James Martin I love you

Posted on by vlatsou

When the dilemma between working in the evening or cooking for friends arises, unfortunately (for my PhD) there is only one choice.

I picked one of my favourite dishes ever for the main, the one with the catchy little title Chicken in Tomato and Red Wine sauce with Cinnamon and Nutmeg. I could omit the cinnamon and nutmeg bit I suppose, and even the red wine but, trust me, it’s so important it has to be in the name. It is what makes the kitchen smell heavenly and suddenly the time you spent skinning 10 chicken thighs makes sense. Hoping that I have demonstrated my love for this dish enough, I feel that it requires its own special post so I’ll leave it for another time (yes, I got greedy again and forgot to take a picture of the finished product).

For pudding, I thought I’d make something new. I had just bought James Martin’s Desserts book and so many things looked so exciting. I wonder now what made me choose Sticky Toffee Pudding with Toffee Sauce, since I’ve only eaten it once or twice and it certainly never made much of an impression. It must be the winter.

The recipe isn’t too difficult, but you need both a food processor and a blender. You will be rewarded though when the kitchen starts smelling like sweet treacle and golden syrup.

Sticky Toffee Pudding (from James Martin’s Desserts, or here)

Ingredients (serves 6-8)

75g soft butter
175g dark brown demerara sugar
200g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tbsp golden syrup
2 tbsp black treacle
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g pitted dried dates
300ml water
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

First thing I want to say is, make this even if you don’t like dried dates. Now we’re over that, grease a 23cm tin with the 25g of butter (I made it in a orthogonal one, whatever suits you best around that size) and dust the inside with flour. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius (180 if fan assisted).

Put the butter and the sugar in the food processor/mixer and blend them. Slowly add the golden syrup, treacle, eggs and vanilla extract and continue mixing. Then, add the flour, but turn down the mixer to a slower setting if you don’t want to kill all the raising agent (you don’t).
Now, the dates. Boil them in the 300ml water and then use a blender to puree them. Add the bicarb of soda and watch it come alive! While it’s still hot, add this to the egg mix and combine. Pour into the tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 mins.

Toffee Sauce

This has been such a success that I was instructed to make it last night to go with the Guinness Chocolate Cake instead of the chocolate ganache I was planning to make. We call it JJ, but it is just inappropriate for me to tell you what it stands for. It is the easiest thing ever.

Ingredients

100g dark soft sugar
100g butter
200ml double cream

Not the healthiest thing ever, but do it anyway. Melt the sugar with the butter and then add the double cream. Bring to boil and simmer it until it’s thick enough.

Vanilla ice cream will go really well with this but we didn’t have any. It was still heavenly. You can reheat both the sauce (just bring to boil again) and the sponge. I just put it in the microwave for 10-15 secs but James says you could also use the oven for 5 mins. You can also freeze the sponge apparently, although I can’t see how it’s possible to make it and not eat it all in the next few hours.

What I like about Minneapolis

Posted on by vlatsou

Well, this is going to be a hard one. My initial idea for this title was the offensive but accurate “Minneapolis is rubbish” but to be honest I didn’t have such a bad time, even if it was because I was with fun people and I was quite busy with maths. So, I decided to stop moaning, and write about the good things. I will number them as well, because then it will feel more of an achievement every time I manage to come up with one extra thing. There it goes:

1) Sky walks: It’s 6.30 in the morning and you are on your way to the conference centre, for 10 hours of talks. It’s cold and you’re tired (jet lags only happen when you go East as far as I’m concerned) and the last thing you want to do is get out of the hotel. Worry not:

You don’t have to.

2) Hell’s Kitchen: They make something called sausage bread with the texture of a really moist cake and the taste of heaven (oh, the irony). And they serve it with something that I can only hope is whipped butter rather than whipped cream. If someone can confirm that it is actually butter, my respect for Minneapolis will increase by about 450%.

And, if you order a sandwich, you can expect your bread to have been buttered to death and then fried. Don’t get me started on the portions. This one is a big hit apparently, with loads of cheese, ham and poached pears. It was yummy.

Finally, they claim that they make the best peanut butter in the world. They might be right.

3) Joe’s Garage: Yes, more food, but this is a food blog and I am starting to struggle for ideas. Joe’s garage looked pretty terrifying from the outside but, once on the inside, we were served juicy and tasty burgers by someone (presumably called Joe) who seemed friendly and competent. He memorised our order (although we all had different toppings and sides on our burgers) and only made one mistake.

4) The twin city of St Paul: Ok, not strictly in Minneapolis but if you’re looking for some type of sightseeing, you can have a look at the only two interesting buildings we managed to spot in the two cities:

The Cathedral

and The Capitol

It is advisable that you avoid looking at the ceiling or wall paintings if you have a sensitive stomach or any sense of style.

5) Hard-working people: The lady that gave us an amusing tour of The Capitol – highlight was her using the word sophisticated to describe the decoration of this:

also turned out to be working at the cloakroom in the conference hall. Coincidence? Maybe there are actually only 3 people living in Minneapolis after all, which could well explain the empty streets.

All in all, you wouldn’t go to Minneapolis out of choice, but if you find yourself having to, pick a good restaurant. They do exist, but they might be hiding away in a basement.

Salted Caramel and Chocolate Cookies

Posted on by vlatsou

Well, you don’t really need an excuse to bake when it’s so cold and miserable outside (or ever, in fact) but the Bonfire Night seemed like it needed a little bit of a treat to celebrate. Celebrate what? I don’t really understand why there are so many fireworks and bonfires to remember that someone tried to burn down the Houses of Parliament but failed. No one really does the same for other failed terrorist plots. Maybe it’s just too early, you don’t really want to provoke terrorists too much.

Anyway, poor Guy Fawkes has been burnt so many times that I felt that Bonfire Night deserved some kind of contribution from my part. Not really sure about what kind of food is traditionally made on this day, I just decided to make something I’ve been craving for a while, some kind of cookies with salted caramel.


Salted caramel sounds quite pretentious and it is annoyingly all over the place, having emerged as a food blogger’s favourite. I am not one to steer clear of cliches though and, to be honest, the salty-sweet combination is more common than it appears at first: brie and cranberry, meat and chutney and most of Chinese food are only a few examples! I love all of these and I think the combination of the two tastes manages to bring the best out of both of them. Did I mention Wotsits dipped in melted chocolate? Try it.

If I was a proper “foodie” (how I dislike this word!) I would make my own caramel sweets. But I’m lazy. I came back from the department late and had about 45 mins before the fireworks to make these. I used Cadbury’s caramel bites for that batch, which was not caramelly enough, and fudge bits for the one I made today, which turned out to be too sticky. Next time make your own caramels, foodie.

Salted Caramel and Chocolate Cookies (adapted from the Kitchenist who adapted them from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients (makes about 20 cookies)

230 gr dark chocolate
60 gr butter
100 gr flour*
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
150 gr brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup caramel chunks (toffee, caramel bits, homemade caramels etc.)
sea salt

Melt your chocolate with the butter, making sure it doesn’t burn! You can do it on the hob, in the microwave or using a bain-marie. Just do it slowly.
Whisk the eggs with the sugar and the vanilla extract until light and fluffy (in a food processor if you like) and add the melted chocolate. Add the flour mix (flour and baking powder) and mix with a wooden spoon until it’s fully incorporated. Finally, add the caramel chunks.
Place spoonfuls of the mix on baking paper and sprinkle with sea salt on the top. Bake in a preheated oven for 15 mins (maybe less, depending on how big your cookies are) at 170 degrees.

The top looks a lot like the shiny, crackly top of a good brownie and the cookies are chewy and very very chocolaty. They disappeared very quickly. By the way, I didn’t make the fireworks. I got lazy and decided to stay in, eat cookies and get drunk on beer, together with some other lazy people. Fireworks are overrated anyway.

*I made these gluten-free again by substituting the flour by equal parts of gluten-free flour, cocoa powder and ground almond for texture.

Note: I forgot to mention that they turn out better if you chill the dough first. I know many people are in the habit of doing that anyway but I’m quite lazy and impatient so I normally skip it. It really helps here!

Jamie’s English Onion Soup

Posted on by vlatsou

OK, I have to confess: Onion Soup sounds like such a great idea but I have never actually had a good one. I’ve had it a few times in our college hall, but there it basically consists of a few bits of onion swimming in some Bisto. To be honest, I enjoyed it at the time, being thankful that it wasn’t their tomato soup: Passata diluted in some hot water with a bit of pepper. Just awful.

It just seems that whenever I go to restaurants that do onion soup there’s always something more exciting to order. For example, Brasserie Gerard apparently does a good one. But they also have a scallop starter. And a baked camembert. And some deep fried whitebait. I just can’t bring myself to order the soup.

Yesterday though, it felt very wintery and, having seen Jamie Oliver making this soup on his show recently, I decided to give it a go. This is the recipe from Jamie’s website and I only made a couple of changes, mainly through necessity.

English Onion Soup (from Jamie Oliver)

Ingredients:

a knob of butter
olive oil
1kg onions (a combination of red and white)
a handful of shallots
2 leeks
1/2 bulb of garlic
2 litres of chicken, beef or vegetable stock
sage
salt and pepper
200gr cheddar
Worcestershire sauce
slices of stale bread

Making it is pretty straightforward. Chop the onions, leeks and shallots. Try not to cry too much. You will probably fail so just go ahead and listen to this and relate:

Next step is to fry the chopped garlic with some sage leaves in the butter and the olive oil and add all the chopped onions, leeks and shallots.

Turn it right down and leave it to cook for about an hour, covered for the first half. They will be very soft at the end of this, and if you want to add some more colour you can just turn the heat up a bit but be careful to stir often so they don’t burn. Add the stock, bring to boil and let it simmer for 15 mins.

Now the fun bit! Toast some bread and put a portion of soup in a bowl. Cover with bits of toasted bread on top until you have a bread lid. Top with grated cheddar and some Worcestershire sauce and pop under the grill until your cheese has melted. Enjoy. Just don’t go on a date afterwards unless it is with someone you’re trying to get rid off. But still, surely there are better ways of doing that.

What I did differently was that I didn’t add the sage because I didn’t have any. I think my onions needed some more caramelising but I had already added the stock when I realised so I had two choices: Add some browning or end up with a pale soup. In the end, I didn’t do either as I spotted a bottle with a bit of “quality” (as in Sainsbury’s Basics, hopefully Jamie will approve) red wine. I actually think it improved the taste and I will definitely use some again next time I make this, but probably before adding the stock.

I was also contemplating swapping the cheddar for some nutty gruyere but then decided to stick to the title and keep it English. I picked a mature cheddar and I have to say it was very tasty, especially with the Worcestershire sauce. I don’t really know what else makes this an English soup rather than a French one and I do hope I haven’t made any francophiles angry! Jamie just made it look too good to resist!

Hazelnut and Nutella Cupcakes

Posted on by vlatsou

You know you’ve had enough of working when you find yourself day-dreaming about food. It happens to me way too often, which makes me wonder whether I’m rubbish at what I do or just love food a bit too much. Probably a bit of both. Anyway, today I got thinking about baking and chocolate and since my favourite chocolate (by far!) is praline, the Hazelnut and Nutella cupcake was born!

These are the most amazingly nutty cupcakes I’ve ever eaten. And they’re gluten-free. And like all cupcakes, really really easy to make. The recipe I was aiming for was the simple cupcake recipe with half the amount of flour substituted with ground hazelnuts. Maths got a bit complicated when I realised that the gluten-free cake flour I was using contained sugar.

Hazelnut and Nutella Cupcakes

Ingredients (for approximately 16 cupcakes)

3 large eggs
6oz butter
6oz sugar
3oz flour (if your flour mix contains sugar like my gluten-free one, reduce the amount of extra sugar appropriately- I only added 3oz of sugar rather than 6)
3oz ground hazelnuts
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
nutella for filling

I like doing my cakes without using a food processor or a hand mixer since I find they become fluffy enough if you just hand-whisk them. And there is less to wash up. So, I softened my butter, added the sugar and mixed it into a uniform paste with a wooden spoon. Next, I added basically all the remaining ingredients (dry ones first, although it probably made no difference) and whisked until smooth.

The idea with the Nutella was to have a little drop of it sitting in the middle of the cupcake, so I put half of the mix for each cupcake in the cases, topped it with a little spoonful of Nutella and then added some more cake mix on top of it. It didn’t work as well as I would have wanted, so maybe I needed to dilute the Nutella with something (milk? cream?) to make it less dense and force it to stay liquid even after baking. Any ideas welcome! Having said that, the flavour was amazing and I really had to stop myself from eating them all before managing to get a photo!

I’m sure you can do similar things using different types of nuts, but I like the matching hazelnut-nutella combo and I find that, although almond is nice, it is not strong enough. Here, the hazelnut taste was coming clearly from the whole cupcake, rather than just the nutella centre (ok, bottom).

I couldn’t find any ground hazelnut so I got some whole roasted ones and put them through the food processor. Apparently, if you do that with a bit of sugar it stops them from getting too greasy and forming lumps. I only found out about that when it was too late. It was still fine and I think it turned out nuttier that it would have done if I had used ready-ground ones, because of all the juices they released.

I’m definitely becoming more of a baking fan, and I’d like to think that I am getting better at it too. I try and bake gluten-free whenever I can, because of my friend Aimee, and in most cases you honestly can’t tell the difference. I “cheat” by using a flour mix, which includes all the essentials for gluten-free baking, like xanthan gum and I also find that using a bit of ground nuts helps with texture.

I also had my first successful loaf of bread baked today and I might post a few pictures if I can get over the fact that the lighting is horrible. That’s what happens when your kitchen is a basement and you mostly cook in the evenings! I’m not a very patient person either, which means I will not spend ages trying to get the perfect picture, especially when the food smells so good! And I clearly lack the equipment which means I have to deal with a lot of rejection from sites like Tastespotting or Foodgawker (but not Tastestopping)! Wait, what do you mean they don’t reject anyone?

Back in Bruges

Posted on by vlatsou

Well, not literally, but we tried to recreate the “authentic” Bruges experience at home by making chips, drinking local beer and watching “In Bruges”.

Have you seen “In Bruges”? If you haven’t, you should. It will make you laugh and it will make you cry. Not sure about the crying actually, since I do cry quite easily (like a big gay baby), but I don’t see how you wouldn’t be moved by it. And you will certainly laugh. It’s quite a dark film involving a good amount of black humour. And swearing.

And if you haven’t been to Bruges, you should go. We went this July, as a part of a road trip to Belgium and Germany. It’s quite a small place and we more or less saw most of the town in the two days that we stayed there, although I certainly wouldn’t mind staying for longer. Very quiet, you won’t find a great amount of nightlife but the food and the beers are great. It’s a beautiful town to walk around, if you’re into that kind of thing. And if you’re not, I’m sure it’s nothing a beer or two won’t fix.

Anyway, the chips. We had the best chips at the chip museum, at the cafe in the basement. We also watched a video on how to make the perfect chips and- of course- I kept notes. So, yesterday, we decided to give double-fried chips a go, although we have failed many times in the past.

The idea is to cook them for 10 minutes at 130 degrees, take them out and, just before you want to eat, cook them for a further 3 minutes at 190. Since we haven’t got a sugar thermometer there was a lot of guess work involved. For the first stage, we wanted the oil to fizz up just slightly when they went in, but the chips to stay as pale as possible throughout the 10 mins. For the second stage, we just got it as hot as we could. We used a combination of vegetable oil and olive oil and, although I could pretend there is a scientific reason behind this, the truth is that was all we had in the kitchen. The chips turned out perfect; really fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Dare I say we made Belgium proud!

It wouldn’t be a real Belgian night without a lot of Belgian beer. We drank 3 big bottles of local beer we picked up from the Bruges brewery. A blond one, at 6% was the weakest but by no means weak. The brune version was a double fermented one at 7.5% and it was actually my least favourite, although not bad at all. The highlight for me was the triple fermented one and the strongest (surprise, surprise) at 9%. Blond, strong tasting and hoppy but really really smooth. It went down a bit too quickly actually- was feeling a bit headachey this morning!

The St. John’s Chop House

Posted on by vlatsou

If you are a foreigner in England and quite snobbish about the food (it’s always better back home), you should visit a Chop House. Great British food and local ales, served in a very nice environment by helpful, friendly and polite staff. Kind of the opposite of your average curry place.

This is the second Cambridge branch but for some reason I haven’t visited the first one yet. We went there last night with my boyfriend to celebrate our anniversary. It was actually on Sunday, but he was too hangover to talk, let alone go out for dinner.

I hope you appreciate the increasing quality of the pictures, going all the way up to boring mediocrity.

Starting from no picture at all, our starter was Potted Venison. I haven’t had anything like it before and, although I always think that meat isn’t anywhere near as flavoursome as it should be when it is served cold, this one was very good. It wouldn’t have worked hot anyway because there was a layer of solid fat on the top, to preserve it I guess. It was served with some toast and some kind of sweet chutney that I can’t remember the details about, but it went really well with the venison.

My main was an Oxtail and Wild Mushroom Faggot with Parsnip puree, which was brilliant, with really nice tasty meat wrapped in some kind of salty membrane (stomach lining?). The parsnip puree was a great alternative to normal potato puree and I’m definitely going to try making it myself.

Alex had a Steak and Kidney Suet Pudding. I hate kidneys and this didn’t really change my feelings towards it, but the rest was very nice and the sauce went so well with it, being some kind of sweet syrupy gravy.

We somehow found space for pudding, and I found the correct white balance setting on my camera, so the pictures are slightly more presentable. We shared a Sticky Toffee Pudding with Vanilla ice cream which was sweet and sticky and spongy (quite predictably really) but the right amount of each one making a great dessert.

The other one was a Baked Apple Cheesecake which tasted great but was a bit too stodgy for my liking.

All in all, a great meal for under £50 for two. I will certainly be going back.

8/10

Almond Macaroons

Posted on by vlatsou

These are my dad’s favourite biscuits and I’ve loved them since I was little as they were a bit of a treat in our house. I think this is where my love for everything almond-flavoured comes from, especially Amaretto. Is it wrong to blame my drinking habits on my father? Well, I suppose so, but then again, he doesn’t read my blog.

My auntie, though, has to take the blame for completely putting me off making my own macaroons. Being quite a good cook herself, with a particular skill at puddings and cakes, I always considered her failure to produce edible macaroons as proof that they are impossible to make.

We made a key lime pie the other day and, having several egg whites left over I thought I’d use them in some macaroons. They were going to waste anyway, so I didn’t really mind if they didn’t turn out amazing. I didn’t trust any recipes that I found online thinking that my mix will be too dry but it is amazing how much almond powder you can incorporate in a single egg white. So, I spent most of my time trying to add more things to the mix to make it into some kind of consistency that I could shape into balls.

They were pretty good but didn’t last for long so the next day I tried to reproduce the recipe. Given how sketchy the first one was, I am surprised they turned out so similar! Well, this is Take 2:

Almond and Coconut Macaroons
makes about 20

3 egg whites
200 gr ground almond
(up to) 100 gr coconut
200 gr sugar
3 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp almond extract

Whisk the egg whites slightly and then add everything else together, leaving the coconut last to control how wet your mix will be. You basically want it to still be moist but to be able to shape it into balls. Place them on some baking paper on a tray and then press each one down with the back side of a wet spoon.

Bake for approximately 15 mins or until golden. Let them cool down for a little bit before you eat them – if you can resist! And please, don’t try and balance one on your forehead, it will burn you. It has happened before.

Spit-roasting

Posted on by vlatsou

In Greece, spit-roasting a whole lamb is an Easter tradition. Driving through town on a warm Easter Sunday, you can smell lamb being cooked in every house’s back garden. Of course, if you haven’t got a garden or the patience or in the unlikely event that the weather is bad you can always roast it instead. But it’s just not the same.

My boyfriend, because he is amazing, decided to make a spit. And being amazing, he managed to make it over a couple of days in the summer using bike gears, a car’s windscreen wiper motor and a computer’s power supply. It looks the part and it works like a dream!

In a few weeks we are going to have The Best Meat-Eating Party/BBQ featuring a whole spit-roast lamb but for now, just to warm up, we thought we’d do some chicken. Alex covered it in olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs and it got tied on the spit. We had also bought a couple of pork belly joints and one of them went on the spit at the same time.

They were looking cooked surprisingly early, about an hour later. The skin was crisping up nicely and the pork crackling looked great. When we cut the meat off, it was very juicy. I am not a fan of chicken breast, I find it boring and dry, but this was really good. I had it in a bap with some home-made Spicy Feta and Roast Red Pepper dip which is pretty easy to make and always goes down well at bbqs.

Just roast the peppers until the skins are black in places, let them steam in a bowl with a lid on the top and then peel them. Pop some chillies, the peppers, the feta and some olive oil in the food processor and you’re almost done! I usually add freshly ground pepper, paprika and some dried oregano. It goes well with most meats really or as a starter with some pita bread.

It was a beautiful night, probably the last one of the summer and the fire kept us warm as it got darker. I will post again with news from the lamb spit-roast mission, for now we’re trying to make sure we get the lamb with the head on, as well as some intestines and the liver to make Kokoretsi.

Somada or The Drink that Makes Me Homesick

Posted on by vlatsou

Somada (or Soumada, as it is called in other areas of Greece) is a non-alcoholic drink made with almonds and sugar.

The real version is made with some bitter almonds mixed in too, and I really think this is what makes the difference. I’ve had Somada from the Mastiha Shop before, and it really didn’t taste right at all. Bitter almonds contain hydrogen cyanide which is lethal if consumed in large enough quantities, which really is true about everything in this world. Unfortunately, in the case of bitter almonds, a couple of dozens are enough.

You don’t need that many to make Somada. I also think that heat removes it, but don’t take my word for it. If you make this at home, the easiest thing to do is use bitter almond extract, as it will be quite tricky to find bitter almonds.

The general idea is to grind the almonds into a paste, place them in muslin and soak them in water, so that the water gets all the flavour and juices. Then, you add the sugar – a silly amount of sugar, but it needs it- and boil it so it reduces down to a thick liquid.

Somada is served in a short glass mixed with cold water. You can drink it just like that, but the best bit is dipping paximadia in it:

I feel like I should have more memories of this one: It’s one of the most traditional drinks back home, but all I remember is talking about it rather than drinking it. I tried it a couple of times as a teenager and didn’t really like it, but grew to love it later on. If you get the chance to try authentic somada, give it a go, it’s brilliant. Even better if you have it in a traditional cafe.