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Guernsey Potato Peel Pie, not just a book club review, but a recipe too

I am extremely lucky to live in a road with the most brilliant neighbours. They are fun, generous, don’t live in your pocket but are always there if you need them. Even better, we have our own neighbourhood book club which nicely complements our Tomato Growing contest (more to follow on that later in the year) in ensuring we all see each other regularly. Once a month, we meet and discuss the merits of a designated book, which is always a lively discussion aided by lots of wine and the fact that we all love a good debate. Last month, the lovely Helen, pictured below was our host.The designated book was ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society’ which was a light and enjoyable read. The book is set in Guernsey during the Occupation and highlighted many of the hardships that the islanders went through, many of which I have to confess to being completely unaware of, however it also highlighted the extremes they went to to feed themselves and in the course of the book, a potato peel pie is mentioned. Having a few old King Edwards knocking around in the fridge, I thought it might be fun to try and create a potato peel pie to take with me to book club, instead of the usual bottle of wine. I confess that in the interest of making it taste good, I have not used the austerity measures that the original recipe called for and have liberally added cheese, cream and garlic, and the result was that it tasted really good! So if your book club is reading this and you fancy trying to make one for the occasion, or you want a very simple vegetarian potato and cheese pie, give it a try!

My attempt at the Guernsey Potato Peel Pie: You will need:

For the pie crust:

3 large potatoes – skin grated, including some of the white flesh
Teaspoon of oil to grease the pie dish
1 small, finely chopped white onion
1 large egg, beaten
25g plain flour
25g grated parmesan
1/2 teaspoon of paprika

For the filling

Remainder of the potatoes above
1 clove of garlic
1 egg yolk
100g cheddar grated
50g parmesan grated
1 tablespoon of cream
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Preheat the over to Gas mark 6/220 fan/240 non-fan
Grease a small pie dish with the oil
In a bowl, mix up all of the ingredients for the pie crust
Press in to the pie dish, to form a nice thick crust and place in the oven for 20 minutes
In the meantime, place some water in a saucepan and add the chopped potatoes and garlic. Bring to the boil and simmer until the potatoes are tender
Drain and allow to cool slightly
Add the remaining ingredients and mix well
Turn the mixture out in to to the cooked pie crust and smooth out so it looks like a flan
Reduce the Oven to Gas Mark 4/160 fan/180 non-fan and cook for a further 12 to 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown
Serve immediately

It turned out to be a rather lovely, slightly different Cheese and Potato pie.

Next month’s book is”The Hunger Games”…that could be interesting…

Have a happy Easter with amaretto soaked simnel cupcakes

Happy Easter! Last year I posted a recipe for simnel cupcakes, which was my version of the traditional Easter Simnel Cake. Simnel cakes were made for mothers by their daughters for Easter, so get baking Ellie and Katy! My cupcake version is really simple, and the joy of amaretto soaked fruit combined with marzipan is honestly worth doing. There is very little that doesn’t translate well in to a cupcake, although probably not liver pate, although my dog Lily would definitely disagree with that! Bake these for Easter, or just because you can, they really are worth it!

You will need: 225 g unsalted butter, softened, 225 g sugar, 4 eggs, 225 g plain flour, 120 g sultanas, 120 g currants , 220g chopped fresh dates, Amaretto liquer (optional, grated zest of 2 oranges, grated zest of 2 lemons, 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 2 tablespoons sour cream (or plain yoghurt, or buttermilk), 250 g almond paste, cut in half – half rolled in to small balls, other half cut in to fine slices, 24 cake cases

For the icing: 400g icing sugar, 200g unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon almond essence

Place all the fruit in a bowl with enough amaretto to cover the top

Pre-heat oven to 180°C /160oC Fan/Gas 4.

Place the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, orange zest, lemon zest and cinnamon in a food processor and whizz until blended
Strain the fruit but keep the amaretto
Add the fruit and the sour cream to the cake mixture and stir well

Place a teaspoon full of the mixture at the bottom of each cake case

Add a slice of marzipan
Top with a remaining spoon of mixture so that the marzipan is coverd

Place in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until risen and golden brown. Remove from the oven and immediately prick all over with a cocktail stick.

Add a teaspoon of amaretto to the top of each cake so that it soaks in. Allow to cool

Whilst the cakes are cooling, throw the icing ingredients in to a food processor and blend until smooth.

Ice each cake with a swirl of almond icing and place a marzipan ball on top

These little cakes are so delicious, the idea is that you bite in to them and then hot the secret layer of marzipan. they are far too good to save just for Easter time.

Dinner Party Wars continue with duck rillette and rack of lamb

As you may know, amongst our friends are many keen cookery types but none more so than Richard 9pictured above) and Peter, and we take it in turns to go to each others houses to sample each others cooking. No don’t get me wrong here, this isn’t “Come dine with me”, we don’t use this as an excuse to rummage around each others’ knicker drawers, it really is all about the cooking, but no matter how nonchalantly we pretend we treat this, this is serious competition . This last time, we went to Richard and Lisa’s house. Richard is famous for his ability to smoke and preserve things, he’s the only person I know who has been on a foraging course and would know a wild mushroom from a deadly toadstool. So on this occasion, he didn’t disappoint and to follow, here were his divine recipes for duck rillette and rack of lamb. Lisa always cooks the dessert and this was absolutely delicious, and as below, recipe courtesy of James Martin.

Starter -Duck Rillettes.

A great evening starter or snack…..make it in lots of small jars as it keeps for weeks and can also be frozen.

Ingredients
4 duck legs
Rendered pork fat
1 bottle Cider
1 star anise
Salt and pepper
Mace
3 cloves
2 bay leaves
1 bulb of garlic
(Christmas cheat: use mulled cider and remove the star anise and mace from the ingredients)

Brown the duck legs in a pan.
Add all the remaining ingredients except the cider. Bring to a slow simmer.
Add the cider.
Cook on the hob (covered) on a low heat for 2 hours.

Remove the duck legs and strain the remaining liquid into a bowl through a sieve and retain.

Remove the meat from the bones making sure you shred it as much as you can with two forks.

While you have been removing the meat from the bones, the fat and sediments you retained will have settled with the fat on the top, and the juices and sediment at the bottom. Use a spoon to remove the fat keeping the sediment and the juices.

Combine the sediment, juices and meat in a bowl and mix by hand tasting and seasoning as you go.

Spoon into sterile jars.

Place the jars sealed into a pan of boiling water and place in an oven at 120 deg c for 20 mins.

Allow to cool and leave in the fridge for a few days before eating as it gets better with ageing (comment from Kim: unlike me!).

Serve with toasted brioches, pickle and sliced gherkins.

Main course –

Rack of lamb with haggis.

Most can be made in advance and heated up. A great winter warmer!

Ingredients.
Rack of lamb
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Fresh rosemary (chopped)
Garlic (chopped)
Mashed potatoes
Mashed parsnip
Lamb stock
Mulled wine
Bramble and recurrent jelly
Port

Place the lamb, garlic and rosemary in a bag with some olive oil and leave it for 6 hours in the fridge.

Using a cooks ring place some haggis on the bottom layer, some parsnip in the middle and top with mashed potato make one per diner. Place in a pre heated oven (180 deg c) for 8 minutes. While this is baking brown the lamb on hob in a pan, then place into the oven for 12 minutes.
Then place the lamb on a board to rest for 10 mins, turn off the oven but leave the mash in to keep warm.

While the lamb is resting place the lamb pan on the hob and heat. De glaze with red wine add stock and port, reduce and finish with the bramble and recurrent jelly.

Plate up and enjoy!

Pudding – (Alas no photos, so here is the lovely Lisa instead!)

Chocolate fondants (serves 6)
(courtesy of James Martin, ‘Desserts’)

190g dark chocolate
100g butter
35g ground almonds
2 large eggs separated
35g cornflour
85g caster sugar
6 plain chocolate truffles
Berries to garnish

Pre heat oven to 180deg C.

Grate 40g of the chocolate. Rub half the butter over the inside of the dariole moulds, then dust with the grated chocolate. Put on a baking tray.

Melt the rest of the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, to melt. Scrape into a bigger bowl and add ground almonds, egg yolks and cornflour.

Whisk egg whites separately until they form stiff peaks, then beat in caster sugar. Fold the merringue into the chocolate mixture. Spoon half the mixture into the bottoms of the moulds, then add the truffles, then the rest of the mixture.

Bake for 10-15 mins until still squidgy to the touch on top…this is trial and error and depends on the heat of your oven, but you don’t really want to over cook it!!

Serve with berries and creme fraiche.

Thank you for the above, Richard. My turn next…oh dear, any suggestions anyone??

(Peter, I’m not ignoring you – but you haven’t sent me your recipes!)

What am I, Chopped Liver? Yes, actually.

I was thoroughly inspired by my recent visit to Mishkin’s, and so all fired up with this new enthusiasm for Jewish deli food, I decided to try and make my own chopped liver. Now, I love chicken livers and I think they are a thoroughly underrated food as they are cheap, nutritious and frankly delicious. I know some people aren’t quite so keen, but if you like pate then try this is a good alternative to chicken liver pate, then you honestly will like this, too. I know this isn’t the prettiest looking dish I’ve ever cooked, but it is really tasty and also excellent if you are on a carb-free diet. So to follow is my own devised recipe for chopped liver, I apologise profusely to all of those out there who will throw their hands in the air with horror, if I’ve committed some ghastly faux pas in my recipe. I don’t promise authenticity (how I wish I had a lovely Jewish Aunt to beg a recipe from), but I do promise it tastes good.

Ingredients

500g chicken livers
½ pint strong chicken stock
400g shallots or white onions ( I used shallots as I love the sweetness, sweet white onions are good, but ordinary onions okay too)
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh sage (1 teaspoon dried)
1 big fat clove of garlic or 2 smaller ones
½ teaspoon of paprika
100g butter
3 hardboiled eggs, chopped finely
Salt and black pepper to taste

Method

Place the chicken livers in a saucepan with the chicken stock over a high heat
Bring to the boil and reduce the heat until they are gently simmering
Cook for 15 minutes then take off the heat, drain and allow to cool

In the meantime, finely chop the shallots, garlic and sage – try and do this as small as possible
Place the butter in a large frying pan and place over a medium heat until it bubbles

Add the shallots, garlic and sage and cook on a very low heat for about 30 minutes until the shallots or onions are caramelised and brown
Take off the heat and allow to cool

Using a hand blender, a food processor or a fork, mash up the livers until they are creamy.

Using a spoon mix the onion mixture in to the chopped liver

Gently fold in the chopped, hardboiled eggs and you’re done!

You can serve this any way you want.

I served it on bruschetta with finely chopped red onion, red chilli and fresh coriander and obligatory pickled cucumbers on the side.

Do try it, it is honestly, delicious! Well Les and Katy thought so!

Mishkin’s smishkins? or was it Jewish deli heaven?

Having been advised by my two favourite food critics (Jay Rayner and the lovely Ellie) that Mishkin’s (25 Catherine Street, Covent Garden) was a lovely place to experience Jewish deli food and amazing gin cocktails, what was a girl to do? Rush there for a lovely long lunch of course! We had the perfect excuse. I was going to the Lucien Freud exhibition (SO worth visiting, his art is amazing once you’ve got over the visual shock factor of all the nakedness) with Ellie and Joyce, my favourite art exhibition companions and fellow-lunchers. So, it was an easy walk from the National Portrait Gallery to Covent Garden.

I loved the informal atmosphere, with the small bar and the booth-style seating. Booths always make me happy, they remind me of New York holidays and treats as a child to the local Wimpy Bar (Don’t turn your nose up, their milk shakes are heavenly!) We indulged in the gin cocktail of the day, whilst we looked at the menu, which appeared as typed by a 1930’s olivetti. Gin, prosecco and elderflower worked extremely well. Gin cocktails at lunchtime seem faintly naughty, but I think should definitely be encouraged in the future. We chose randomly from the menu and decided to share everything. We started with the chopped liver and pickles on the side, and this was truly heavenly. I had imagined it would be like pate, but the addition of the egg made it far different and far more delicious, we all loved it. The macaroni cheese divided us, as it was topped with thinly sliced horseradish (or maybe hot radish of some sort) which Ellie and I adored but Joyce found a bit too hot. The white fish knish divided us again, as Ellie and Joyce were very impressed, whilst I like it but wasn’t bowled over. I did like the little jug of parsley sauce and just the fact that is was called a “knish” was somehow appealing. This was followed by oxtail and cholet. The oxtail was satisfyingly tender and falling off the bone and the cholet seemed odd, as it was served in a separate dish and seemed to consist of salt beef and egg, but then what wasn’t there to like? If I was being super-picky, it could have been seasoned more, it seemed a little bland, but we did devour it.We finished with an obligatory bowl of chips, just for Joyce, as it really wouldn’t have been the same for her if we didn’t. So what was the verdict? Definitely deli delight. I would go back if only for the chopped liver and gin cocktails. Really good lunch place.

It’s flipping pancake day again!

It’s that time of year again when you are racing home late from work and remember that it’s Shrove Tuesday and that traditionally you should be making pancakes. Now there are options here, you can nip into your local supermarket and buy ready made ones; you can buy ready-made mix and pretend it was your own, or you can ignore completely and pretend that you a) hadn’t remembered or b) that you don’t like them anyway. Finally, you can just bite the bullet and make them yourself. Simples! As that ghastly meerkat thing would say.

Pancakes are very easy to make and are good for both savoury and sweet toppings. They always remind me of those brilliant crepe stalls you get in France, where even if you’re not hungry, there’s always room for a crepe.

Pancake recipe

110g plain flour, Pinch of salt, 2 large eggs, 200ml milk, mixed with 75ml of water (Optional 1 tablespoon of Grande Marnier or any other orange liqueur); Groundnut oil for frying (I like this best, as it doesn’t burn as easily as olive oil)

Method

Chuck eggs and the flour in to a food processor or use an electric whisk. I mix it with my hand whisk straight in a jug which makes it easier
Add water and milk mixture
Add liqueur if wished, this is for really fancy “crepe suzette” type pancakes
Whisk until all lumps have gone and it had a texture like thin cream
Add a little groundnut in to a hot frying pan
Add a little of mixture and immediately swish round the pan until it is thinly covered, you’ll soon get the hang of how much mixture you need, the thinner the better and the first one is always a disaster so don’t be downhearted
When the underside of the pancake is beginning to go very light gold, either flip with a spatula or toss confidently in the air to cook the other side

At this point, I like to add a couple of broken chocolate truffles and a spoonful of golden syrup to the pancake so it starts to go melty and lovely, but that’s optional

Slide off the plate and serve
Use my topping as above, or alternatives are:
- Chunks of chocolate, with golden syrup and whipped double cream
- Chopped banana, with greek yogurt and honey
- Lemon juice and sugar – Shrove Tuesday purists will say this is the best way to go
- Nutella – just on its own (Ellie’s favourite)
- Very thinly sliced apples with a sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon (if you cook the apple with a little, butter, brown sugar and cinnamon in a saucepan beforehand, just for a few minutes it is a really lovely topping)
- Chopped up walnuts and maple syrup
- Ham or salami and grated cheese (omit the orange liqueur if you choose this)

Oh and of course, all of the above should be with a big scoop of the ice cream of your choice!

Let me know your choice of topping!

Sweetcorn fritters – such versatile little chaps

Sweetcorn fritters can be just about anything you want them to be. They are brilliant with crispy bacon as breakfast food; lovely as a quick vegetarian lunch with salad or we now have a tradition of serving these with our roast turkey at Christmas, but they are always stunning with roast chicken. You can even try them with a little chopped red chilli added as part of a mexican-style meal with salsa and sour cream. The main base of these yummy little chums, is creamed sweetcorn, which isn’t always available, so whenever I see a can at the supermarket (Waitrose normally has them) I always buy a couple to keep in my store cupboard.

They are absolutely best eaten hot and straight out of the pan, but you can cook them in advance and store in greaseproof paper, but I can’t pretend they are nearly as nice. You can make the batter in advance though which does help. Here is my simple recipe:

Sweetcorn Fritters

100g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a little salt and black pepper (to suit your tastes)
1 large egg
440g can of creamed sweetcorn (MUST be creamed, not just ordinary corn)
vegetable oil (not olive oil- it burns) for frying
A good non-stick frying pan

Method:

Mix sweetcorn, salt and pepper and the egg in a mixing bowl or jug until they are well combined
Sieve in the flour and baking powder, holding the sieve nice and high so that as much air as possible gets in to the mixture
Fold in to the mixture, trying to keep as much air in as possible
Heat a little oil in a hot frying pan.

Drop a few tablespoonsfuls of the mixture into pan – they will puff up, so don’t do too many at once
Fry until a lovely golden colour, then flip to cook the other side
Drain on some kitchen roll and serve

If you are doing these for breakfast, they are lovely if you cook the bacon first, then cook the fritters in the bacon fat. Very naughty, I know or alternatively if you are being good, you can always use Fry-light.

What Kim’s blog did in 2011

This is very exciting! The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for my blog and I think it makes very interesting reading, click on the link below to have a good look.

Thank you so much everyone who has taken the time to visit the blog (6,500 visits!) and wishing you a happy and healthy New Year! (Our New Year’s Eve was definitely happy but maybe not so healthy, did Sherri and I really think we looked good in those glasses?? John and Mark clearly didn’t think so)

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,500 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

We’ll leave the last word to Josh as he sings in to 2012 in to his Cobra microphone..

Don’t panic…last minute Christmas present? Make Christmas Jam!

Christmas Jam is just great. It’s cheap, it’s tasty, it shows how thoughtful you’re being by making something so personal and best of all… it is a brilliant red colour! It has the lovely flavours of cranberries, orange and cinnamon with the freshness of strawberries.

It really doesn’t take long to do and here is the recipe:

You will need:600g cranberries, 450g fresh strawberries chopped in to small pieces, 1.2kg of jam sugar with pectin, juice and zest of a large orange, 1 bottle of certo pectin, ground cinnamon and cloves to taste.

Method:

Add one and a half pints of water to the cranberries, orange and zest, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes
Sieve the mixture to get rid of the seeds and skins, really push the mixture through to get the maximum fruit puree (You don’t have to do this if you don’t mind it slightly coarser textured)

return to the heat and add the chopped strawberries and the sugar bring slowly back to the boil
Stir in half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and a quarter of ground cloves, taste and add more if you like
Boil hard for 1 minute
Remove from heat, stir in the bottle of certo
Pot in to clean jam jars

This is such a pretty jam and people do like it when you’ve taken the trouble to make something special.

Merry Christmas!

My beautiful bread sauce recipe

Bread sauce is a wonderful thing provided you make it yourself. The bizarre thing is that if you don’t have the time to do it yourself, I actually prefer the Knorr packet variety to the fresh ready-made goo that you can buy in Supermarkets, does that tell you something about my taste buds? Oh well…. I think the key to a great bread sauce is to keep the onions in it, if you cook them very gently and make sure they are finely chopped they make the flavour amazing. The other good thing, is that it freezes really well, so if you make it now, you can just take it out of the freezer on Christmas Eve.

We love bread sauce hot with our turkey on Christmas Day, but most of all we love it cold in the ultimate left-overs Boxing Day sandwich (turkey, bacon, cold stuffing, tomatos, mayonnaise, cranberry sauce and bread sauce – add avocado if you have any knocking around). Trust me, try it before you immediately dismiss the idea! Anyway, for it’s more traditional usage here is my recipe! I have got 10 people for lunch on Christmas Day and I have made double quantities.

Ingredients: 1 small or half of a large, mild white onion, finely chopped (don’t use a red onion, it won’t work), 10 cloves, 10 peppercorns, 1 bayleaf and 2 sprigs of thyme, 500ml full cream milk, 100g butter, 100g of dried white breadcrumbs or cubed, stale white bread, Salt and pepper to taste

To serve: 4 tablespoons double cream, knob of butter (what is a knob? No rude suggestions please! It is approximately 1 teaspoon), fresh grated nutmeg

Method

Melt 100g butter in a saucepan on a low heat and add the finely chopped onion
Sweat the onion gently (that means heat them gently on a low heat, don’t fry them), until soft and translucent for 5 to 10 minutess – do not allow to brown, they should be soft and translucent
Add the cloves, peppercorns, bayleaf and thyme and the milk
Bring to the boil, remove from the heat and stand for at least 2 hours or overnight if preferred
Fish out the herbs, cloves and peppercorns (You’ll be very pleased you counted them!) but leave the lovely soft onion bits in
Place over a low heat and add the breadcrumbs
Bring to the boil
Simmer for 3-4 minutes
IF YOU ARE GOING TO FREEZE YOUR BREAD SAUCE, ALLOW IT TO COOL AND FREEZE NOW
If you’re serving straight away,take off the heat, stir in the double cream and the knob of butter and serve with a sprinkling of nutmeg

If you have defrosted your bread sauce, place in a saucepan and add the 4 tablespoons of cream and the knob of butter and heat gently without boiling and serve as above.

I love these “Pour and Store” bags for freezing or for storing sauces and soups. They are a really handy shape and you can pour things in to them whilst they are still hot.