Butterscotch & Chocolate Cookie Cake

Again, cake decorating is not my forte and I do prefer making savoury food but every now and again I get a baking/dessert binge! 

The recipe is a simple butterscotch sponge with a buttercream I 'luckily' messed up. I got the quantities wrong and added too much chocolate, but it worked out well and formed a soft "crust" with lots of crunchy cookie bits in it.

Sponge Ingredients

225g Butter, softened

225g Self raising flour, sieved

225g Caster sugar

4 Eggs

2tsp Baking powder

1tsp Vanilla extract (not essence)

3tbsp Butterscotch angel delight

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcius and grease two 20cm sandwich tins and line with baking parchment. 

Beat together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. 

One egg at a time: beat the egg into a bowl, whisk air into the egg, add the egg to the sugar/butter and mix thoroughly. Do this with each egg until all the eggs have been added. Then add the vanilla extract and stir in

Gradually sift the flour, baking powder and angel delight into the eggs/sugar/butter mix folding in the flour thoroughly. Until you end up with a smooth cake batter

Divide the batter evenly between the two tins and using a palette knife spread the mixture evenly in the pan. 

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer pierced in the cake comes out clean.

Place the tins on a wire rack and let to cool

Buttercream Ingredients:

75g Butter

175g Icing suger, sieved

115g Galaxy Cookie Crumble bar

Method

Mix all the ingredients except the chocolate together to create a usual buttercream 

In a bains marie gently melt the chocolate until it has become completely melted. Gradually stir into the buttercream until all the chocolate has been used. 

Give it 5 or 10 minutes to cool at room temperature as the heat from the chocolate may affect the butter. After 10 minutes spread a third of buttercream over the first cake to use like cement, then place the second cake on top.

Using a palette knife spread the remaining buttercream on the top of the cake and even out. You can serve the cake on its own, with ice cream or cream poured over it. My preference is with a quenelle of lightly whipped cream (with half a tsp in the cream)

Sausage & Pearl Barley Cassoulet

I absolutely love autumnal hearty food and cassoulet is the best of a stew and bangers and mash (that is, if you serve it with mash!)

Cassoulet originates from the southern regions of France and would typically contain pork sausages, haricot beans and use duck or goose fat as a base for the sauce. It's named after it's cooking pot the cassole- a deep earthenware pot.

I would always use a herby/peppery sausage for this dish. Lincolnshire or Cumberland would be ideal. My recipe has some personal touches. The pearl barley bulks the dish out and the black pudding adds a rich peppery note to it, but you can leave it out and/or add extra vegetables such as parsnips or turnips if you wish!

One time I made this dish I didn't have any potatoes but had a large swede in the fridge and would highly recommend serving the cassoulet with mashed swede as the creamy flavour of the swede balances well with the richness in the cassoulet.

Ingredients

9 Large sausages

400g Shallots

500g Chantenay Carrots

100g Black pudding

100g Pearl barley

400g Tin chopped tomatoes

400g Tin baked beans

1tbsp Tomato puree

1tbsp Dijon mustard

1tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

1tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

2 Knorr rich beef stock pots (or similar)

500ml Red wine

Salt & Pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcius. Peel and take the tops of the carrots, peel the shallots and chop the black pudding into 1cm thick discs

Pour half a tbsp of olive oil into a frying pan and turn the hob onto a high heat. Brown off the sausages and cook the black pudding lightly on both sides. Transfer the meat to a casserole or oven proof dish

In the same pan melt a knob of butter and add the vegetables- cook for 5 minutes and transfer them to the casserole as well.

Pour the wine into the pan along with the chopped tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard and tomato puree and some salt & pepper. Heat for 5 minutes, then pour into the casserole.

Clear any residue in the pan with around 100ml of water and pour that into the casserole along with the pearl barley and baked beans. Cover and place in the oven to cook for around 1 hour- making sure to stir and taste for seasoning. If you need to thicken the sauce, put 1tbsp of cornflour into a mug and stir in some warm water and add to the dish- return for to the oven for 10 minutes to cook off the cornflour.

Chocolate Pepsi Cake

I can't take full credit for this recipe, it comes from James Martin's 'Desserts' book, however I slightly adapted it to suit as a dessert when working as head chef.

It sounds odd at first but the Pepsi enhances the flavour of the Chocolate, making it deliciously rich and almost gives the cake a little 'fizz' to it. It's got to be full fat pepsi too- I tried with diet and max but just doesnt work!

Its fantastic served as it is with cream poured over it or warmed up in the microwave so the icing goes all gooey and served with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream

For The Cake

250g Butter

250g Self-raising flour

300g Caster sugar

3tbsp Cocoa powder

1tsp Vanila extract

1tsp Baking powder

200ml Full fat pepsi

75ml Whole milk

2 Eggs

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and grease a 24cm cake tin and line with baking parchment

Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl. In a jug have the pepsi, milk and vanilla extract ready to add to the mix. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl and beat well.

On a low heat melt the butter. Don't melt in the microwave as you want to clarify the butter-  this means that you will see a clear layer on top of a milky layer. 

Once the butter has reached this stage, add it into the dry ingredients, pour in the milk/vanilla/pepsi mix and beaten eggs. Mix gently but thoroughly.

It will look very runny at this point but don't worry as it will solidify during cooking. Pour into the baking tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack before turning out- if you turn out too early it will just fall apart.

For the icing:

60g Softened butter

200g Icing sugar

2-3tbsp Cocoa powder

2tbsp Pepsi

1tbsp Whole milk

Sift the icing sugar into a mixing bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly until it reaches a smooth "paste" using a palate knife or silicone spatula spread the icing over the top of the cake. Enjoy!

Carrot And Coriander Soup

I developed this recipe when our veg supplier had a glut of carrots and was selling them at a fantastic rate. You can get a kilo of carrots for around 60p all year round so this is a great recipe to do meals on the cheap.

The cardamom, cumin and ginger is a personal touch but if you can leave them out if you prefer.

Ingredients

1.6kg Carrots

3 Large onions

30g Bunch of Coriander

2L Chicken/Vegetable stock

10 Cardamom pods

1/2tsp Ground ginger

1/2tsp Ground cumin

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

Method

Take the tops off and peel the carrots, peel and roughly chop the onions. Put a large saucepan/stockpot on a high heat with about 3tbsp of olive oil. When the oil is hot add the cardamom pods and heat until the pods have sightly browned. 

Take the pods out of the oil and discard and turn the hob down to a low heat, giving the oil a few minutes to cool down as well. Put the onions into the pan and sweat off with the lid on until translucent- make sure you don't brown the onions.

Add the ginger and cumin and a little salt & pepper and cook for a couple of minutes to let the onions absorb the flavour. Add in the carrots and the stock, increase the heat and bring to the boil.

Reduce to a medium heat and simmer unit the carrots are soft and then blitz with a stick blender or in a food processor. Return to a low heat. 

Strip the leaves off the coriander stalks and roughly chop. Add to the soup and let simmer for 10 minutes. Serve (swirl of cream optional!)

Cooking Steak

Every wednesday at the gastropub I worked at we'd hold a steak night and I came to the opinion that cooking steak is a delicate balance of science and art and you can't just stick to a set recipe- every steak is different.

I thought, like my potato post, i'd share a few tips that you can follow that will help your steak be tender and juicy no matter what. This will be a long post as there's a lot to write about!

Aged Meat
You'll notice that a lot of celebrity chefs and supermarkets are talking about aged beef and they're right to do so. After the animal is slaughtered and cleaned it's usually hung for a period of 21-34 days. 

This allows for two processes to take place. Firstly, moisture is evaporated from the muscle creating a greater concentration of beef flavour and taste. Secondly, the beef's natural enzymes break down the connective tissue helping create more tender meat.

Choosing your steak
What cut you choose is down to personal preference- I love rib eye as I find it has that perfect balance of tenderness and flavour. People will often choose fillet because of it's 'melt in the mouth' texture but because of the little amount of fat it will have less natural flavour than say a sirloin steak. ALWAYS look for a good amount of fat on your steak. If you choose a steak without any fat you might as well eat cardboard. FAT=FLAVOUR. It also helps to keep the meat juicy while it cooks. A good steak will have a nice thick amount of fat around the 'eye' of the meat and marbling of fat throughout the meat. Also look at the colour. Steaks that are bright red haven't been hung enough, look for a deep burgundy colour.

Rump: Taken from the back top end of the cow. It's full of flavour but is a lot firmer than other cuts. Because of the connective tissue it can be a bit chewy when cooked rare, so does need a bit more time in the griddle/pan

Sirloin: Sirloin is taken from the top of the animal just forward of the rump. Its a very tender cut but with less flavour than the rump. It carries only one strip of fat along the top of the steak means it's ideal for those that like it rare

Rib eye: Taken from the fore rib, it's beautifully marbled and has an 'eye' of fat in the middle. Its perfect rare or medium rare but if you prefer a more well done steak turn the heat down and cook for a bit longer to avoid the outside going leathery

T-Bone or Porterhouse: Cut on the bone the T-Bone comes from the rib end of the sirloin. With this cut you get the best of both worlds, you get sirloin on one part of the bone and fillet on the other. It's a thick cut and because it's two steaks in one and on the bone it makes cooking it difficult. I usually sear it on a really hot griddle and then transfer to the oven on a low heat

Fillet: This cut is taken from the inside of the Sirloin. It's a muscle that does absolutely no work and is amazingly tender because of the lack of fat, the downside is it lacks flavour and needs sprucing up with some sort of sauce. The fillet is divided into three types of cut. Filet Mignon is taken from the tail end of the fillet. Tournedos is the french term for a small compact steak and comes from the middle of the steak. The Chateaubriand comes from the thickest end of the steak and is ideal for beef wellington, or if you just love a big portion!  

Feather Steak: These steaks are taken from the blade of the cow and have a feather like marbling of fat in the middle. They're ideal for quick cooking and in sandwiches

Cooking your Steak
Forgetting cooking times if you follow these tips then your steaks will be amazing.

Take your steak out of the packaging: Whether it's from a supermarket or butcher, as soon as possible take the steak out of its packaging and put it on a wire rack in your fridge. Let the air get to it, this allows the enzymes to continue breaking down the proteins in the meat ensuring it stays tender

Let it get to room temperature: 
Imagine being freezing cold and jumping in a boiling hot bath. Your muscles will seize up. This is exactly the same principle with steak. If you take it straight from the fridge and put it in a searing hot pan then the muscle fibres will seize up and the steak will just lose any tenderness

Get the pan searing hot:
Whether you're using a frying pan or a griddle pan, make sure it is smoking hot. Not only will it avoid your steak stewing/boiling and losing any flavour and texture; it starts a process called the Maillard reaction. This is a process that develops all the flavours within the steak.

Oil and seasoning:
Make sure you oil the steak and not the pan. If the pan is swimming in oil then it will just focus the heat on the surface of the steak (stopping the Maillard reaction from taking place) so brush the steak with olive oil instead. DON'T season with pepper before cooking! At the heat needed to cook the steak properly the pepper will burn and taint the steak. Season with pepper after cooking but only use salt beforehand.

Cooking times:
As i said at the beginning of this post every steak is different so you can't use a set cooking time for rare or medium well. The best way to judge whether your steak is cooked to preference is to test it by prodding. The firmer the steak when prodded the more well cooked the meat is. Rare should be like prodding your cheek, medium rare the tip of your nose (also when blood starts piercing the surface of the meat thats a key visual pointer) your chin medium and your forehead well done.

Let the meat rest:
Rest the steak for half the time that you cooked it for. Transfer the meat from the pan to a warm plate/tray and cover loosely with foil, if you cover it tightly then the meat will sweat and lose moisture. Allowing the meat to rest makes sure that the juices, which have been driven to the centre of the steak by the heat, redistribute throughout the muscle fibres of the steak and be reabsorbed. This means that the meat will lose less juice when you cut it and be more juicy.

Happy eating!

  

Smoked Salmon & Chervil Risotto

I'm not a lover of salmon but I'm told this was a lovely dish by my customers! The key to a good risotto is tender loving care. You just need to be patient, keep stirring and add that stock little by little. The flavours all blend together, you get the smokey salmon, the freshness of the chervil and creamyness of the rice. If you cant find chervil then curly works great as a substitute.

A key tip for risottos is to keep the stock simmering on the hob while you're cooking the risotto. If you add cold stock into the risotto it will just slow down the cooking process and take longer and over cook the other ingredients- common sense really! This recipe will serve two

Ingredients
150g Arborio rice
170g Smoked Salmon, roughly chopped
1 Medium onion, finely chopped
1 Garlic clove finely chopped
1 Handful of chervil roughly chopped
1 1/2L Vegetable stock
250ml Dry white wine
1tbsp Butter
Salt & Pepper

Method
On a medium heat add a tbsp of olive oil and sweat off the onions and garlic. 

Increase the heat to medium-high and add the rice and cook for 5 minutes. Then add the wine and cook off the alcohol and reduce for 2-3 minutes. 

A ladle full at a time add the stock, constantly stirring the rice, allowing the rice to absorb the stock before adding another one. Keep repeating this process.

When the rice is 'Al Dente' or has a little bite to it, add the salmon, chervil and butter. Cook for 5 minutes to allow the flavours to mix and add a little more stock if necessary. It should be a creamy consistency.

Adjust seasoning to taste and serve

Vanilla & Double Chocolate Cake

I'll admit, when it comes to cake decorating i'm not the world's greatest but the flavour is all there. I've had a bit of a baking binge lately and this was one of my creations. I found a lovely recipe for a plain sponge in a Mary Berry book I had hidden away and adapted it and just used some white and milk chocolate spread in the buttercream.

Ingredients

Sponge:

225g Butter, softened

225g Self-raising flour

225g Caster sugar

4 Medium eggs

1tsp Baking powder

1tsp Vanilla Extract (not essence) 

1/2tbsp Golden syrup

Buttercream:

75g Butter, softened

175g Icing sugar

1tbsp Milk

2-3tbsp Milk & white chocolate spread

Method

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius and grease and line two 20cm sandwich tins

Cream the butter and the sugar together until pale and fluffy

Beat each egg individually and add to the mixture and then beat the egg one by one into the mixture and then stir in the vanilla extract and golden syrup

Gradually sift the flour into the mixture and mix thoroughly

Divide the mix evenly between the two sandwich tins and put in the oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer comes out of the cake clean.

Place the cake tin on a cooling rack and let cool.

Meanwhile, make the buttercream by adding all the ingredients in (making sure you sift the icing sugar). When the cakes have cooled, turn out of the tins and peel off the baking paper. Spread half the mixture on top of one cake and then firmly push the other cake down  on top and then spread the remainder of the buttercream on the top of the cake.