Elderflower and lemon jelly

 

After the move down from Leeds, I thought that we wouldn't be posting much for a while, which is probably true, but here is a simple sweet that epitomises summer. I've been fancying jelly or Jello for a little while now and decided to do a bit more of an unconventional jelly which encompasses some very traditional English summer flavours. Elderflower is a highly scented plant which can be used to make cordial, champagne, jams and so on.  In my box of goodies I brought back from Leeds, we had some gelatin leaves to use. The weather has been very variable lately, ranging from lovely and sunny to torrential rain, thunder storms and 2 inch hail stones...  I managed to collect some elderflower from a local park between these periods of extreme weather to use in this recipe. This is a very simple recipe, and is full aromatic sweetness.

Elderflower and Lemon Jelly

Makes 4 wine glasses

Ingredients

15-20 heads of elderflower

1.5 pints of water

250 g sugar

7 leaves of gelatin

3 tbsp of lemon juice

zest of 1 lemon 

zest of 1/2 a lemon for finishing

Method

1. Pour the sugar, lemon juice and zest of 1 lemon in a sauce pan and cover with the water. Remove most of the stalks from the heads and place the flowers into the pan also (only use heads which have pollen on them and are fully in flower - don't worry about any tiny bugs as that will be dealt with later)

2. Bring the mix to the boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and cover, leave to infuse and cool to just above lukewarm (about an hour or two). Prepare your gelatin by pre-soaking in water for at least 5 minutes. (A useful website with extra information about gelatin - we use the small leaves)

3. Strain the mixture through a sieve lined with muslin, this will remove the tiny little bugs the flower heads and lemon zest - discard these. Remove the gelatin from soaking and squeeze the excess water out, place in the warm mixture and stir until dissolved. Stir through the lemon zest for finishing and pour into 4 wine glasses. Place in the fridge and leave to set for about 4-5 hours.

Sausage, bean and fennel pot

We are in the last few days of packing and leaving Leeds for the foreseeable future and so as you can imagine there isn't a huge amount of food in the fridge. This is one dish that I came up with from the last morsels we had. As we have now packed most of our kitchen away this is a rather simple dish to prepare and can easily be prepared earlier in the day to alleviate the stresses in the evening. I wouldn't call this a bake as such but a conglomeration of a few simple, delicious ingredients into a one pot wonder.

Sausage, bean and fennel pot

Ingredients

Serves 3

6 Toulouse sausages

2 fennel bulbs

2 x 300 g tins cannellini beans

250 g vine-ripened cherry tomatoes

5-10 garlic cloves, depending on taste

1/2 lemon zest and juice

1/4 tsp thyme

olive oil

salt and pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4. Place a griddle pan on a high heat and trim the tops off the fennel bulbs and set aside. Slice the fennel (approx 1 cm thick) from top to bottom. Make a mixture of olive oil, salt and pepper, brush the slices lightly with this mixture and char-grill fiercely until softened with lovely grilled marks on both sides. Do the rest in batches and place aside on a plate.

2. Place all the tomatoes, skins on, in a roasting dish leaving a few for later (preferably on the vine). Drizzle with plenty of oil and toss with the thyme, salt and pepper. Dot the garlic cloves, in their skins, in and around the tomatoes. Roast in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes until soft and wrinkled. 

3. You have two choices at this point; either part cook the sausages under a grill and set aside or leave them raw for baking later. If you precook, you will ensure that you get a nice colour on your sausages, although this is not essential - it is purely for aesthetic reasons.

4. Drain the beans, place into a bowl and toss with the lemon zest, juice, salt and pepper then set aside for the minute.

5. To assemble, arrange a base layer of the char-grilled fennel on the bottom of your oven dish and gently place the succulent roasted tomatoes in the middle as if you are leaving a moat around the outside. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins and sprinkle around the dish. The last of the fennel slices are to be placed on top of the tomatoes in the centre. Pour the seasoned beans around in the "moat" to surround the tomatoes in the centre. Finally arrange the sausages on top of the beans around the edge and top the fennel with the raw tomatoes on the vine. Drizzle generously with olive oil, season the tomatoes with salt and pepper and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. 

6. Dish up and drizzle with a little more oil, lemon juice, fennel fronds. Serve with a big handful of fresh salad leaves and perhaps some fresh crusty bread to mop up the juices. 

 

Greek gyros

Today's post is not a recipe but instead a celebration of a lovely local Greek café, Orion, which we like to drop into for a quick bite occasionally in Hyde Park, Leeds.  If ever you are ever passing through Leeds, this is a must-visit! Here they serve a variety of authentic Greek dishes and the owner is very friendly and welcoming. We have often recreated these at home - they are simple to make and you can add your own twist - but we wanted to spread the word about this rustic and charming café. We simply had to pay a last visit before we left Leeds and so two of our favourites for a light bite, eaten for lunch today, are shown below.

Firstly, the falafel gyros - delicious falafel served in a pitta bread with homemade houmous and fresh salad. Simple and delightful.

Another favourite is the chicken souvlaki gyros which comes laden with chicken, onions, tomatoes, tzatziki and oregano-seasoned hand cut chips. One of life's little pleasures.

We hope that one day you might drop in and experience the food for yourselves!

Confit duck legs with dauphinoise potatoes

With the stresses of getting ready to move and packing we've had a bit of a break from the blog and to come back we felt it would be quite fitting to come back with a post of a meal that we prepared to celebrate Jacob's birthday yesterday - and what a delight it was! This meal was derived from a French background and although we're sure there are many other documented ways to cook this, below is the way we have done it.

Confit (French, pronounced [kɔ̃fi] or in English "con-fee") is a generic term used to describe a way to cook and preserve various foods. To confit meat, it is salted and seasoned with herbs overnight and submerged, usually, in its own rendered fat. Fruit and other type of foods can also be cooked using this process, using sugar syrups and other cooking liquors. The preparation is time consuming, but the end product is so worth the mouth-wateringly tender and flaky duck; it is to die for.

We advise reading through the whole preparation before beginning so you can plan your time logically. 

Confit Duck Legs with Dauphinoise Potatoes

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

For the confit:

3-4 large duck legs

500 g duck fat 

2-3 tbsp salt
a few sprigs of thyme, optional

For the Dauphinoise Potatoes:

500 g Maris Piper potatoes

200 ml single cream

2 garlic cloves

30 g butter

salt and pepper

50 g Gruyère or cheddar

Method

For the confit duck

1.  To prepare the duck legs, dab them dry with kitchen paper and rub the salt all over them. Place in a dish, cover and leave in the fridge overnight (You can also add fresh herbs such as thyme for extra flavour).

2. The next day, wipe all the salt off the duck legs and place in a high sided oven proof dish. Melt the fat and pour over the duck legs and ensure they are covered completely, add more fat if necessary. Place the dish uncovered in a preheated oven (Gas Mark 2) for 3 hours, turning the legs halfway.

3. This is where you have a choice - you can leave the meat to cool in the fat and store in a sealed sterile container in a cool place for 3-6 months to intensify the flavour... OR you can remove them from the fat and quickly pan fry them to make the skin lovely and crispy.

For the dauphinoise potatoes

1. Peel the potatoes and slice them thinly with a mandolin or if you have one, a food processor, with the thinnest slicing attachment. Wash the slices with water to remove the excess starch and dry with a clean towel or alternatively use a salad spinner to remove excess water.

2. Finely grate the garlic into a medium non stick saucepan with the cream and butter, season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the potato slices and bring the cream to the boil, simmer for 5-8 minutes.

3. Arrange your potato slices in a buttered oven proof dish and sprinkle the cheese on top. Bake in a preheated oven (Gas Mark 2) for 1.5 hours until golden. 

Serve together with green beans dressed with a little butter and a sprinkling of pepper, or a light salad. A great garnish with the duck is cranberry sauce. We also made a simple creamy wholegrain mustard sauce, although for simplicity we have omitted this from the recipe. If you like the sound of this sauce, feel free to contact us for further details.

Harissa roast chicken

Sasha's family have come to visit for a few days for her birthday on the 5th and I've decided to prepare an evening meal for the night before. After a lovely day out in Ilkley, a simple supper was required. There is little more pleasurable than the smell of a chicken roasting; with that and our love for North African inspired food, it seemed fitting to combine flavours from this continent with the traditional British roast dinner. Of course, the end result is naturally very far from that which we would expect to find on our plates on a Sunday!

Harissa roast chicken

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1.8 kg whole chicken

2 1/2 tbsp harissa paste 

1 1/2 tsp Ras el Hanout

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander
Juice of half a lemon
3/4 tsp salt, or to taste

Notes - Harissa is known to be rather hot, if you want to use less don't hesitate, but don't use less than 1 1/2 tbsp for this sized chicken. We used Al'Féz harissa but you can easily make your own or other brands if you prefer. If you want, you can prepare it in advance either a few hours before or the night before leaving it to marinate in the fridge (take it out an hour before roasting to allow it to come to room temperature).

Method

1. Preheat your oven to Gas Mark 8. Prepare your chicken by dabbing the skin with kitchen paper, place in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

2. Prepare your paste - add all the other ingredients into a small bowl and mix together thoroughly. Apply to your chicken coating the whole thing evenly and shove the lemon halves into the cavity (Warning - If you have sensitive skin, wear gloves to do this or ask someone else who doesn't mind to do it for you as, the chilli in harissa could irritate your skin). Place your chicken on a trivet in a roasting tray - there's nothing worse than an overly greasy chicken and this is meant to be light and not at all heavy on the stomach.

3. Place the roasting tray holding your chicken into the centre of your preheated oven and instantly turn the temperature down to Gas Mark 4. Cook your chicken for 20 minutes per 1 lb/500 g, plus an extra 20 minutes, or until the juices run clear. Baste your chicken with the fat that naturally comes off the chicken once or twice throughout this time. The paste naturally goes dark/black so please don't worry. If you are worried then just place a bit of foil over the chicken for the remainder of the cooking time.

4. Allow your chicken to rest for at least 20 minutes before serving and meanwhile prepare sides. As this was a quick light meal, we had lemon cous cous, salad and a dollop of coleslaw.

Definitely a dish worth making! It's easy and full of flavour! 

Birthday cupcakes

Cupcakes are one of life's simple pleasures. My personal favourites and the ones I have made for my birthday tomorrow (and belatedly my Mom's birthday), are coffee cupcakes. You might think it a little strange that I have made my own birthday cupcakes, but baking is a real joy for me (and I won't let Jacob interfere - not because he is incapable - I am just highly possessive of my cupcakes!) So here they are, cute little cupcakes with an intense hit of coffee; just how I like them. 

Coffee cupcakes

For 12 regular cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

 

110 g margarine 

150 g vanilla sugar

80 g dark brown soft sugar

2 free-range eggs

250 g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp espresso powder

125 ml milk

For the icing

60 g margarine
200 g icing sugar
1 tbsp espresso powder
2 tsp milk

Notes - The use of dark brown sugar means that the cupcakes take on a rich, caramelised flavour. You should try your best to use this. Make sure you use a good quality, strong espresso powder. It is easiest to use a hand-held electric mixer to make these cupcakes, unless you are lucky enough to own a bench-top mixer (in which case I am very jealous! I am saving up for one). 


Method

For the cupcakes 

1. Line your muffin tray with cupcake cases and preheat your oven to gas mark 4.

2. Cream the margarine with both of the sugars until the mixture is well-combined and has become lighter in colour.  Next, thoroughly beat in the eggs until smooth. 

3. Mix together the flour, baking powder and espresso powder. Beat half of this into the margarine mixture, followed by half of the milk. Repeat this step and you should have a lovely brown batter ready to bake into delicious cupcakes. 

4. Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases (each one should be around 3/4 full) and then place into the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until lightly golden and a cake skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. 

5. Leave to cool slightly and then remove from the muffin tray and place onto a cooling rack to cool completely before icing.

For the icing

1. Place your margarine into a bowl and beat with a fork until soft. Thoroughly beat in the espresso powder.

2. Next, gradually mix in the icing sugar until all combined. Beat in the milk to achieve a lovely smooth buttercream.

3. Once your cupcakes are cold, ice them generously with the buttercream and tuck in!

Sasha

 

Chicken and cardamom curry

We fancied a curry this evening as the weather has turned for the worse and is much cooler than it has been and also very wet... again. Indian/Asian style food is probably our weakest cuisine when cooking off the top of our heads and so we still use guidance, for instance with curries like this. 

We recently acquired Madhur Jaffrey's 'Curry Easy'. The book is amazing and this is post is based upon one of the recipes that belongs in this book - we wanted to share it with you as it is simple and extremely tasty! We obviously cannot take credit for this recipe but as we continue to cook this style of cuisine we hope to make future posts of our own creations involving the flavours from the vast combinations of available spices that can be married together. This recipe has been modified slightly and we believe it represents Madhur's recipe very well, although it does taste quite distinct from the original. This is a very good example of us adjusting and learning as we go. If you fancy, contact us and we will give you the original recipe and you can cook both and 'taste the difference' yourself.

When it comes to eating curries, we most certainly do not have a very high tolerance to heat. In the recipe below, the cayenne pepper contributes a lovely, subtle warmth to the curry. However, if you believe you may be even more sensitive to heat than us, then please do not hesitate to reduce the quantity of cayenne.

Chicken and Cardamom Curry

Serves 4

Ingredients

5 tbsp olive oil

700 g boneless chicken, cut into large chunks

2 cinnamon sticks

12 green cardamom pods

2 large onions, peeled and chopped into half rings

6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

2 tbsp coriander seeds, ground

1 tbsp cumin seeds, ground

1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp asafoetida (optional)
1 inch fresh ginger, finely grated

1 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste

3 vine ripened tomatoes, chopped
3/4 litre chicken stock

Notes - We used boneless chicken as this is what we had available - just make sure it is leg meat as breast meat is invariably less flavoursome. You could also butcher a whole chicken into pieces. The cardamom pods are for flavour and not for eating so don't worry about the large number of them. The asafoetida is optional but just adds an earthy note into the curry - it is available from any good quality Asian store and is usually very cheap. Don't buy a massive pot as only a little is ever needed and it goes a long way! The cumin and coriander seeds are ground in a pestle and mortar - alternatively you can just use the ground version if you don't have the seeds, however, we believe that grinding the seeds yourself adds further texture to the sauce. We suggest preparing everything in advance ready to go into the pan as the recipe timings are short. 

Method 

1. Place a large heavy based frying pan over a high heat and heat the oil until smoking. Add the cardamom pods and cinnamon sticks. Fry for 10 seconds. Add the chicken and brown off. Once brown transfer to a bowl (leave the spices in the pan) and set the chicken aside. (Cook the chicken in batches so the pan isn't overcrowded thus allowing them to brown nicely - if your pan is not large enough).

2. Add the onions and lower the heat slightly, fry until lightly browned. Add the garlic and ginger and mix throughout the onions, frying for 30 seconds. Add the coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper and asafoetida and stir through the mixture. Add the tomatoes and cook until softened - approx. 3-4 minutes.

3. Replace the chicken into the pan, including all of the juices and add the chicken stock (season with salt if your stock is unsalted). Bring to the boil, cover and cook rapidly for 10-15 minutes (an extra 5 minutes for very large chunks if you butcher a whole chicken). Remove the lid and increase the heat, stirring now and then until the sauce has thickened.

Serve simply with boiled basmati rice and perhaps a naan bread or poppadoms.

Jacob

Poached egg and mushrooms with a twist

This is a recipe which was given to me by my sister, Lorna and is so good it has to be celebrated. We have adjusted only the tiniest details due to the availability of ingredients (we used spring onions but the original recipe used chives) and personal taste but we believe it still reflects the gorgeous light meal that she recommended. I am unsure whether she has made this up or has read about it somewhere but no matter which it is, we are going to share this with you and hope you enjoy it as much as we have. Thank you Lorna!

Below we will go through the process of cooking poached eggs without stress and also the correct way to cook mushrooms without boiling them! It doesn't take long, the recipe below is just thorough.

Poached egg and mushrooms with a twist

Serves 2 - can be made for more people if required.

Ingredients

 

4 large free range eggs
100 g mushrooms 
1 spring onion
Wholegrain mustard
White wine vinegar
25 g butter
Salt
Pepper

Notes - You MUST use fresh eggs for poaching otherwise you will end up with a pan full of straggly egg whites and a poor, lonely naked yolk. You will be cooking multiple poached eggs, but do not be afraid! Set up a bowl of ice water ready to dunk your eggs in once they're cooked to your liking, cool them for one minute before removing and setting aside. Doing this relieves the stress of everything being overcooked or gone cold as the ice water will stop the eggs cooking any further and you can heat them back up for a minute in the same pan you cooked them in before serving - if you're unfamiliar or worried about cooking poached eggs we go through the process below. For the mushrooms we use salted butter which means you don't need to season them - but if you wish to use unsalted, just add a pinch of salt to taste. You can use any type of mushrooms you fancy.

Method

1. First prepare everything. Slice the mushrooms, spring onion and four slices of bread ready for toasting. Put the kettle on to boil and prepare a bowl of water with plenty of ice in it.  

2. Place a medium saucepan on the heat and fill it 3/4 full with boiling water, add 1 tsp of salt and a dash of vinegar and bring to the boil (this is not stressful). Now crack an egg into a ramekin or small measuring cup. Once boiling, stir the water in the pan to make a small whirlpool (be careful not to splash yourself) and then carefully lower your egg from a very low height into the pan in the direction the water is spinning. Don't worry if they aren't perfectly formed, you'll get the hang of it - also in this recipe they get chopped up anyway so you can relax even more! The egg will take approximately 2-3 minutes to cook with a lovely soft yolk. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and place straight into the ice water as described above. Repeat for the others and then you'll have 4 poached eggs, cooked but cool, sitting in a row on the side ready for serving later. 

3. Meanwhile place a large frying pan with the butter over a high heat, chuck the mushrooms in the pan and stir through until all the butter has been absorbed. Turn the heat down and cook gently until they have given up all their juices, at which point turn the heat back to high and fry until coloured and the juices have evaporated. As Julia Child would say - "Do NOT overcrowd your mushrooms!" Give them all space to brown up nicely. A minute before they have finished cooking add the spring onion, mix throughout and soften and add a small knob of butter to finish.

4. When the mushrooms look like they are about to be ready, prepare your buttered toast and place your cool eggs back into the pan of lightly boiling water for one minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on top of the toast (this is the fun bit!). Place 1/4 tsp of mustard on top of each of the eggs with a pinch of salt, then chop up and mix together nicely. Place the mushrooms on top and garnish with a few more slices of spring onion. 

Gobble up greedily!