid the sausages and batter burning. 

French Connection

It had been a weekend that could be described as being eventful and varied; the cricket team I play in had obtained a hard fought win to move out of the relegation zone, I had been to a chili and chess evening, I'd managed to play my best round of golf all year plus I had the prospect of a trip to watch some live Olympic sport to look forward to.

I realised that the best place to come and wind down between all the excitement was in the kitchen by making some French Onion Soup. The album of choice for preparation of the soup was the laid back ambient, synth-based rock of Neu 75 by Krautrockers Neu! The music on this record was shamelessly ripped off by David Bowie two years later for his, admittedly superb, albums Low and Heroes.

I took five large white onions and fried them on the hob on a medium heat in some olive oil in my Le Cresceut dish. In order to make sure they were the correct texture and soft enough for the soup I covered the dish with a lid and stirred the onions every five minutes or so to make sure they did not stick to the pan. I repeated this process for around thirty minutes until the onions were slightly transparent and a golden brown colour.

When the onions were properly cooked I took the leaves from four sprigs of thyme and mixed them with the onions together with some white pepper and two bay leafs. I cooked the mixture on a low heat for five minutes and then added a pint and a quarter of chicken stock.

If you like your soup to be a bit alcoholic, not mention giving it a much richer flavour, you can add a quarter of a pint of red wine to the mixture. However I chose not to on this occasion as I was also having a dish that contained half a pint of cider.

Not just like eating a bowl of gravy- the soup prior to the addition of the bread

Once the soup had cooked on a low heat for twenty minutes I poured it into individual serving bowls and placed half a slice of buttered bread on top of each bowl with a generous helping of grated Parmesan on each piece of bread. I then put the bowls under the heated grill for around two minutes to toast the bread. I should point out that you need to use bowls that are oven proof when you grill the bread on top of them. Once the bread was grilled the soup was ready.

The use of the thyme, Parmesan covered bread and bay leafs was enough to make this a worthwhile soup and stop it feeling like I was simply eating a large bowl of gravy. However next time I will definitely put some red wine into the mixture to give it a richer taste.  

The freshly toasted bread complete with melted Parmesan and butter  atop it

Transatlantic Fruit Salad

On a sunny March afternoon earlier this year as I prepared myself to head to a friend's house for an overdue catch up I decided I fancied making something suitably refreshing as a result of the un-seasonal summery sunshine.

The soundtrack was the Rolling Stones' somewhat lethargic live double album Love You Live from 1977 which, although it contains a lot of unfocused playing in large stadiums, redeems itself with four excellent blues and rock 'n' roll songs recorded on stage in a very small and intimate club.

The dish I made was a Pear, Cinnamon and Pomegranate Fruit Salad which is recipe that is popular across the Atlantic in North America. The recipe itself is pretty straightforward but consuming the finished product is a slightly different matter.

I first took three pears, peeled them and then cut them into baton shapes before placing them into a glass serving bowl. It's true to say that pears have a reputation as being very sloppy and therefore after preparing them I made sure that I cleaned my hands thoroughly.

The next task was even more messy; preparing a pomegranate. I first removed the skin with a peeler and then ripped out the cardboard membrane with my bare hands to leave lots of red and magenta seeds that were very juicy. I added the seeds to the pear batons in the bowl and mixed them well together.

I followed up by taking a lemon and squeezing half of its juice over the pomegranate seeds and the pear pieces. I then found a separate bowl and added two tablespoons of brown sugar, quarter of a teaspoon of nutmeg and half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the bowl and stirred them all together. I then added this fine smelling mixture of seasoning to the bowl of fruit and mixed it in until the fruit turned a muddy colour.

This New World fruit salad was now ready, but what would it taste like? I have to say I am not usually a fan of English fruit salads as they are usually a banal mixture of oranges, strawberry, banana and kiwi fruit- food that in my view should never be seen dead in the same bowl. However this fruit salad was a revelation; the cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg elevated the taste of the pears and the pomegranate juice into something special. I felt that I had been transported three months forward into mid-summer so much did the taste evoke  sunny Sunday afternoons sitting in the garden. The only downside to the dish is that each of the pomegranate seeds needs chewing individually to get the goodness out of it and then the husk needs to be thrown away as it cannot be eaten safely. Still as the fruit salad's taste is top quality this tedious job is well worth it for such a rewarding meal.

In the serving bowl and ready to eat- but be ready to pick through those Pomegranate seeds

Lemon and Lime Cake

Today I was feeling slightly tired as I had spent the previous day partying hard in Sheffield for the wedding of two good friends I had known since school. I therefore decided to make something that was quite light and also refreshing bearing in mind how dehydrated I was from consuming champagne the previous day.

The soundtrack for the cooking of the lemon and lime cake was the Who's 1973 double album Quadrophenia, a record that was often on my cassette player during some of the most memorable moments I had shared at school with the two friends who had just married.

I started by greasing a 25cm wide and 10cm deep baking tin with margarine and a dusting of plain flour in order to prevent the cake from sticking to it. I then grated the zest of a lemon into a bowl and mixed it with a tablespoon of vanilla extract, 8 ounces of caster sugar and 8 ounces of margarine.

After I had mixed these ingredients together so that the sugar disappeared into the margarine I beat four eggs together in a separate bowl and then added a quarter of egg mixture to the bowl of ingredients. I then measured out 8 ounces of self-raising flour and added a quarter of the flour to the bowl. I mixed the eggs and flour thoroughly into the other ingredients. I then repeated this process with the remainder of the eggs and the flour until they were completely integrated into the other ingredients.

The Sponge Mixture prior to cooking, it's pretty runny as this is a light cake. 

After this I poured the mixture into the baking tin and baked it in the oven at 160 degrees in my fanned oven (or 180 degrees if you have a regular oven) for around fifty-five minutes. I knew the cake was ready as when I put a skewer through it none of the mixture was attached to it.

I left the cake to cool down for an hour or so and then cut it in half width ways. I spread half a jar of lime curd in the centre of the bottom half of the cake and then placed top half of the cake onto the bottom half to form a sandwich. I finished the cake by sprinkling a dusting of icing sugar on the top it.

The cake lived up to expectations when I had a piece as its light sponge and the lime curd were the perfect refresher after the excitement of the previous day.  

Dusted with icing sugar and ready to eat. 

The Lime Curd in the middle of the cake.