Life is Peachy

Bank holiday Monday was an interesting one for me as it was the first time that my grandparents had come to visit for nearly eight months.

I decided to play safe with my menu choices therefore and for their pudding I returned to a tried and tested favourite of theirs which went down well when I cooked it for them at the August Bank Holiday two years before. I also played safe with my selection of music while preparing the meal with the expanded re-issue of Elvis' Aloha From Hawaii, a record which although it has its share of exciting straight ahead rock and roll also had enough mawkwish elevator music on it to appease my grandparents' conservative tastes.

I dumped a small tub of low fat cheese spread (without wanting to do any product placement I used low fat Philadelphia which worked well) into a mixing bowl together with a teaspoon of grated orange zest, a teaspoon of vanilla essence and three and a half tablespoons of ground almonds. After mixing these ingredients together with a metal spoon I left them to stand in the bowl while I prepared the peaches.

I took five peaches and cut them in half length ways as well as removing the stones from each one. I then placed the halves of the peaches in a high-sighed and newly greased glass baking tray. I spread the cheese, orange zest, vanilla extract and almond mixture evenly over each of the peach halves.

After the peaches had been fully covered with the mixture I cooked them on the baking tray in the oven for twenty minutes at 180 degrees (190 for non-fan ovens). When I took them out of the oven I noticed the edges of the cheese spread had begun to turn brown, which was a sure sign they had been cooked for long enough.

As they were two years previously the peaches stuffed with cheese were very popular with my grandparents and even my granddad (who is a diabetic and dislikes tomatoes) enjoyed them. The spread was not overly sweet but still had enough of a taste to blend with the peaches to make this a top quality but easy to make pudding. It certainly helped put me in my grandparents' good books after our eight month hiatus.

Post cooking- the brown colouring on the cheese is a dead giveaway that the dish cooked properly

Prior to cooking- always make sure the peaches are fully covered in spread.

Oranges are the only fruit

As part of my recent bank holiday cooking project I made a soup using some ingredients I wouldn't normally think of putting together, the result was a soup containing carrots, oranges and leeks.

With Led Zeppelin's perennially underrated final studio album In Through the Out Door on the player I weighed out two pounds of carrots before topping and tailing them, peeling them and then cutting them into small horizontal strips around 2cm wide and 1cm thick. I put the carrots to one side of the chopping board and took two leeks which I sliced into similar size pieces to the carrots. I made sure when preparing the leeks to remove their outer layers and scrub away any dirt caught between these layers. It is often the case that leeks bought from supermarkets, like these were, are quite messy and require a lot of cleaning during preparation.

I put the carrots and leeks into my Le Cresceut dish which I had first covered the bottom of with olive oil. I put the dish on a low light on the hob to cook while I made some orange juice. I squeezed the juice from two  oranges into a measuring jug and after the carrot and leeks had cooked for ten minutes I added the juice to them together with a hint of black pepper. I stirred the contents of the dish to be sure the juice and pepper blended with the vegetables properly prior to adding any more ingredients.

I next grated some of the skin off the oranges I had used to make the juice and added half of the zest I had made the dish and kept the other half for the garnish. After the ingredients had cooked for another five minutes I added a pint and a half of stock to the dish and left it to cook on a low light for around half an hour. Once I was sure the dish was cooked I took it off the heat and left it to cool for about twenty minutes.

After twenty minutes were up I blended the soup on a high setting in order to make it have the consistency of fruit juice from a carton- this was an approach to soup blending I had seen in high class restaurants and I was keen to replicate it with this dish.

I then served the soup with some orange zest and sprigs of parsley atop the bowl. On finishing a helping of the soup I knew that this was one recipe I would re-visit again and again; the orange had the happy ability to make the carrots and leek taste sweet like the tinned vegetables I had as a child but without the unhealthy ingredients found in tinned veg. For that reason alone I would recommend this soup.

Straight after blending- I put the blender on a high setting to give  the soup a light consistency just like they do in Michelin Starred restaurants

Self- made birthday cake

It was my birthday recently and I took it upon myself to make my own cake. I decided to make it by adapting a Victoria Sandwich recipe from an old cookbook from the seventies.

With the overproduced country rock and singer-songwriter stabs of Neil Young's eponymous first album darting out of the speakers I creamed in a bowl four ounces of margarine and four ounces of caster sugar. I knew I had mixed the ingredients together properly because the butter looked like it had fluff on it which told me the sugar had bonded with it.

I next beat two eggs into the mixture while periodically adding four ounces of self-raising flour. Once all the flour had been fully stirred in the cake mix was ready to bake. I greased a 20cm wide and 10cm deep cake tin with margarine and a sprinkling of plain flour.

Before I put the mixture into the tin I used a trick learned from a friend who is a talented cook as well and added 300 millelitres of skimmed milk to the mixture so as to make the sponge light and give it plenty of air.
I then added it to the tin and cooked it in the fanned oven at 170 degrees (180 if your oven isn't a fan one) for forty-five minutes. I knew sponge was ready as when I took it out of the oven it sprung back like a soft mattress when I pressed it with my hand.

While the sponge was on the side cooling I made the butter cream icing by taking a hint of vanilla essence, two ounces of butter and four ounces of icing sugar. I mixed these together in a bowl until I had sticky paste to which I added some red food colouring which dampened the icing a little.

After the sponge had cooled I cut the cake in half widthways and spread half the icing over the bottom half of it so as to form a sandwich. I then spread the other half of the icing on top of the cake. I was a little disappointed as the food colouring had turned the icing pink instead of red and therefore it was clear that aesthetics were not going to be the strong point of this cake.

However the taste was a different story; the sweet , rich buttercream icing was kept from being too overpowering by the light sponge which was helped in its lightness through the addition of the milk prior to cooking.

Cake from Big Pink: the icing may have not been the best colour but it was  certainly tasty enough.

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.