A passion for fruit (Part 1)

The title of this post is slightly misleading, as I haven't really got a huge passion for fruit, in fact I prefer vegetables.  However, at a recent "over 40s health check" at my GP surgery, the nurse told me that many people make up their five a day with mainly fruit and not many vegetables, and that this can be a problem, as fruit is higher in natural sugars, leading to obesity and so on. Fruit is also generally lower in fibre, iron, calcium, folate and some vitamins compared to veg.

Having said all that, I do like fruit, but more so when not just eaten as it comes but transformed into something a bit more interesting.  This week I have been to my parents house and picked gooseberries, blackcurrants and raspberries, and needed to discover something to do with them.

The raspberries were eaten by the kids, and added to my breakfast cereal and yogurt.  The gooseberries and blackcurrants were partly used to make a Nigel Slater recipe: gooseberry and blackcurrant crumble cake.  He suggested a few fruits that would work, including these two, but his final version was made with just gooseberries.  I decided to use half and half gooseberries/blackcurrants.  You make a sponge with ground almonds in, and before cooking it top with a layer of fruit and a layer of crumble mixture.  It worked fairly well, but was a bit overdone around the edges, I think it would have benefitted by having some brown paper tied around the outside of the tin with string, like I do with Christmas cakes.  It tasted good though with a cup of tea, once I had cut off the very outside edges. I might try it with cream later too.

The title of this post was also inspired by another recipe of Nigel Slater's that I discovered the other day - passion fruit creams.  Passion fruits are sometimes the fruit that nobody knows what to do with, and lots of people seem to not like them.  Maybe it's because they're a bit "perfumed", maybe it's because they have quite big seeds and you might not know whether to eat them, or they're a bit too crunchy.  It might be because people eat them under-ripe and not sweet enough.  You can tell when a passion fruit is ripe because its outer skin goes from smooth to dimpled like a golf ball.  I find it takes a good week after buying them from a supermarket for them to be properly ripe.  The first time I used passion fruit in a recipe was last year, when I made a passion fruit tart with coconut pastry, and also a lemon and passion fruit tart.  Since then I've used one together with strawberries and cream to fill a "Wimbledon Cake" - on the cover of Mary Berry's Baking Bible if anyone has that book - oh, and I had one on my weetabix, which worked really well, and that's about it, until today.

 A nearly ripe passion fruit.

The passion fruit creams were easy to make, you halve them and scoop out the seeds and pulp into a sieve over a jug, scraping as much of the juice and pulp through the sieve with a teaspoon, leaving the seeds behind.  This took rather a long time, and I hoped the end result would be worth it (and it was), but I got 100ml of juice from eight passion fruit, leaving a lot of seeds left behind.  Some of them got added back to the dish later, but most were composted, which seemed like a bit of a waste when they are edible, but while a few for a little bit of texture are nice, too many would have spoilt the finished dish.

Then you boil cream and sugar together for a few minutes, and add some lemon juice and some of the passion fruit juice, cool and pour into tiny espresso cups.  I bought some cups really cheaply on ebay ages ago and had been waiting for a recipe such as this to use them!  Then after putting a few seeds back into each one for texture and interest, and refrigerating for a few hours, they are served with more passion fruit juice poured on top, to mingle with the creams when you eat them.  My daughter and her friend have just tried one and they got the thumbs up.

You might have noticed the title says "Part 1".  Part 2 is going to be about what I do with the rest of the gooseberries and blackcurrants.  Any suggestions gratefully received!

To be continued...

Thank you for reading.

Caroline :-)

Spice up your life.

I've grown to like chillies more and more since I started this cooking thing... I will never like food as spicy as my husband, but I can stand the heat much more now than I used to.  Mum never used chilli in anything when I was young.  Curries used mild curry powder, and a chilli con carne was not spicy at all.  In total contrast, these days our house is full of assorted chilli based flavourings and condiments, and my husband and his brothers are on a non stop quest to discover the best chilli sauce.

Drowning everything in chilli sauce is sometimes, I feel, a little bit insulting to the cook, as it can drown out the other flavours and ruin a dish.  However, I've kind of got used to it.. perhaps the hubby's taste buds have been dulled by years of smoking...  I do agree that a little dip of it can really lift a dish, it works very well with oriental flavours like the twice cooked melting pork I made the other weekend, garnished with slices of raw red chilli and spring onions; it also works really well with cabbage, I've discovered.

I like Blue dragon sweet chilli sauce, it comes in mild, original and hot strengths. Also Riverford the vegbox people do a lovely organic one.  There's a company called Jules & Sharpie who make a hot pepper jelly, again in various strengths, and we bought it online in little plastic buckets!

The husband's favourite for quite some time though is the Flying Goose Brand from Sriracha - imported from Thailand and available in Asda, though only the one with the green lid.  The ones with the yellow and purple lids (see below) is the extra garlic versions and are extra delicious, they are available from other supermarkets (and via assorted brothers in law!) and online.

I have made my own "nam jim" thai chilli dipping sauce, we had it drizzled over ginger poached chicken and spring herb salad:

A friend of mine also made her own chilli sauce, which was successful, apart from the part where she tried to remove her contact lenses afterwards!  Ouch!  You do need to be aware that the juice doesn't wash off with soap and water so the zing will stay on your fingers for a good while afterwards, unless you use an astringent such a witch hazel or cold tea (only just found that out, and I'll be giving it a try soon).  I used to put my hand in a plastic bag when I chopped them, but I can't be bothered with that these days. 

Fresh chillies are good (green tend to be hotter than red) and there are so many varieties as anyone who has watched "Man vs Food" will know; but chilli flavour can also be added with dried chillies (whole or as flakes) cayenne pepper, etc. 

This blog post is not just about chillies, it's about spices and seasonings in general.  Over the years I've discovered many wierd and often wonderful things.. on holiday, on the internet (amazon and ebay mostly) and even in the supermarket when I wasn't looking for them.  Here is a photo of my spices and seasonings cupboard:

Having a good stock of things makes all the difference when planning meals, knowing you've got a selection of oils, spices and blends means that when you need it, it's there.  Of course over time they do lose their pungency, but they don't usually go off (except things with a high oil content like sesame seeds).  Mustard powder is a good staple, cumin (seeds and ground), coriander, garam masala, turmeric, star anise, nutmeg, fennel seeds, smoked paprika, cardamom... the list goes on.. On Facebook I once wrote a list of 100 essential storecupboard ingredients. The Old Bay Seasoning on the top shelf is imported from the USA and comes recommended by Nigella Lawson in one of her books in a recipe that I have made for deep fried squid.  A quote on their website states that there are two things you need to know about Old Bay Seasoning: 1. it's great on seafood and 2. it's great on everything else!!

Sometimes I grind my own spices after toasting in a pan to make my own curry pastes, sometimes I just mix the powders like an alchemist. Things I use a lot of such as cumin seeds come from Indian supermarkets via friends in a massive pack, and I refill the litle jars as required.  You can always adjust the recipe depending on how hot you want it.  And the husband can add a generous extra sprinkle of cayenne pepper to his portion...

This afternoon my son and I are on a mission to make shortbread dominoes, we will keep you updated.  Two blog posts in one day, that's a first for me.

Thanks for reading,

Caroline :-)

Risotto relaxation.

This week my teenage daughter has been seriously in my good books.  I came home from work on Wednesday to a delicious smell and she and her friend were halfway through making the seafood risotto I had planned for that night's meal.  I've mentioned risotto in my Meat Free Monday post, but I thought it deserved a post all of its own, because it is my all time favourite thing to cook. 

Lots of people think all that stirring is boring but I LOVE it, it's as if all the cares and stresses of the day melt away as the spatula goes round and round in the pan.  And as you usually have to add a glass of wine to it, it's only right to have a glass to sip whilst cooking it. I always find that it takes longer than it says in the recipe for it to be cooked properly, you have to keep on trying a few grains to see if that chalky texture has gone.  In the words of the wonderful Nigel Slater (reading his books always inspires me to write a blog post, and the following quote was actually referring to lamb shanks but I think it applies equally to risotto): "Of course, modern cooks demand a recipe that is done in the time it states, but.... we must enter a different mindset, one where something is done when it feels like it, not when a recipe says it should be."  I think it is the hob setting that influences it, the stock needs to be absorbed by the rice, rather than boiling so firecely that it just evaporates off.  On masterchef they always say that a risotto is an easy option, and doesn't show much skill, but the ones who do cook it always seem to get it wrong!

The first risotto I ever made was the classic risotto primavera, "the risotto of spring" with spinach, peas and asparagus.  I love spring and greens, so it was the ideal recipe for me.  Since then (OCD counting things alert!!) I've made another twenty five different risottos, pretty much all successful apart from the sausage, radicchio and red wine one which was a complete waste of the wine!  We ate the sausage out of it and the rest was consigned to the food waste bin.  The radicchio is just too bitter for all of our tastes, even when cooked in this way. 

Favourites have included broad bean & bacon; mint & prosciutto; salmon & mange tout; smoked fish with a poached egg on top; chorizo, squash & pea; asparagus & lemon, risotto nicoise with fresh tuna, green beans & black olives; leek, goats cheese & crispy bacon; prawn, squid & samphire and jerusalem artichoke with fennel seeds.

There is so much scope for variety, just soften a chopped onion and some garlic in butter, olive oil or a mixture of both, coat the rice with it until glistening, throw in a glass of wine or vermouth (and savour the most amazing smell!) add stock ladle by ladle as it becomes absorbed by the rice, plus your choice of whatever you fancy.  When done, add cheese, usually grated parmesan (unless it is a fish risotto), leave to stand for five minutes and serve.  I sometimes like to top it with something, such as in my favourite ever risotto, caramelised carrot.  Very simple, but when topped with homemade hazelnut and watercress pesto it is taken to a new dimension.

I don't seem to have many pictures of risotto - in a way they're not very photogenic, but here is the beetroot and gruyere one, which IS, as you can see:

This one is spinach and dolcelatte (not a great photo as taken with my old phone):

The better the stock, the better the risotto.  Home made is best, I once made a duck stock from a five spice roast duck and used the stock and the leftover meat in the risotto with soya beans for an oriental twist.  I always freeze chicken carcases when we have roast dinners and make stock with five at a time in a massive pan I got from Ikea.  When boiled the stock can be frozen and used at a later date. I also make stock with the Christmas turkey bones. If home made stock isn't available then I use Knorr stock pot, little jelly pots that you add to boiling water; or oxo liquid stock concentrate.  But at the end of the day you can always use cubes and it will be just fine.

What to do with leftovers has never been an issue for me as we never seem to have any!  But I know people who have made is into cakes and fried it, with or without a breadcrumb coating.  If you do want to reheat it, even the same evening, you will need to add some boiling water to loosen it up a bit. Nice when dipped in sweet chilli sauce.... the staple condiment which inspired my next blog post. I'm halfway through writing it and will publish soon.

Until then, thank you for reading,

Caroline :-)