A Special Dessert

Apparently it's #NationalPopcornDay! What better excuse to rave about this: 

Sweetcorn cream, popcorn ice cream, caramel and popcorn craquant.

A truly wonderful dessert from a recipe by the more than truly wonderful David Everitt-Matthias

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It's a while since I made this and, looking back, I really should have done a little better with that quenelle of ice cream and the consistency of the caramel sauce. No, let's face it... this tasted so lovely that appearance was secondary. 

You could make the entire terrific thing as I did or follow the 2 Star Michelin chef's sensible advice and begin with one or two tasty elements which appeal.

I'm pretty sure you can't download  the low-down for this one. So, you will need a link to the superb book which contains the recipe.

What's that? I didn't say which one to purchase? Ah, that would be pointless because you will need all of them immediately and will cook from them at very regular intervals while offering up fervent thanks for the existence of such bounty in our lifetime. I promise you that the recipe appears in one of these magnificent volumes!

Here are all the required elements I made before plating.

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This is not a horribly demanding dish apart, perhaps, from taking your time and attention. The rewards are the usual ones of having something truly special made in your own kitchen. Your efforts can be shared with love or scoffed selfishly with spoon-licking delight in a quiet corner.

David Everitt-Matthias is one of the most generous people I know. That has become obvious after my very limited contacts with him. Take advantage of his generosity. His food is staggeringly fine but his ideas are largely achievable in a modest home kitchen. He would tell you so himself.

So will I. Go on.. get cooking!

Christmas 2015 - Three pounds of chipolatas

Pound the first

Cook them at 180° for 40 minutes on a baking tray. Give them a little more if you want them ‘overdone’! There will be less chance of sticking if you wipe a teaspoon of oil across the tray for all these recipes.

Pound the second

Snip, cut or karate chop each chipolata into three or four ‘piglets’ and spread on a baking tray.

Mix 3 tablespoons of runny honey, 1 finely chopped red chilli and 1 tablespoon of mirin. Pour onto the sausages.

Cook at 180° for 35 minutes.

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Pound the third

Measure each chipolata and use mental arithmetic or a calculator to divide each one into exact thirds.  OK, OK… Make the ‘piglets’ as above if you must!

Mix 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, 2 tablespoons of grain mustard and 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce. Pour onto the sausages.

Cook on a baking tray at 180° for 35 minutes.

You now have one pound of chipolatas to accompany the turkey, to be used as sandwich filling or just for casual nomming when the feeling takes you. The other two pounds give a nod to the cocktail sausages which my Mum always made. She also experiments with other flavours these days but, whatever yummy coating, we still call them 'Baby Barkers' after my brother's chosen name for them.

My batches are in the freezer now. There are so many taste sensations on offer through the festivities that it surely doesn't hurt to numb some of them for a while in a very cold place... Especially if it means you are ahead of the game and can talk to family and friends instead of cooking. Defrosted, these come back to life very well wrapped loosely in foil and given a final 10 minutes at medium oven heat.

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As you might expect, the delicious Lincolnshire pork sausages came from the wonderful people at Brown's Family Butchers

Cook some before Christmas. You'll need no more than an hour and a half altogether. If you can freeze all of them before 'testing' a few you're much more strong-willed than I am!

Haiku... From the 2015 Christmas kitchen

Glistening pool of fat,

Sweet and spicy, sticky fruit.

Mincemeat blossoming.

(Something has to blossom in a haiku, doesn't it)

Well, this year's jars are now lidded and labelled. I'm pretty sure that the suet has congealed and sealed in all that fruity, nutty goodness. For the first time ever, excess apple and citrus juices started to ferment in Christmas 2014's batch. Everything seems to be back to normal for 2015... Phew!

Have you made yours yet? 

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Parsnips... Pickled

My last post encouraged you to try making a punchy pickle without any certainty that you could access the recipe. Here, for those of you left floundering and frustrated is a clearly explained way to warm up on cooler autumn days... As promised. After all, I'm a man of my word. Let's move swiftly on while my family and close friends debate that one!

I know this works. Trust me. I didn't reference anything except my limited imagination and made it up mysen'! (If a Yorkshire accent doesn't suit, I'll discard it from now on)

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Parsnip and Lime Pickle Soup

550g parsnips, chunkily chopped 

Half an onion - finely chopped

250ml whole milk

500ml vegetable stock

Two or three tablespoons hot lime pickle

Vegetable oil

Salt and pepper

In a large pan, soften the onions in a little oil then add the parsnips. Continue at a medium heat until the parsnips suggest they might be a bit browned off. Add as much of the lime pickle as you dare and keep heating while it coats the vegetables. I really think you should stop at three tablespoons or you risk overpowering the parsnips.

Now add the milk and stock. Bring everything to a simmer and maintain that for 40 minutes with a lid on.

Check that all is soft and forgiving. Zizz in a food processor or with a stick blender and season to your liking. I went the extra mile and sieved mine but that's your call when you make this.

You should now have a smooth or, in my case, a silky smooth mix. I have made plenty of parsnip soups but they have previously relied on traditional curry related spices, or a North African hit from Berbere or Ras el Hanout spicing. This one will have the heat of chilli pickle but also the sweet/sour tang of limes. 

What size servings? Another decision for you... And if you make the same choice as I did you will have more to go round. My judgement was that this is a lovely flavour which is slightly unusual and full-on. So, I resolve to serve this as no more than a small starter dish in future... Most likely as an amuse bouche. It's just too insistent to take as a complete lunch offering.

Having said that, I'm really looking forward to sharing it with family and friends in those ideal small portions.

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As you can see, I've already toyed around with 'serving suggestions'. The sweet root of the parsnip, the lime and chilli heat do bring to mind poppadums and pickles. For added texture, a proper snappy poppadum would seem a good foil... Maybe just a small, carefully crimped one for delicate offerings. I can also see the shot glass topped with a coriander foam. 

 Muck about with presentation if you wish but this soup has enough of its own flavour to stand alone and be enjoyed.

There is a bit of product placement in my pic of the ingredients above. This was only because I was reluctant to use my too-recently made version. When that does mature I've a sneaky feeling that Roopa will give Geeta the elbow.

Limes... Pickled

Here is something which is pretty easy to prepare and to finish. There's still time for the initial processes plus a few weeks maturing to have a tasty item for home use or as a lovely gift when Christmas comes around. I made Roopa's Lime Pickle recently after trying other recipes. It really does seem to be the best I've tried so far.

Well, I've dragged you in and now comes the teaser. Once again, success relies on possession of a certain cookbook by a certain reliable cookery writer... Which means that you are going to have to stump up some cash or pull your already-purchased prized possession from its shelf. The clues to the recipe are here. If you are truly desperate, other searches will reveal alternative free instructions. I cannot guarantee that the results will be the same! After thanks to Diana Henry for having a good friend like Roopa, let me explain why you should make this one.

Seasonality is important to me. I am slightly obstinate about using fruits and vegetables at their best when they are grown and picked nearby... Our garden is my favourite supplier!

There are some concessions I will make and this is certainly one of them. Limes don't grow here (much!) so I'm already feeling less guilty. If I can then forget which season it might be in another part of our wide world, I can get on with using these bright, tangy green fruits with a clear conscience.

I enjoyed the very British necessity to compensate for lack of sun in the prep of this pickle. A microwave does that job. Then it's a session of salting rather like that for preserved lemons. The resultant mildly mashed mess looks satisfyingly authentic and, as I said, the taste is right up there with any I've tried. There are plenty of excuses to use this. Please don't just consign it to the poppadum and pickle zone.

Time to let you decide how you will make your own. If the lack of recipe offends you, I promise to make a peace offering and bring you back into the fold with my next post. Full instructions guaranteed... No teasing!

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Eyes Front!

We have been given the rather double-edged sword of peripheral vision. In certain situations a positive contribution to personal safety... In others, a window upon an uninvited and unwanted world. The latter explains my discomfort at a recent visit to a motorway services toilet facility.

Already at my business, I sensed and dismissed the arrival of someone to my left. In like fashion, the person on my right had moments before ignored my presence as I had appeared. These were busy, crowded urinals and we were all involved in the ritual of taking no notice of anyone or anything whatsoever except the state of grouting between tiles at direct eye level and pondering how soon someone might refill those plastic containers with cards offering details of erectile dysfunction remedy.

Good grief! Ruddy peripheral vision. There, try as I might to escape it, was the inescapable. Waving around next to me was a wang the size of a Sperm Whale's fluke. Colossal... Gigantic... Flapping. There was no need to seek help from a comparison site. I had to admit the unassailable fact that I was witnessing the unleashing of an organ which, according to one's bent (please, I thought, don't straighten up before I'm out of here), offered the prospect of eye-watering discomfort or painful delight. All this on display through eyes which were in no way directed at what they were seeing.

Look. Straight. Ahead. I knew that any hint of a sideways glance (Sideways... NOT downwards!) would be met by my pissing partner's eyes and his one raised eyebrow, arrogantly seeking confirmation that I'd never before been in a club which admitted such hugely impressive members. 

I foolishly considered trying to cheerfully explain my own very temporary inadequacy with stories of a recent dip in freezing British seaside waters. But I calculated that the distance of every part of the M1 from our coastline would immediately undermine my feeble excuse. There was nothing for it but to admit defeat. I half expected that my neighbour would finish his work, thump out a triumphal rhythm on his chest and turn his back to reveal a swathe of silver hair.

Beginning to shake like a drip, I started to shake off my drips. A quick pull up of my zip and I would make my escape. Even if I had caught my shrinking apology for masculinity in the fastener, I believe I would have stifled any hint of a strangled shriek and marched out manfully with never a backward glance. A slide and a snick of metallic teeth passed without problem. I could tell that the person I was desperately trying to ignore had finished as well. 

His tidying up ritual was of a different nature. No short, but careful, zip closure... He was fumbling slightly. No doubt the amount of prime fillet to be dealt was offering resistance. But he was done. And he was done with fastening his button fly. So how the hell could his bragging behemoth still be wafting around!

Ah, peripheral vision... Both a curse and a blessed relief. Of course, that belt of his was the first thing that had appeared in undefined view and the last thing to be identified as harmless and of no real threat to my silly 'manliness'. Yes, blessed relief... Still a very striking belt.

Oh, shit. All I have to cope with now is the fact that he's staring at me staring straight at his crotch... Shit.

101 Things To Do Before Next Thursday: Number 3

101 TTDBNT: Number 3 - Drink excellent coffee

Great coffee is readily available all over the place now. Starbucks, Pret a Manger, M&S Cafe, Caffe Nero, Costa... forgive me if I stick to the obvious ones. You can walk into any one of these and more and get a fix of caffeine and improve your Italian while you scan the menu.

You should know me well enough by now to understand that my first paragraph was a little playful. Drinking at any of the above outlets is certainly an occasion. Maybe you are enjoying the company of good friends or family, using free Wi-Fi for work or leisure; perhaps even talking and sorting real business with a real business associate in a relatively relaxed situation. All these can be positive, productive experiences. Of course, the one element which will be sadly missing from this experience is any suggestion of decent quality coffee.

I am perfectly at ease with that situation. All the compensatory things I've mentioned can be enjoyed completely free... just as long as you have paid for a mediocre cup of coffee.

A quick flick over to the HasBeans folder in my photos will tell you where I get my coffee kicks. That is, it shows just two years of bean orders from the magnificent  HASBEAN.CO.UK.  Their site reflects the wealth of enthusiasm and hard work which owner, Steven Leighton, brings to the world of coffee... a world in which he has become a bit of a celebrity. For a taste of his style why not start with his latest caffeine-fuelled offering over at InMyMug. Enjoy the crazy delivery and try to keep up with the barrage of information given. Oh, and don't let that accent bamboozle you... Steven is, along with the rest of them, a sad, bewildered Sunderland A.F.C. supporter!

Steven and the rest of his crew are utterly wonderful at dealing with enquiries. Emails are sometimes answered within ten minutes of sending! My most frequent dealings are through coffee orders but my kitchen set-up reflects a lot of 'previous' for equipment and sundries. 

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As far as I'm concerned the beans are always greener on the other side of the coffee shop chains. For complete accuracy, my beans are ordered freshly roasted and I just grind them when needed... but they were definitely green before that.

My exploits with 'proper' coffee are relatively young. I have still drunk more cups of instant at home, during work breaks and at other venues than the single estate varieties available through a good supplier. I now remain faithful to all things HasBean but I am aware that other classy coffee is available. You can extract flavour without the purchase of an expensive machine but do get hold of the best beans you can. It's their quality which grabs you. Look past the delightfully confusing tasting notes and just recognise huge, honest increases in the flavours they offer. Experience it at home courtesy of good suppliers or go off the beaten track to discover a coffee shop run by knowledgeable enthusiasts. Happily, more of these continue to appear.

Take my suggestions with a pinch of salt (or some bloomin' chocolate sprinkles if you must) but a world of full-on coffee flavour does exist out there. If you remain unconvinced, it will take me about ten minutes to fire up 'Miss Silvia' and pull you a shot of mind-changing espresso delight. 

And you don't have to desert the chains... they will always be there for emergencies.