Fritter and taste

The third weekend in January was very much one that was all about overcoming illness and generally taking it easy. However as the weekend wore on I began to feel a little fitter and on the Sunday evening I felt well enough to make some simple but tasty food in the shape of some sweetcorn fritters.

I first had sweetcorn fritters over Christmas when visiting a Thai takeaway restaurant out of town with some new company. I was impressed by their taste and despite feeling like I was about to fall to sleep at any time I resolved to work hard to make my fritters as tasty and flavoursome as those I had sampled over Christmas. I also wanted to ensure the fritters came out successfully this time round as  I once tried to cook potato fritters at a cookery class as a schoolboy and failed epically on that occasion.

I took a nine ounce can of sweetcorn and drained the water from it using a colander. I then put half of the sweetcorn in a food processor and blended it on a medium setting in the blender. Next I place two ounces of plain flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, a well beaten egg and three tablespoons of soy sauce into the blender and blended the ingredients again on a medium setting.

I added the contents of the blender to a mixing bowl with the rest of the sweetcorn and two teaspoons of ground coriander. I then took a medium-sized frying pan and covered the bottom with olive oil which I then heated lightly. After the oil had reached the right temperature I added three separate pieces of the mixture, each was about three centimetres by three centimetres, and fried them for around five minutes until the underneath had solidified and began to brown.

The key part of preparation was about to follow as I used a wooden spatula to flip the fritters and fry the other side. The test with the turning of the fritters is to make sure the underneath is solid enough that when it comes to be flipped it does not fall apart. After frying the fritters for five minutes on the other side I served them as a starter to my main course of artichoke and tomato frittata.

The fritters were everything they had promised to be and more as the sweetcorn and egg made them substantial without being too filling while the coriander and soy sauce provided a taste as authentic as that to be found at any Thai or Chinese Restaurant.

Golden Brown- these fritters certainly turned out better than those I made at school several years previously

Let the Barley Grow

The penultimate weekend in November saw me make a typical winter soup to match the cooler weather that was now starting to arrive my area. In times gone by Pearl Barley was a staple ingredient of many winter soups made in this country and I decided to honour that tradition by making a soup using this interesting foodstuff.

I peeled, top and tailed and diced two carrots, two white onions and a leek which I proceeded to gently fry in some olive oil in my Le Cresceut dish with six ounces of Pearl Barley and the leaves from five stalks of fresh Thyme. I stirred the ingredients constantly for around fifteen minutes so as to ensure that they did not stick to the bottom of the dish before adding a pint of chicken stock to it and letting the ingredients stew on a medium heat for a further half an hour.

After this I let the dish cool, blended the contents, reheated it and then served it. Despite having no actual meat in,other than an essence of chicken with the stock, the presence of the Thyme and Barley brought back memories of the rich chicken casseroles made by my Grandmother in years gone by. This in turn in my mind pushed the clock back to the tastes and smells of meals produced in the kitchens of Old England.

Chicken Casserole Puree anyone?

Parkin of the North

Towards the bank end of November having digested the memorable, albeit a little over-complex, fiftieth anniversary episode of Doctor Who I elected to make something suitably fortifying to keep my energy levels up in the form of Parkin.

I had rediscovered my love for Parkin the previous summer when I received some from some good friends based in Shipley as part of a Yorkshire Hamper that they very kindly got me for my birthday present. I tried with this recipe to emulate the excellent Parkin I found in the Yorkshire Hamper.

I stirred together in a mixing bowl four ounces of self-raising flour, four ounces of porridge oats, four ounces of caster sugar and one teaspoon of ginger. Next I stirred in four ounces of margarine, which I had first allowed to get to room temperature so it was easier to mix in, which made the mixture resemble a thick paste. In order to soften up the ingredients a little I added a tablespoon of Golden Syrup, a beaten egg and a tablespoon of milk and stirred them all into the mixture. Once all the elements were properly stirred together I put them in a high-sided thoroughly greased baking tray and cooked them for 20 minutes at 170 degrees, or 180 degrees for non-fan ovens.

After turning the Parkin out onto a wire rack and letting it cool I cut it into medium-sized squares to prepare it for consumption. Its taste was sweet due to the syrup and sugar but also a little stodgy due to the flour and the oats which made it perfect material to fuel long winter walks with my dog.

                                     
                                          Thick, full of oats and ready to eat.

Risotto from the East

Yesterday was a funny old day but one that was typical of how I have spent a lot of January days over the years as during the preceding week I had picked up a bit of a chest infection that had caused me to have a rare day off work and this weekend had still laid me low and disrupted my plans.

Apart from a quick and necessary trip to the hairdressers and a short walk round the block with my dog to try and get my bearings, I was stuck inside. However this didn't stop me from trying out a new cooking project and to help me overcome illness I opted for a risotto using several infection- busting ingredients.

I needed some bright and positive music from my record collection to help me get in the right frame of mind to cook and looked no further than Stevie Wonder's 1976 masterpiece 'Songs in the Key of Life". The album is one the best of all time and you cannot help but love Wonder's infectious enthusiasm for the music and lyrics that comes across throughout its duration. It has everything from infectious funk ("I Wish" "As") to strong and emotive ballads ("Have a talk with God" "Joy Inside My Tears").

I peeled and cut finely a two inch by one inch piece of Ginger Root and then finely sliced two large Garlic bulbs after first topping and tailing the Garlic bulbs. These powerful and tasting fresh ingredients were just the sort of thing to cut through my blocked- up synapses. I then took a bunch of Spring Onions, washed the dirt from them and then cut the bottom parts and the superfluous long stems forming the top parts off them.

I added the ingredients to a frying pan I had first covered the base of with sunflower oil and fried them for around fifteen minutes with half a teaspoon of black pepper, two teaspoons of ground Coriander and the juice of one Lime. Having eaten at numerous oriental restaurants over the years I have found that Lime is a key ingredient of many dishes.

After around fifteen minutes I added eight ounces of risotto rice and stirred it thoroughly into the other ingredients for one minute. I also at this time poured half teaspoon of Soy Sauce into the ingredients. I then added half a pint of vegetable stock and mixed it continuously into the other ingredients. I repeated this trick with a further three half-pints of stock until the rice became soft and bloated but there was still enough liquid in the pan for the ingredients to float in.

The risotto was now ready and I served it with a side dish of Prawn Crackers. The unique, soft taste of the Prawn Crackers coupled with the strong flavours of the Spring Onions, Ginger, Garlic and Lime plus the rich rice and stock made this a dish with plenty of strength and also protein to help me start to shake off my traditional January illness.

The Risotto featuring some tasty Prawn Crackers

 

Boxing Day Clever

On Boxing Day it's a tradition in our house to have my grandparents over for a meal. As they're both in their eighties and my granddad is now diabetic it has become a little more difficult to prepare a healthy meal for him that he can still enjoy.

However this Boxing Day I was able to achieve this objective. The albums that provided the soundtrack to the preparation were Scott Walker's early seventies country rock excursions "Stretch" and "We had it all" which I had recently bought on a CD reissue which grouped them both together. Although some of it was cheesy MOR music the presence of Walker's un-matchless and rich voice lifted both albums above the ordinary.

The first part of the meal involved making a Yorkshire Pudding mixture using four ounces of flour, half a pint of milk and three ounces of dried sage all of which I stirred together and left in a mixing bowl to set.

I then took my Le Cresceut dish and soaked the bottom with olive oil. I next topped and tailed five carrots, peeled them and diced them. I did the same with three large parsnips and lightly fried them in the Le Cresceut dish with some fresh thyme leaves for around twenty minutes until the carrots and parsnips began to soften and could be cut into fairly easily with the edge of a tablespoon.

While the vegetables fried I topped, tailed and peeled ten shallots before slicing them thinly and adding them to the Le Cresceut dish. I proceeded to fry them until they became transparent and made sure I stirred regularly the contents of the dish to prevent it from sticking to the bottom.

I then added five frozen vegetarian sausages which were fried for twenty minutes, which was about the same length of time it took for the shallots and the other vegetables to be properly cooked.

While the root vegetables and sausages cooked in the Le Cresceut I boiled ten ounces of red lentils in a pan for around fifteen minutes until they were soft and had turned a pale yellow, which indicated they were cooked properly. I drained the lentils and added them to the Le Cresceut dish together with a pint of vegetable stock, as by now the root vegetables had softened enough to have liquid added to them. I then slowly stewed on the hob the dish for thirty minutes adding some frozen peas as I did so.

At the same time as adding the lentils and vegetable stock to the Le Cresceut I put the Yorkshire Pudding mixture into an oiled baking dish and cooked it in the oven at 210 degrees (220 for non-fan ovens) for 30 minutes which meant that that casserole I had created in the Le Cresceut and the Yorkshire Pudding were ready at the same time.

The resulting dish provided a rich and filling meal that contained enough ingredients to allow my grandad to enjoy it with the rest of the family and importantly have a meal that was of the traditional type that he enjoys but which is also very good for his health.

Casserole and Yorkshire Pudding: all for a Boxing Day Tea.

Stars in your Eyes

Pie is one of my favourite savoury dishes. In my experience even the poorest restaurants that can't even make tomato soup from a can taste nice somehow can make a half-decent pie. I was certainly in need of a pie to fortify me on the penultimate Saturday of November as I had managed just five hours sleep the night before following my re-election as secretary of the local cricket club at its Annual General Meeting.

The month of December was soon going to be on me so I elected to make a pie that I often have at this time of year. The recipe is derived from a dish sometimes known as a Starry Vegetable Pie. However I have my own way of preparing the vegetables that improves on the original recipe.

I first took three large Sweet Potatoes, half a large Swede and four Carrots and peeled them as well as topping and tailing the Carrots and the Sweet Potatoes. I then cut these vegetables into small centimetre squared cubes, which in the case of the Swede was no mean feat considering it was tough and wiry and as anyone who has prepared Swede will tell you this makes it exceptionally difficult to peel and cut.

I steamed the vegetables for around twenty minutes until they were soft enough for a fork to go through them without too much trouble. I then left the vegetables in a sieve and covered the sieve with a pan lid to keep the vegetables warm.

In the meantime I put two diced red onions and four finely sliced cloves of garlic into pan with half a pint of vegetable stock and half a pint of red wine, seventy five grams of puy lentils and seventy five grams of red lentils and a quarter of a pint of boiling water and simmered the contents of the pan fiercely for around half an hour. So as to ensure the pan did not boil dry I topped it up periodically with cold water and wine. After half an hour when the lentils had softened I added some sprigs of fresh Rosemary and let the contents of the pan stew slowly on the hob until there was enough liquid to cover the other ingredients but not too much that the rest of the contents of the pie when cooked would be drowned.

While the lentil mixture stewed on the hob I made the puff pastry that the filling of the pie was to be contained inside. The way to make the pastry is to first use the same technique as that used to make shortcrust pastry, i.e. by taking ten ounces of plain flour and five ounces of margarine and working them into fine breadcrumbs before using some milk or water to bind them into a pastry until you have a pliable pastry dough.

The way to make puff pastry from this point is to roll the pastry out flat and then fold half of it towards the centre of the pastry that has been rolled out and then roll the pastry with a rolling pin. This technique should be repeated around ten times so the pastry has plenty of air in it.

When the pastry was completely rolled I used half of it to line two centimetre deep and twenty-five centimetre wide pie dish, which I had previously greased. I then added the steamed vegetables, twenty five grams of crushed walnuts and the lentil mixture which I poured on top of the vegetables so that a proportion of the liquid they had been cooked in filtered evenly throughout the pie.

I then squeezed the juice of half a lemon onto the filling of the pie and then covered it with the remaining pastry making sure to press the edges of the pastry that topped it into the edges of the pastry covering the bottom of the dish. I then cut three slits in the top of the pie to allow some of the heat to escape during cooking and brushed the pastry with skimmed milk to keep it from drying up when in the oven.

I cooked the pie in the oven for 30 minutes at 170 degrees (180 for non-fan ovens) until the edges became a golden brown colour and then served it with some boiled peas. The pie proved to have a rich taste thanks to the wine, pastry and the rosemary while the lentils provided plenty of protein and the vegetables gave much substance to the dish. This pie certainly ticked all the boxes for being a fortifying winter meal.

Golden brown at the edges and ready to serve

A cross section of the pie midway through the meal. 

Hearts of Artichoke

After a chilled out Friday in mid-November at the local snooker club with an ex-work colleague I followed it up with another mellow Saturday and Sunday of quiet winter walks and early nights due to a number of active things I had been involved in over the last month or so finally catching up with me.

On the Sunday afternoon I made a soup that I had been meaning to for some time but had been stopped by the fact that I had not been able to find a supplier of artichoke locally until I recently discovered a niche supermarket out in the sticks that sells canned artichoke hearts.

Today's album on the player was Yes' 1977 offering Going for the One. The band have created some excellent music over their career that rocks and is pretty atmospheric. However to be fair to their critics they have also been responsible for some genuine rubbish. It is perhaps for this reason that the NME once described them as the worst band ever, obviously the NME had not heard Blue, Hearsay or One True Voice before coming to this rather unfair judgment on the band.

As the pounding title track of the album bounced between the speakers I fried five whole whole garlic cloves (after having first topped and tailed them and peeled them) with a large white Spanish onion that was about the size of a cricket ball and had been sliced into very thin pieces. I fried them for about fifteen minutes in olive oil until the onions became translucent and the veins were visible. I then drained the hearts of artichoke from the two cans they had arrived in and then added them to the onions and garlic. Next I added a pint of chicken stock, a quarter of a pint of milk then simmered the contents of the dish on the hob for around forty five minutes until the artichoke hearts softened.

After leaving the dish to cool off the hob for an hour I blended its contents and blended it on a medium setting on the blender so as to ensure the artichoke hearts were properly cut up. I then added the mixture to a pan with half a tub of plain Greek Yoghurt, stirred the yoghurt into the mixture and then warmed it through. The dish was then ready to serve.

The taste was interesting but memorable as the artichoke made it taste slightly sweet and the shredded artichoke pieces served to provide some much needed fibre.

The Artichoke in a pureed form in the soup.