A chic geek's adventures

Chic_geek_girl has moved.  I am now Annainthekitchen over at WordPress. 

Not that I don't still love LJ but switching between journals was getting annoying and Wordpress had some very seductive features like statistics so I can see what people are actually looking at!!  All the recipes are over there now plus a bunch of new ones.  I'll be leaving this journal here, not deleting it or anything but from now on all new content will be over there.  I hope to see you there!!

I was walking past the market today and the piles of tomatoes inspired me to make tomato soup so I grabbed a bag full and off I went.  Only to discover as I continued walking that the stall I'd bought them from was the most expensive one, oops!!  That would explain why the other stall had a massive queue I guess.  Even so I think it was still cheaper than Tesco woud have been.  Probably better flavour too as they weren't refrigerated to death.  Next time I'll be cannier.  Now on to the soup!

Serves 4

8 large tomatoes on the vine, or plum tomatoes*
2 cloves garlic, sliced
olive oil
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp fresh basil leaves, shredded
salt and pepper

- Heat the oven to gas mark 5.
- Slice the tomatoes into quarters and put in an oven proof dish or roasting pan with the garlic and drizzle with olive oil. 
- Place the dish (use two if necessary) in the oven and roast for at least 30 minutes. 
- Remove the tomatoes from the oven and tip the contents of the dish into a large pan.
- Heat on a medium heat using a wooden spoon to break up the tomatoes a bit. 
- Remove from the heat and add the sugar and basil. 
- Use a hand blander to blend the tomatoes until completely smooth. 
- Put the pan back on the heat, bring just to the boil and season to taste (I added just a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper). 
- Serve warm with a swirl of sour cream,bread and butter. 

* I prefer the flavour of plum tomatoes but regular tomatoes on the vine are good enough.  You may need to add a little more sugar to bring out the full flavour though. 

Tis the season for blackberries and apples.  We have a glut of both.  While walking the dog we're picking pounds and pounds of blackberries and the little Discovery tree in our garden is positively laden down with fruit.  I love the apples from our tree, they're deliciously sweet and the flesh is a gorgeous pink colour, almost like a peach when you take the skin off!  They're not actually a cooking apple but I find that they hold their texture and flavour very well. 

 

The question is what to do with all the bloody things?

One answer is this simple Blackberry and Apple Pie Recipe

Serves 6

300g shortcrust pastry
2 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 tbsp corn flour
a few good handfuls of blackberries
6 tbsp golden caster sugar
milk to brush

- Preheat the oven to gas mark 5.
- Roll out the pastry to a thickness of about a pound coin. 
- Cut round your pie dish to get the top. 
- Having cored, peeled and sliced your apples toss them in a small bowl with the cornflour and half the sugar. 
- Mix the blackberries and apples together in the pie dish and sprinkle with the rest of the sugar. 
- Place the pastry on top of the pie dish and crimp the edges with a fork.  I like to use the spare pastry to make a picture of what is in the pie and put that on the top too.  If there's enough left I frequently make a mini pie/tart in a silicone baking cup to have in my lunch. 
- Brush the top of the pastry with milk and then bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until golden brown. 
- Serve warm with cream or vanilla ice cream. 

This dessert came about beacause I had to use up half a block of puff pastry and the strawberries were in danger of going off.  While poking about the cupboard I found a block of marzipan had a hole in the packet so I decided to use that too.  Et voila!

Serves 6

250g ready made puff pastry
Approx 12 strawberries
200g marzipan
3 tbsp flaked almonds
2 tbsp golden caster sugar

- Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 and prepare a non stck baking tray. 
- Roll out the pastry into a long rectangle and place on the baking tray.  Score a line down the two longest sides about 1.5 cm from the edge. 
- Roll out the marzipan to approximately the same size as the inside of the two lines.  Place on top of the pastry. 
- Cut the strawberries into 3 parts, lay the central part in the middle with the outer two pieces either side, cut side up.  Continue to lay the strawberries in this fashion on top of the marzipan filling in any gaps as necessary. 
- Sprinkle the strawberries with the sugar and flaked almonds.  
- Brush the sides of the pastry with milk. 
- Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until puffed up and golden. 

- First slice off the root and tip on the onion. 
- Then halve it lengthwise and remove the outer skin. 
- Then make slices from the root to the tip, leaving a little bit intact at the root end. 
- Then, starting at the tip end, slice across these cuts, leaving you with chopped onion! 

Serves 4

1 cup or mug rice (the bigger the cup the bigger the serving)
2 cups or mugs cold water

- Heat oil in a small pan with a lid. 
- Add a cup of rice and stir until thoroughly coated in oil. 
- Add two cups of water and a pinch of salt then cover. 
- Keep on the heat for 10 minutes. 
- Turn off the heat and leave to stand for at least 5 minutes then serve. 

Just a few basic tips that I use as standard but can prove very useful in everyday cookery.  I'll add more in time and if you have any others please do let me know what they are. 

- When frying an onion or mushrooms add a pinch of salt to soften. This also brings out the flavour. 

- To thicken sauces mix a few teaspoons of corn flour in a splash of cold water and then stir into the sauce. Keep stirring it for a few minutes and the sauce will thicken. 

- How To Chop An Onion, this seems rather basic but to some people it's these basic gaps in their knowledge that is preventing them from progressing with their cooking. 

-         Use lemon juice and salt to clean brass and copper. If you cut a lemon into quarters you can dip it in salt and use it to scrub the thing you’re cleaning. Just give it a good rinse and buff with a clean cloth.

-         Use biological washing powder or liquid to clean off baked on food. Just put a cap full of biological washing powder in a large pan and put the thing that has the food on it in this. Boil it for a few hours and the food will soften and you’ll be able to scrub it of in hot soapy water easily. Better yet leave it in the pan overnight. 

-         Use vinegar and water to clean your windows. Just put a splash of vinegar in to a bucket of warm water and use old newspaper dipped in this to clean your glass. 

-         Use vinegar or cola to get rid of rust on baking tins. Soak the tin in vinegar or cola overnight then use a tooth brush to scrub the rust away. Wash in hot soapy water then dry in the oven on a low heat. Then brush oil over the tin before storing it. 

-         Use vinegar to get blueberry juice out of clothes. Cover the stain with vinegar and then pour boiling water through the cloth it’ll take the stain with it. Then wash as normal. 

-         Use vinegar as a fabric softener. Simply use in place of fabric softener in your washer if you have sensitive skin. 

-         Use bicarbonate of soda to freshen carpets. Sprinkle over the carpet, leave for a few minutes and then vacuum away. 

-         Use bicarbonate of soda to clean sinks. Spread it over the area to be cleaned, leave for a few minutes and then wash away. 

-         Use bicarbonate of soda and vinegar to clean drains. Mix together, tip down the plug, then rinse. 

I've had this recipe floating around my desk on a post-it for weeks now and finally remebered to post it.  Basically I had beansprouts to use up and didn't want stirfry.  When I was living in Japan and you went to a restaurant you would get a cup of green tea and a little bowl of salady type stuff when you sat down.  One of the usual things was this spicy beansprout salad, lovely and refreshing with a bit of a kick.  I searched around online and found a few variations on it but nothing seemed quite right so I basically made it up.  It worked rather well I think!

Serves 4

1 clove garlic, crushed
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp japanese soy sauce (kikkoman* is best)
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp chilli flakes**
1/4 tsp Tabasco
4 handfulls beansprouts

- Put everything aside from the beansprouts in a medium sized bowl and whisk until the salt and sugar are dissolved. 
- Toss the beansprouts in the dressing so they're nicely coated.
- Put the bowl in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes. 
- Decant into small bowls as a starter or use as part of a main. 

* I cook a lot of Japanese food and you need a lighter soy sauce for this, Kikkoman is the best but it has become harder to find it as some supermarkets have stopped stocking it.  If you have a minute then go here and help Bring back Kikkoman!  I think Waitrose do an own brand Japanese soy sauce as well as stocking Kikkoman but I don't live particularly close to one. 

**I couldn't find the chilli flakes so just used a grindy garlic salt and chilli thing I found first.  The chilli flakes are mostly for the look, most of the heat comes from the Tabasco. 

Makes 4 portions

350g chestnut mushrooms
4 tbsp brandy
2 ml double cream
2 tsp corn flour dissolved in a splash of cold water

- Chop the mushrooms into quarters.
- Heat a splash of olive oil in a pan, then add the mushrooms with a pinch of salt.
- Stir until slightly browned and reduced then add the brandy. 
- Simmer for about 5 minutes. 
- Take off the heat and then add the cream and a bit of pepper and stir. 
- Return to the heat and then bring to the boil.  The cream should thicken.  Add the corn flour in water and stir thoroughly for 2 minutes until the cream thickens further. 
- Spoon into warm ramekin dishes and serve with warm bread rolls. 


 

Serves 4

2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp smoky paprika
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp cayenne pepper
rind and juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp chopped mint (either fresh or mint sauce will work)
2 tbsp chopped coriander*
200ml yogurt/creme fraiche
4 chicken breasts

- Mix the garlic, paprika, coriander, cayenne and lemon rind and juice in a bowl. 
- Add the fresh herbs and yogurt and mix well.
- Spoon a few spoonfuls into the bottom of an oven proof dish. 
- Slash the chicken breasts a few times diagonally then place in the dish on top of the mixture.  
- Spoon the rest of the mixture over them making sure they are coated all over.  
- Leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes, overnight if possible.  
- Heat the oven to Gas mark 6 and bake for 30 minutes.  
- Serve with basmati rice and sauteed corgettes and green beans**.   

* I keep a bunch of this in the freezer then just use scissors to chop off as much as I need for a recipe. 
** Optional but delicious!


 

Makes around 30 biscuits

300g butter, softened
140g golden caster sugar plus a few tsp for sprinkling
300g plain flour
140g rice flour

- In a food processor place the butter and sugar and blend until smooth.
- Add both of the flours and a pinch of salt.  Whizz until it's all mixed. 
- Turn the mixture out onto a sheet of clingfilm and shape into a roll.
- Wrap it in the clingfilm and put it in the fridge for at least half an hour and up to 2 days. 
- Heat the oven to Gas Mark 4 and line 3 baking sheets with greaseproof paper. 
- Take the roll out of the fridge and slice into rounds.  If the mix isn't keeping it's shape use your fingers to smooth out any bumps and if necessary roll a ball the size of a small walnut then press down with the heel of your hand to flatten it into a biscuit. 
- Place the trays in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.  Rotating the trays to ensure even cooking after about 15 minutes.  If necessary cook in two batches.* 
- Remove from the oven and leave on the trays for about 10 minutes to firm up, then place in a tin to keep.  Best eaten slightly warm!

*I find an upturned roasting or bread tin in the bottom of the oven makes an excellent third shelf when baking, just give the tray on this level a little longer. 

Makes ~4 jars

950g apricots*
950g sugar
Juice of half a lemon
225ml water
knob of butter

- Quarter the apricots and remove the stones.
- Crack the apricot stones with a mallet and a lot of strength and take out the kernels.  Drop these into a cup of boiling water. 
- After a minute take the kernels out and remove the brown skin. 
- Put the apricots, kernels, lemon juice and water in a very large pan.  Simmer for 15 minutes until the fruit is soft and the contents are well reduced. 
- Take the pan off the head and add the sugar, stiring until it is dissolved.
- Add the butter and return to the heat boiling rapidly for about 15 minutes or until setting point is reached** make sure you keep stiring it from time to time or it may burn. 
- Remove any scum with a slotted spoon and then pour into pots.***

* This recipe can be adapted with a bit of mathematics to any quantity of apricots. 
** To test this first hold up the spoon you are stirring the mixture with and see how it drips.  When the drips get slow and it looks more viscous instead of rapid and runny test a small bit of the jam on a small plate that you have put in the freezer.  If you push this jam across the plate with your finger and it wrinkles up ahead of your finger then it has reached setting point. 
*** To sterilise the pots before use wash them in hot soapy water and rinse them thoroughly.  Then put in the oven on a low heat to dry.  Bring out of the oven fill and put the lid on while it's still hot.  This forms a seal and means it will remain sterile. 

Serves 10

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
500g strong white flour
7g fast action yeast
2 tsp salt
325ml warm water
1 tbsp olive oil
6 baby plum tomatoes, halved
1 ball mozzerella, shredded
sea salt
1 stalk rosemary

- Put the garlic and olive oil in a small bowl.  Put to one side. 
- Combine the flour, yeast, salt and water in a large bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until combined. 
- Add the oil and continue to mix.
- Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth. 
- Place in an oiled bowl an leave in a draft free warm place* for an hour or until doubled in size. 
- Knock down the dough and turn out onto an oiled baking tray. 
- Press out into a rough rectangle, cover and leave to rise for another 30 minutes
- Heat the oven to Gas Mark 7. 
- Once the dough has risen again use your fingers to poke the indentations into it all over.
- Press tomato pieces into these holes and drizzle with the garlic and olive oil. 
- Bake for 10 minutes then remove from the oven and poke the shredded mozzerella into the indentations too.
- Scatter with a pinch of sea salt and the rosemary. 
- Return to the oven for 15 minutes. 
- Remove from the oven and serve straight away. 

* On a warm day I find that putting the bowl, covered in a teatowel, inside a basket in the conservatory is perfect. 

Good comfort food this, great served with vanilla ice cream or any kind of cream actually.  It's a great follow up to a roast as you just chuck it in the oven about an hour before you want to eat it and leave it until you pull it out and dish it up. It's a very flexible dish, I had the oven on at Gas mark 5 and 7 and finally off while cooking this and it usually comes out just about perfect every time.  You can replace the plums with most other fruits too, but keep an eye on it to see it doesn't over cook. 

Serves 4

6 large plums
3 slices of bread, made into breadcrumbs
6 tbsp demerara sugar
a knob of butter

- Slice the plums into 1/8ths and remove the stones.
- Put in a pudding basin and sprinkle with half the sugar. 
- Top this with the bread crumbs and sprinkle with the other half of the sugar. 
- Slice up the knob of butter and dot it all over the top. 
- Place in the oven for an hour at Gas mark 5 or if you have something else cooking as a main course then put it in with that until the juice bubbles up and stains the crumbs. 

Makes 6 average or 4 well filled ramekins

250g tub marscapone
5 tbsp cream or creme fraiche
5 tbsp icing sugar
8 digestive biscuits, crushed
250g summer fruits (Take frozen summer fruits, sprinkle with sugar and leave for a few hours til defrosted)
Fresh fruit to garnish

- Mix together the marscapone, cream and icing sugar in a small bowl. 
- Put the crushed digestive biscuits in the bottom of the ramekin dishes.  
- Top the biscuit with a few spoons of fruit, including the juices, dividing it evenly between the bowls.  
- Spoon the marscapone mix on top of the fruit layer. 
- Smooth down and garnish with a few pieces of fresh fruit.  
- Chill for at least 30 minutes.  


 
 

Serves 8

1kg frozen summer fruits
250g sugar
~12 slices white bread, a few days old, crusts removed

- Put the fruit and sugar in a large pan.  Cover and heat gently until the juices flow and the sugar is dissolved. 
- Line a pudding basin with clingfilm then butter the inside. 
- Cut the bread into a circle to fit the base of the bowl and strips to cover the sides and top of the bowls also.  Arrange the bread so that the base and walls of the bowl are covered. 
- Using a slotted spoon take the fruit from the liquid and put in the basin.  Occasionally spooning on some of the juice so it permeates the whole pudding.
- Place the bread on the top of the fruit and spoon on some more of the juice. 
- Put a small plate of saucer on top of the pudding and gently weight it down.  Don't press too hard or it can all squish out. 
- Place in the fridge for at least 24 hours. 
- To serve gently turn out onto your serving plate and ease the cling film out the peel off.  This may not be the easiest step and can all go horribly wrong.  Don't worry, I guarantee it will still taste good!!
- Serve with cream. 


 

Makes about 30 individual bites

4 egg whites
225g caster sugar
1 tsp pink food colouring*

- Heat your oven to gas mark 3 and line 2 large baking sheets with baking paper. 
- Whisk the egg whites in a scrupulously clean glass bowl until stiff.
- Whisk in the sugar a spoon full at a time, adding the colouring with the last of the sugar. 
- Continue to whisk until the colouring is fully mixed and the mixture is stiff and glossy.  
- Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a wide star nozzle and pipe onto the baking paper in swirls approximately 5cm wide.
- Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour or until solid. 

*I like Asda's natural pink colouring as it makes a delicate pastel pink instead of the irradiated salmon pink you usually get.  Alternately if you are serving it with fruit as I did you can use a few spoonfuls of the colourful juice.  I didn't do that this time as I was making the meringues a few days in advance. 

I served these by gently spreading a layer of marscapone on each swirl, then sandwiching a spoonful of mixed summer fruits between the two layers.  They're a tiny bit messy to eat but delicious! The meringue is deliciously chewwy inside, if you want a harder meringue then bake for longer.  Even on their own these swirls make a delicious mouthful. 



 

I made meringues the other day and so I had egg yolks left over.  I decided to try my hand at making mayonnaise.  Normally I'm a Hellman's girl but I thought I'd try my hand at making my own.  It was a little fiddly but a spare pair of hands fixed that problem.  Apart from the taste of the olives coming through too strongly for my liking I loved this.  I think that on something with more flavour it wouldn't be noticable but as I was eating it with new potatoes it affected the taste a bit. 

Makes 1/2 a pint

1 egg
2 egg yolks
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 tsp lemon juice
1/2 pint oil *

- In a tall jug place the egg and unbroken yolks, oil, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper in that order. 
- Using a stick blender put the blender at the bottom of the jug over the yolks and turn on, hold in this position until the oil emulsifies**, then plunge up and down a few times until everything is thoroughly mixed.  The mixture will be very thick so you may need to hold down the jug to stop it lifting with the stick blender. 
- Decant into a jar and store in the fridge. 

* I used olive oil and the flavour carried over, if you dislike olives, as I do, make it with sunflower oil. 
** This just means it will go white and look like mayonnaise. 

Last night we were supposed to be having tortilla wraps, unfortunately I hadn't given them a close enough inspection and they had tiny spots of mould all over them.  The rest of the meal was already underway so I had to improvise.  Luckily I'd seen this recipe for pita bread somewhere and saved it in my 'to try' folder.  I tweaked it a bit and knocked these up in 20 minutes while the filling was cooking. 

Makes 4 large or 6 regular pitas

1 tsp fast action yeast
250g strong white flour
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
150ml warm water

-Preheat your oven to gas mark 7 and flour a large baking tray or two small ones
- Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl, make a well in the centre and then add the water and oil.
- Mix with a spoon until it forms a dough.
- Tip out onto a floured work surface and knead for 10 minutes. 
- Split the dough into the required number of portions then shape into rough balls and roll out into ovals to a thickness of 5mm.
- Place them on the floured baking trays, dust with more flour and bake for 8-10 minutes.