Monday, November 30, 2015

A Grand Tour via Soup: Morocco, Spicy Squash Soup with Meloui flatbreads

The Grand Soup Tour enters Morocco and this is my first stop off in a country I have never visited. In fact a whole continent I have never seen first hand, as Africa is a place I have yet to travel to and know very little about. I  know so little of this area that until I did some reading for this blog post I was convinced the whole of Morocco was hot desert. That the magnificent Atlas mountain range crossed the country had completely passed over me and I had never heard of the Rif mountains which are in the northernmost area of Morocco. So those living in cold mountainous areas need warming food and a gently spiced squash soup seems ideal.

This recipe is taken from  Paula Wolfert's 'The Food of Moroco', a huge and engaging book written by one of  my favourite authors on Mediterranean and North African food.

I have a few of her books and they are all written in a scholarly but highly accessible style, and from first hand experience. The recipes are packed with notes on how to achieve the same results as native cooks working with traditional tools and ingredients.

The main spicing for this recipe is a Moroccan spice blend called La Kama:
1tsp ground ginger
1tsp freshly ground pepper
0.5tsp ground cinnamon
0.5tsp ground cubeb pepper (optional)
large pinch ground nutmeg




Cubeb Pepper (Piper cubeca) is a member of the same family as the familiar black pepper, and is a vine like plant that grows in the tropics.The stalk gives the pepper its common name of tailed pepper. Arab merchants traded cubeb peppers as early as the seventh century and from North Africa they moved into Europe via ports such as Venice. They are not often seen in modern  European cuisine but have remained a part of North African traditional spicing of dish like tagines The flavour is quite distinctive and reminded me a little of the intense aromatics of green cardamom. I bought my cubebs from a UK online supplier The Spicery

I don't think you should make this with halloween type pumpkins, which can be quite a watery and have an off flavour to them; much better to get a sweet and nutty flavoured winter squash or butternut squash. I hate peeling squash as the rinds are so hard, and would welcome any tips on this problem if you have solved it. If I can get away with baking them and scooping the flesh away from the skin when cooked, I do.
I love this bowl for serving squash soups but of course you cannot see the pattern until you get to the bottom of your bowl.
Squash Soup with Feta Style Cheese based on a recipe by Paula Wolfert
1 yellow onion chopped
pinch sea salt
1 tbs olive or vegetable oil
1kg squash peeled, seeded and cut into chunks
2 tbs tomato paste (level, not rounded)
1 tsp of La Kama spice blend (above)
1 litre water or light vegetable stock
2tsp rose harissa paste or to taste (plain harissa paste is fine)
1-2tbs of creme fraiche (optional)
roughly 80g feta cheese crumbled
salt & pepper
mild chilli flakes to garnish

  1. Gently cook the onion with the salt in the olive oil in a covered large pan. This is to steam cook/sweat the onion rather than browning it. Cook until the onion is soft stirring as needed to cook evenly.
  2. Add the cubes of squash and cover again to gently cook in their own moisture for 10-15 minutes.
  3. Add the tomato paste and a tsp of La Kama spice mix. 
  4. Add the water/stock, cover and cook gently until the squash is tender.
  5. Take off the heat and using a stick blender puree the soup.
  6. Add the harissa paste to taste along with any additional salt and black pepper. Remember the cheese is quite salty too.
  7. Rewarm the soup and pour into bowls.
  8. Garnish each bowl with a portion of crumbled feta cheese and a light sprinkle of mild (aleppo pepper style) chilli flakes.
I served my soup with some Moroccan flat breads called Meloui which are fried rather than baked. The dough is a mixture of normal bread flour and fine semolina flour. I managed to track down some fine semolina in an international deli in my nearest city Exeter. I suspect the slightly coarse durum pasta flour is very similar. The dough is rolled into thin discs (blobs in my case) and then spread with melted butter and more semolina flour is sprinkled on.
Then there is a tricky folding and rolling process for each disc and finally you end up with a flattened 'pancake' ready to fry in butter (or a mixture of oil and butter to prevent rapid burning)
 The dough is quite simple but the rolling and folding was not so easy so I will link you to this quite detailed Meloui Recipe rather than try to explain what to do. 

They are a lot of work but rather good. Freshly cooked the outside is quite crispy and inside the dough is relatively light and well flavoured. Some of the recipes I looked at suggested eating these for breakfast dipped in honey.

So the Grand Soup Tour now crosses back into Europe and of course to Spain where the area of Andalusia/al-Andalus and much more of modern Spain and Portugal at various times were governed by Arab and Berber rulers from Morocco. Eventually pushed back they left behind their cultural influence in the architecture and food of Spain. Saffron and almonds both remaining in popular use and cultivation. Although there is a delicious Spanish almond soup, ajo blanco, that I was tempted to try I will stay with the more wintery theme of a chestnut soup spiced with saffron.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

A Grand Tour via Soup: French Potage Crécy with a sesame crusty roll


The Grand Soup Tour moves to France and whilst I was tempted to make the classical French Onion Soup I have instead elected for one of the first 'French' soups I was taught to make during a year of cookery training back in the mid 1970's, a Potage Crécy.

According to my 1961 edition of the Larousse Gastronmique, al la Crécy, is the culinary term given to various preparations, and notably a soup, where all include an obligatory garnish of carrots. Larousse notes there is a difference of opinion on whether the soup is named after the town Crécy in the Seine-et-Marne or after a small town in Somme, near to where the battle of Crécy took place. The soup recipe I am familiar with is thickened with rice and that is supported by the reference in Le Repertoire de la Cuisine, 17th Ed where under Soups, Crecy=Carrot puree with rice, butter and cream. I have seen many other recipes that use potato or other starches to thicken the soup but I stick with rice.

From from my earliest very impressionable days of learning to cook I rapidly became an incredible food snob but I hope I have retained some sense of 'keep it simple' regarding how food is described. Classical French cooking has always seemed very complicated, almost another language. There was a time when rather too many UK restaurants and cookbooks gave all their dishes french names regardless of their culinary origins. Pub chips never were pommes frites, and a typical school dinner style egg and bacon pie was never a Quiche Lorraine; food trends, what is new, but I digress. The point I want to make is that if I had been served this soup in an English restaurant as' Potage Crécy' in the 1970's I might well have grumbled that it was just carrot soup, but it is none the less French, and when finished with a little cream, a garnish of chervil and some good french bread you understand how nuanced and superior a lot of french cooking was (and is?) to its English counterpart.

This very simple soup relies on the quality of flavour in the carrots, but is perfect for times when you want a soup with minimal preparation. I have lost my original recipe and more often than not guess amounts when I make this soup, but this should be a good guide for you:

Potage Crécy
20g butter
500g peeled and chopped carrots
500ml water or vegetable stock / or use a good bouillion powder
20g uncooked long grain rice

salt & pepper

2-3 tbs cream single, whipping or double, or can be omitted altogether
few fronds of chervil cleaned (parsley or chives as alternatives)

  1. In a medium size pan melt the butter and then gently sweat the chopped carrots without browning them for a few minutes until just starting to soften a little.
  2. Add the water or stock, rice and a small amount  salt and pepper, if using stock powder you may not need additional salt at all.
  3. Cover the pan and bring to a gentle simmer, then cook at a simmer until the carrots are quite tender, which can take at least 30 minutes.
  4. Allow the soup to cool for a few minutes and then using a stick blender puree the soup.
  5. Stir in the cream, if you are using it, adding just enough to enrichen the soup without losing the freshness of the carrots. Taste as you add. Dilute with a little water if the soup is too thick.
  6. Add any further salt and pepper to season to your taste and bring the soup back up to simmer point again.
  7. Pour into bowls and garnish with leaves of chervil.
Chervil, is a lovely herb that is quite easy to grow. It is a component of the French fresh herb combination 'fines herbes', fresh parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil. The mild slightly aniseed flavour of chervil teams well with fish, chicken, eggs and mild vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, courgettes.

The rolls I served with my soup were based on a recipe from a book by French baker Richard Bertinet. I have to admit my rolls did not shape up so chic as the ones in the book. I think I have managed to anglicize them as they should have been skinny and pointy not short and round. Never mind they had a lovely crisp crust and tender centre so correct in some ways.
They were made with a mixture of a light spelt flour and strong white bread flour, so almost like a white bread roll but with a little more flavour from the spelt. He uses 350g of water to 500g of flour so you have quite a soft dough. Here are the stages for shaping the rolls:
After dividing the dough into equal portions and rolling into a rough ball you flatten the ball out to a disc. Two sides are then turned in to the middle. The piece of dough is then flipped over so the fold over sides and underneath. this is then cut into three almost to the top of the strip of dough. The strands are then plaited and pinched to a close. You then stretch out the plait by rolling each pointed end in your hands like you would a rolling pin. The spray the top of the roll with water and dip the wet side into a saucer of sesame seeds.
Place onto lined trays and leave to almost double in size


Ovens can be tricky, I baked the first tray with my oven on the 'Bread Bake' setting and they came out  with quite a dull crust.
The next tray I set the oven to 'Fan Intensive ' and they took on a much better and livelier looking colour.

I made a second batch of soup with a little more cream added and some milk, as a few recipes suggest this. I prefer the version without milk and just a little cream, it tastes fresher. I pulled some walnut and bacon rolls out of the freezer for this meal and they went really well. These rolls are from another french baker, Eric Kayser's book le Larousse du Pain. This is available in the original french version or as an English translation. More errors seem to slip into translated books so I stick to the original if at all feasible. 

My next link is from France to Morocco. The French like so many european nations were wide reaching colonizers. Morocco had been under French control for over forty years when it achieved independence in 1956. French post offices were established in Morocco with the use of French stamps simply overprinted with 'Protectorate Francais' and a local value. The french language is not an official  language now, but is widely taught and used in commerce, education, sciences and government. I shall be cooking up a very seasonal winter squash soup flavoured with spices and harissa, as well as some unusual flatbreads called Meloui


Saturday, November 14, 2015

A Grand Tour by Soup: Scotland's Cock-a-Leekie and Scottish Baps

So the Grand Soup Tour has moved up into Scotland and although I have chosen to make a Cock-a-Leekie soup, I was quite undecided over which of the traditional Scottish soups to choose. Cullen Skink* which is a wonderful sustaining soup made with smoked haddock and potatoes is a favourite of mine and also on a fish theme, I love crab and whisky soup, similar to Partan Bree a cream of crab soup. The more basic scotch broth, which combines mutton, pearl barley and vegetables is one I have never made, as I'm not a fan of the texture of pearl barley in soups.

However, chicken soup in any guise is just perfect for damp autumn weather, and as we are having rather a lot of the clinging cold damp at the moment Cock-a-Leekie it was.
This soup might otherwise pass as a fairly standard combination of chicken and leeks, but it also includes prunes which I have always been rather puzzled by, even a little alarmed. I like prunes but I never view them as natural partners to an otherwise mild flavoured soup. When you see sweet fruits combined with meat or fish there are usually some balancing flavours such as saltiness, sourness or strong spicing; I'm thinking of curry dishes, tagines and chutneys where the sweetness is not allowed to overwhelm. That said there are classical french dishes of both pork and rabbit cooked with prunes but with no disrespect intended to tradition I have modified the 'prune element' of my recipe to appear as a 'Devils on Horseback' side/accompaniment rather than just dropping whole prunes into my soup.
Bacon is normally used to make a devil on horseback. The semi soft and stoned prune is wrapped in bacon which is then fried and served hot as a canape.  If you do this with anything but very thinly sliced bacon you can end up with some rather flabby bacon fat hidden in the middle which I find a bit off putting, so I opt to make them with a slice of cured  ham in the form of speck instead.
Here is a detailed article from Nigel Slater on making the traditional Devil on Horseback. My version which uses just a small amount of speck instead of bacon takes very little time to crisp up in a hot pan so the cooking of these can be left to the last minute which means they are served at their best. Even if they are double wrapped the cooking time is still very short.

Many cock-a-leekie soup recipes assume you are going to poach a whole chicken and use most of the meat and broth for the soup, but if you only want to serve your soup as a starter then just including some of the poached chicken meat will work fine. It does not have to be a whole chicken, just a poached chicken leg joint will be plenty for a couple of portions of soup but the best tasting broth will come from a slowly poached whole chicken. I would not try this with just a breast of chicken joint as there will not be the desired depth of flavour in the poaching liquid. Some recipes also include large pieces of stewing beef in the broth but I'm sticking with chicken. There also seems to be a difference of opinion on the addition of a starch to the soup with some calling for potato, rice or pearl barley while others do not add any at all. I favour adding cooked rice.


I have made this soup of couple of times this week. The first batch was made from leftover roast chicken joints (bones and small amounts of chicken meat) which was good but gave a less flavourful stock than the second batch made from a whole slowly poached chicken and I give that version here:

Ingredients
3-4 medium leeks cleaned, green tops separated from white stems
1 whole chicken approx. 1.5kg
1 medium carrot,peeled and cut into 2-3 pieces
1 bay leaves
2 sprigs thyme
5-6 whole black peppercorns
salt

40g long grain white rice, cooked in salted water and drained

couple of knobs of butter

1 stoned/pitted prunes (Agen prunes are well flavoured) and a half rasher of speck ham per person

2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

Method
1. Chop the green part of the leeks into chunks and place in a large saucepan with the whole chicken, carrot, bay leaf and thyme and black peppercorns.

2. Cover with (approx. 2.5 litres) water, lightly salt the water and bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook very gently for 2-3 hours, skimming any scum that rises to the surface at the beginning. You are aiming to poach the chicken until the meat is almost falling apart but you should still be able to lift the bird out whole from the poaching pan. The cooking time will depend on the size of the bird, how tender it was and how gently you are able to cook it. Gentle poaching will result in a clearer broth. You can cook the bird in advance/day before, but it will be easier to remove the skin and bones while it is still warm.

3. While the chicken is poaching cook the rice in salted water until just tender, drain off any liquid.

4. Prepare the devils on horseback by wrapping each stoned prune in the speck ham and secure with a wooden cocktail stick/food pick. If your prunes were bought with the stones in you may need to soften them for a while in warm water to make it easier to remove the pits. Set aside.

5. When the chicken is cooked, carefully remove the bird from the stock onto a board that will hold any excess stock that drains away as you prepare the cooked meat, most meat carving boards have a deep lip around them that will catch any liquid.

6. Remove the skin and bones and cut the meat up into large pieces, or cut up as least as much of the meat as you wish to use for the soup. You may wish to keep some back for another purpose if the soup is just a starter rather than a main course.

7. Strain the stock into a jug or bowl to remove the vegetables and herbs and skim off any excess fat.

8. Chop the white part of the leeks into approx. 2cm lengths and place in a pan large enough to eventually hold all of the soup. Add in a knob of butter and sweat the leeks gently until just starting to soften.

9. Add enough of the chicken broth to just cover the leeks, and simmer until they are perfectly tender. Leeks always catch me out by taking longer to cook than I expected, perhaps I buy tough leeks or keep too much of the coarser outer leaf on. If yours are tender and well trimmed this may only take 5-10 minutes, but it may take longer. You don't want that squeaky crunchy texture of undercooked leeks, they need to be tender.

10. Now add in the chopped chicken meat, the cooked rice and enough of the broth for the number of portions you want to serve and gently reheat all together. Taste for seasoning and add any additional salt and pepper.

11. When the soup is all heated through and seasoning checked heat a small non-stick frying pan with a knob of butter in and quickly fry the ‘devils’ until crisp and lightly brown on both sides.

12. Ladle the soup into warmed bowls distributing the chicken and leek evenly. Sprinkle some of the chopped parsley onto each bowl and place the crisp ‘devil’ on the side of the bowl, or on a side dish.
13. Serve with fresh bread and note the sense of tranquillity that will follow as everyone lets go of what they were thinking about to just enjoy the deeply nourishing bowl of soup before them.


These floury baps are made from a Dan Leppard recipe which has been posted by the Guardian. I have made them several times and always had good results. The recipe includes some cornflour as well as the  normal white bread flour. To get maximum flavour the initial sponge is allowed to rise for a few hours and can also be left overnight.

These baps bake to a soft tender crust and make excellent rolls for bacon butties/baps.


A Little History and the next destination

According to Alan Davidson in the Oxford Companion to Food, this soup in its current form dates back to the 18th century but there was a medieval version that contained onions and prunes/raisins. There has apparently been divided opinion on the prunes which is hardly surprising. Andrew Web in his book Food Britannia suggests the addition of prunes might have been a French Influence which brings me neatly on to my next country in the grand tour which is of course France. There have been very strong alliances between Scotland and France over the years with the Auld Alliance in place from 1295-1560. The Scottish and French would support each other in war, often against England. I had also often wondered the about the origins of the Scottish dish of collops, which is apparently from the french escalope.

So with a rather heavy heart after learning of the terrorist killings in Paris this week, the soup tour travels to France, for Potage Crécy. I live in hope that what we hold dear will serve to unite rather than divide us. Throughout my life people from other countries and beliefs have shared with me their love of good food, and shown me the greatest hospitality, and I hold that very dear. For me soup and bread are a symbol of that shared humanity.


* Cullen is the name of a seaside town in the Moray area of  North East Scotland. Skink is a Scottish word for a knuckle or shin of beef and also used for a broth made with shin of beef. So this is a fish version of that soup.





Thursday, November 5, 2015

A Grand Tour via Soup: English London Particular with 'Penny Buns'

I'm going to embark on a culinary journey driven by soup, well not just soup, but soup and bread to be more precise. A bowl of soup is a gorgeous thing, but add to that a freshly baked portion of bread and life can seem remarkably good. I love soup but somehow get out of the habit of making it. Recently, however, I have been inspired by a number of new blog posts and books on soup so I'm determined to get back in the habit of  making some at least weekly.
As well as searching the internet I'm going to pull cookbooks off the shelf that have long been neglected and attempt to take myself on an international soup tour. I will also be baking up a number of different breads along the way. So what better place to start than my home country, England. I've chosen a pea soup that goes by the name of London Particular but really is no different to any plain 'dried green pea' soup as far as I can tell. The unusual name comes from connections with the earlier fogs/smogs of London which would be described as thick as pea soup. Even today a thick fog may be referred to as a pea souper. Now I'm not pretending England invented pea soup as it is a dish to be found across much of Europe particularly the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark  and  I've written a post on a far more elaborate German version over here
All these soups start with dried green peas and whilst I think you will get a good soup with any variety of dried green split pea I couldn't not buy these lovely looking fellows which are apparently Kabuki peas or marrow fat peas and they are whole not split. They took a while to cook mind, so I may revert to split peas next time.

Soups are very forgiving; know what you like and trust your judgement. A stick blender is useful for making puree soups and whilst it may not be able to produce as silky smooth a puree as made in a liquidiser there will be less washing up.

This was a very basic recipe based on one by Jane Grigson from her book 'English Food' published in the mid 1970's.

Ingredients for approx 4 servings
100g dried green peas soaked overnight in water
1 medium onion chopped
20g butter
1 small carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
approx 1 litre of water or light unsalted stock
a handful of small chunks of cooked ham or
  a few rashers of bacon cut into thick batons
knob of butter to cook ham
chopped parsley or chervil to garnish


  • Rinse the peas that have been soaking overnight
  • In a large saucepan pan gently cook the chopped onion in the butter until softened
  • Add in the soaked and drained peas, chopped carrot and the stock (or water)
  • Simmer the soup until the peas are very soft which can take any where from 90 mins to a little over 2 hours. You may need to add more liquid while the peas are cooking, keep them well covered in stock until they are cooked through. If your dried peas were a little old then expect the longer cooking time.
  • When the peas are soft turn off the heat and  allow to cool a little
  • Blend the soup in the pan with a stick blender (or use a liquidiser).
  • Add more stock if the soup is too thick.
  • Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.
  • Bring the soup back up to a simmer.
  • Warm soup bowls.
  • In a small frying pan add the knob of butter and when just sizzling add in the cooked ham chunks or bacon batons and fry until just golden.

Quickly pour the soup into the warm bowls and garnish each bowl with some fried ham/bacon and parsley/chervil.
To serve with my soup I chose to make some 'Penny Buns'
This is just a plain bread roll made with a mix of about 80% white flour and 20% wholemeal flour. The name refers to an old Assize system imposed on bakers to sell bread with a fixed value of grain/flour per loaf. Obviously a penny would have bought you a much larger loaf than my two penny buns above but I had fun working out that these buns which were made with a total of 500g of flour did have 2p of flour in each (based on a 25kg sack price).

Next stop is across the northern border to Scotland with a traditional Cock a Leekie Soup and Scottish Floury Baps. There have been a huge number of battles fought over the ages between England and Scotland and a very long list of these can be found here at  Wikipedia: List of Battles between Scotland and England. You could be forgiven for wondering just how 'united' the United Kingdom is and although battles are now carried out more peacefully by independence referendums I wonder if the next one will also be a No to Scottish Independence.

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Cocktails and Canapes for Women's World Cup 2015: 3rd/4th place play off

Much to my disappointment England did not make it to the finals and therefore tonight they are in the third & fourth place play offs where they meet Germany. The game is scheduled early enough that those of us on European time can watch it without having to lose all of our sleep. The World Cup final between USA and Japan is tomorrow, and it is scheduled way too late for me, so this is the last game I shall watch live, but it has been a great few weeks.
I'm breaking with the pattern today and making a cocktail for one country and a canape for the other. The theme is what does one country joke about to the other. I rarely go on beach/resort holidays so reserving a sun lounger is not something I have any experience of but the Germans have a huge reputation for parking their beach towels on the sun loungers well before anyone else gets up to beat them to it. So my cocktail is for Germany, and it is the 'Beach Towel'.
Now you might ask why none of us from England can beat them to the towel on lounger game but if common belief is right we are in a bit of a mess in the morning from sitting in the boiling hot sun all day and boozing all night. Now I really wanted to do a lobster canape for this theme as lobster red is the colour so many of us will apparently be after one day on holiday but I thought of this all too late to buy a decent lobster. Perhaps being lousy at planning might be another suitable theme! So the canape I have gone with for England is a boozy prawn cocktail. The booze in the dressing is a dash of vodka, and otherwise this is the classic prawns in pink mayo dressing and that pink mayo includes tomato ketchup. This is traditional, I'm not pretending it is the best way to serve prawns.

The Cocktail recipe is from Saveur Magazine website. It is made up of two layers, the lower strawberry layer is frozen. I did not like the idea of freezing the glass with the strawberry layer in it so I froze this mixture separately like a sorbet and placed it in a chilled glass at the last minute. The top banana layer was then carefully poured in trying not to mix the two together.

Here is the recipe with method as published:

For 2 Beach Towel Cocktails

4 oz. white rum
3 oz. simple syrup
1 oz. fresh lime juice
10 strawberries
1⁄2 oz. double cream
1 small banana, sliced

For the Frozen Strawberry Layer:
Puree half the rum, syrup, juice, berries, and 1 1⁄2 cups ice in a blender. Pour into 2 glasses; freeze.

For the Creamy Banana Layer
Puree remaining rum, syrup, juice, cream, bananas, and 1 1⁄2 cups ice. 

Pour the banana layer over the frozen strawberry layer. Decorate the glass as you wish. Spoons, straws may be useful.

Serve straight away as the layers bleed into each other as it starts to melt. This was the first time I had tried making a frozen cocktail; think of it as an adult slush puppy!
There is a really detailed discussion of how to make a perfect prawn cocktail on the Guardian website  and although I am not following the winning  recipe it is really not far from what I think of as classic prawn cocktail and I have made the dressing in the same way except for using vodka instead of brandy.
You will need:
Large prawns
Crisp green salad leaves
Marie Rose Dressing
4 parts mayonnaise
one half part tomato ketchup
one quarter part Worcestershire sauce
one quarter part lemon juice
one quarter part vodka
tabasco to taste

Mix the prepared prawns into the dressing and serve with crisp lettuce/sweet salad leaves.

You do not want too much sauce and you need to make sure the prawns are quite well drained/dry if they have been frozen. Otherwise if still thawing prawns are added to the sauce water melting off from the frozen prawns will dilute the sauce into something too watery and unattractive.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Cocktails and Canapes for Women's World Cup 2015: Semi-Finals

The two semi finals games are taking place so late on 'school' nights for us UK viewers that I shall sadly not be watching them.  I am still cooking for each one with USA being my theme for the first game on Monday of USA vs Germany and then on Tuesday back to my home team as England play Japan.

So For USA vs Germany the menu was a 'Chicago Cocktail' and a canape of  Sweet Potato Biscuits topped with cream cheese, roast turkey breast and cranberry preserve.
The Sweet Potato Biscuits came from the Martha Stewart recipe website and I made it as given except I left out all of the sugar. I may not have cooked my sweet potatoes quite enough as they did not mash to a totally smooth puree but this did not make any difference to the taste which was excellent.


Chicago Cocktail
2 ounces cognac or brandy
¼ teaspoon Grand Marnier or orange liqueur
Dash of Angostura  bitters

  • Sugar the rim of the glass.
  • Topped with Champagne (or prosecco in my case!)
  • Sugar the rim of the glass and try to not be so heavy with it as I was!
  • Stir or shake the brandy, orange liqueur and bitters. 
  • Pour into an tumbler style glass, and top up with Champagne (or Prosecco) as much or as little as you want.

For England vs Japan I am of definitely going with an English theme and we will have a Bloody Mary Cocktail and a canape of a thin slice of home made pork pie served with a spoon of The Bay Tree company Piccalilli, one of the best commercial piccalillis you can find in the UK.

My bloody Mary recipe comes from Nigella Lawson's Nigella Bites book and the recipe has been reproduced here on cookstr.com. This makes a lot! Scale back as needed. Try to get good tomato juice, mine was a bit basic and it deadened the flavours a little.

Now you may not think of pork pies as canape material but a good home made pork pie is a thing of beauty and should not be shunned, even if you do peel off and discard some of the pastry it is worthy of any occasion. I always try to mince the pork myself as it gives you more control over the fat to lean pork ratio. Too lean a mix of pork will give a dry slightly hard texture, so you do want some fatty pork in the mix. I used a Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall recipe, very close to the one reproduced over here on the them-apples blog.  I baked mine in a rectangular tin by Alan Silverwood with drop down sides that makes it easy to release the pie from the tin at the end.


Alan Silverwood Foldaway Pie Tin
So I am keeping my fingers crossed for the England Ladies tonight and really wishing they will make it through to the final. Very proud of what they have achieved.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Cocktails and Canapes for Women's World Cup 2015: Japan

Japan
I know penalty shoot outs are exciting but I hate to see a hard fought game decided that way, and felt really quite disappointed that last night France went out to Germany that way. So I'm hoping tonight's quarter final game of Japan vs Australia does not have to be decided by penalties. I'm going with Japan as the theme for my Cocktail and Canape and another rather off piste cocktail with a green tea mojito. Last night's wheat beer cocktail hasn't put me off experimenting so here goes with a variation of the mojito from web site japan food style:
Ingredients for 1 Green Tea Mojito
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
sprig  mint leaves
2 tablespoons sugar syrup
60ml strong brewed matcha tea or other good green tea
3 tablespoons white rum (or sake if you have it)
ice
soda water to top up
mint garnish
Make a strong infusion of matcha  or green tea to give 50 ml, stir in the sugar and then chill

Place the mint (lightly crushed), lime juice, white rum, green tea, and ice in a tall glass and stir

Top up with soda and garnish with more mint and a wedge of lime.

For the canape I am serving teriyaki salmon on a lightly cooked slice of courgette with a yuzu flavoured mayonnaise and sprinkle of Japanese pepper. 

I ued a pre-made teriyaki sauce to marinate the salmon pieces which makes this very easy to put together. The courgette was simply sliced thinly and quickly blanched and dressed with a little rice vinegar and salt. The salmon should be boneless and skinless and marinate in the sauce for about an hour. You then fry it for just a few minutes on each side to get a browned outer crust. Cover the pan and turn off the heat to finish cooking. Yuzu is a citrus juice with a quite unique flavour that is quite hard to find. Waitrose supermarket had been selling it in small bottles but alas no more. You can find bottles yuzu seasoning more easily but I would rather have the pure juice. I just added about 1 part yuzu juice to 2 parts mayonnaise. The Japanese pepper mix Shichimi tōgarashi is sold in small jars and includes sesame seeds and orange peel. I love the fresh but quite punchy flavours in this dish.