Author Archives: whatkimcookednext

So having sinned horribly on my low carbohydrate diet last week (mea maxima culpa!) I am back at it with a vengeance. I don’t care that chicken liver pate may be old-fashioned and reminiscent of Berni Inns where it was served with a withered lettuce leaf and Melba toast that could definitely have doubled up as a loofah if you were desperate. There are times when you can keep your de-constructed snail porridge, I want something delicious and simple and most of all unpretentious.  A beautiful home-made pate  served with some rocket, dressed with olive oil and a little parmesan or crusty bread or toast if you are not off the carbs, can be tasty and cheap. Chicken livers are so under-rated and under-used.You will need: 1 onion and 2 cloves of garlic,  chopped finely, Small handful of fresh parsley (approx. 3 sprigs) chopped finely, 500g raw chicken livers, 250g slightly salted butter, ½ teaspoon of Tabasco, 2 teaspoons dried English mustard, 2 tablespoons brandy (Optional), Salt and pepper to taste; 2 tablespoons groundnut oilMethod:

• In a frying pan, add 1 of the tablespoons of groundnut oil and place over a medium heat
• Add the chicken livers and fry gently for 10 to 15 minutes or until they are no longer pink in the middle, don’t overcook them, you want them soft.

 

• Remove the chicken livers and set aside on a plate, to cool slightly. (Ellie pictured to the left, about to remove them)  Place the second spoon of groundnut oil in the frying pan.  Add the onion and garlic and parsley to the pan and cook on low for about 10 minutes  minutes until they become translucent but not brown
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• Add all the rest of the  ingredients in to a food processor and whizz until smooth and creamy. You can add a tablespoon or two of double cream if you like it very creamy

 

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• Place in to a bowl and put in the fridge for at least 6 hours – that’s it! It’s also really good served with some onion marmalade. You can buy some really good ones, otherwise cook some sliced onions very, very slowly in some butter until they are very soft and start to caramelise. When they are really soft and browned, add balsamic vinegar and dark soft brown sugar and cook for a few minutes longer, that’s all you need to do.

Okay, I know I shouldn’t have been cooking today, being Mothers’ Day and all, but this is such a sublime (and easy!) dessert to make, that I really didn’t mind. After all, we had just had a hefty Chinese takeaway for which I hadn’t had to lift a finger!

I re-created this dish after we had it at a Beaconsfield restaurant (no names but guess at an insane wild animal, no longer indigenous to the UK) that I will review at a later date. This is my version.

Salted Caramel Pecans – served with Ice CreamYou will need: 90g unsalted butter, 45g caster sugar, 45g dark brown soft sugar, 200g condensed milk, 100g pecan nuts and 2 level teaspoon of high quality rock salt flakes (do not try and use ordinary salt, it will not work unless this is in large crystals!) plus any delicious ice cream of your choice – vanilla or a very dark chocolate is good.

Method: here are your 6 steps to heaven:

Place the butter and both sugars in a saucepan over a low heat and stir until all the butter has been absorbed

• Add the condensed milk and gently bring to the point where it is starting to bubble

 

• Immediately take off the heat and set aside until cold, it should now be really thick and sticky
• Stir in the nuts and salt

Serve with a scoop of ice cream on top and Do NOT think about the calories

Happy Mothers’ day everyone

Hoorah! One of our favourite guest bloggers, Ellie is back and she is talking about one of the best things in the world, cookery books. When I’m on a diet, I sit and flick through them mentally devouring the recipes and when I’m not on a diet they are the most brilliant source of inspiration.  Oh dear, from masochism to greed all in one fell swoop!

Over now to the lovely Ellie……………………………………………………………………………..

I think I own more cookery books than I do saucepans.  This is probably Very Bad Maths, but there’s something about them that I love, despite the fact that I am by no means a fantastic cook – the world of possibility suggested within those glossy and beautifully-photographed pages is irresistible, not only for the recipes themselves but for the imaginary world in which I am rich and beautiful and capable in the kitchen, whipping up a perfect syllabub of an evening or holding jolly impromptu lunches for 12 where everyone tells me how clever and marvellous I am.  “We all love going round to Ellie’s – you get Michelin-star quality food in a relaxed, bohemian environment.”  Yes, that’s what they’ll say.  So, here are a few of my new acquisitions and old favourites when it comes to frivolous and lifestyle-flogging cookery books.

 Gizzi’s Kitchen Magic by Gizzi Erskine  My reasoning for buying this one was tenuous at best.  I had spotted Gizzi in a few fashion magazines and was inordinately keen on her tattoos and mini-beehive; then, when I checked out her website, I found a recipe for a Guinness Chocolate Cake, which I duly made and turned out to be a proper, full-blown, crowd-pleasing marvel.

So, having used one of her recipes for free and to such miraculous effect, I decided that I really ought to pay some money for her new book.  The styling is lovely, and I quite like the idea that this is supposed to be an old-fashioned, back-to-basics sort of ‘kitchen compendium’.  However, as an intermediate-at-best cook myself, I found that most of the book was very basic indeed.  In fact, I struggled to find anything that I really, really wanted to cook, amid all of the how-to-boil-an-egg kind of stuff.

There are a few interesting recipes – the Earl Grey chocolate cake, chicken katsu curry, and rosemary-infused caramel millionaire’s shortbread – but nothing exactly earth-shattering.  I have since noticed that the wording on Gizzi’s website, for the Guinness chocolate cake that drew me in to start with (not featured in the book), has since been changed to acknowledge the fact that she ‘adapted’ it slightly from an old Nigella recipe.  This may be a clue as to why this book was less imaginative than I might have hoped.

Throughout reading this, though, I kept thinking that it’s the sort of thing I would probably have really liked if I had been given it as a present when I’d been heading off to university.  At that stage, I might have benefited from a good, basic Thai chicken curry or fancy pasta recipe (or it at least might have meant fewer Pot Noodles and/or desperate dinnertime phonecalls to my mum).  I would certainly recommend this for the keen but clueless teenager in your life.  For the slightly more advanced and/or health-conscious cook, I would recommend the first ‘Cook Yourself Thin’ book, to which Gizzi was a contributor and is packed full of pretty good ideas.

Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights by Sophie Dahl I know that The Delicious Mrs Cullum has come in for a lot of stick for her foray into food.  If you are one of the many who think she’s an annoyingly over-privileged dilettante, I should warn you now that I was one of the three people in the world who rather liked her telly programme.  Basically, this is a cookery book for those like me – OK cooks who just want to look like a supermodel and quote a bit of poetry whilst making a not-too-taxing omelette or similar.

The book is whimsical in tone and, despite Sophie’s claims to being super-humanly greedy, most of the recipes are as feather-light as the charming little line drawings that accompany them.  It is divided by meal and season (‘spring suppers’, ‘summer lunches’, ‘winter breakfasts’ and so on), which I actually think is an extremely good idea, and one that I’ve found very useful.

Sophie is a lovely writer, who is clearly passionate about food, and her philosophies for cooking and eating are just basic common sense but extremely sensible.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading her nostalgic meanderings on various food-related topics, and they left me feeling inspired to cook some beautifully simple and seasonal dishes.

Alas, they weren’t really to be found in this book.  I attempted the fish pie and the lemon cake, and both were sadly substandard – absolutely fine and edible (well, I thought – although my boyfriend did actually refuse to eat the ‘bland and runny’ fish pie), but I truly believe I would have achieved better results had I just been winging it by myself.  A shame, as I so wanted to love it, but after that I didn’t attempt to follow any of her other recipes, as the ingredients for the first two had been quite an expensive waste.

However, I still refer to Ms Dahl fairly frequently – but as a source of inspiration rather than for great recipes to follow to the letter.  The seasonal lay-out means it’s perfect for flipping through and picking up ideas – I have thus been inspired to make my own versions of things like lettuce soup and baked squash, with lovely results, which I might not have done otherwise.  Plus, the cover photo inspired me to buy a wonderful pair of Le Chameau half-height wellies – so, thanks, Sophie.

How To Be A Domestic Goddess and Nigella Express by Nigella LawsonYou can hardly be surprised to hear that I worship at the altar of Saint Nigella.  In fact, I just find it utterly mystifying that there seem to be people that don’t.  I adore her mentalist-racehorse facial expressions, those slightly-frightened-looking extras she hires as fake friends to come to her fake house in her telly programmes, her slightly inappropriate use of adjectives like ‘luscious’, her larder that’s approximately twice the size of my flat.  However, what I love most about Nigella is that I have never, ever been disappointed with any of her recipes.  Not once.  And I’ve made loads of them, slightly cack-handedly.  They still always work, and are usually even nicer than one might feasibly expect.

All of her books are a treat but these are my favourites, and the two I have found most useful over the years.  If ever I have a free Saturday and want to cook something wonderful that will make me feel brilliant about myself, the first thing I do is crack open HTBADG (catchy, that) over a morning cup of coffee, before going out to buy the chosen ingredients (preferably on a sunny day, armed with a charming wicker basket and a 50s frock, obviously – well, at least it gives me something to dream of when I’m on the bus in the rain, laden with straining Sainsburys carrier bags).  I like to say it’s the best (OK, maybe only) self-help book I have ever owned.  Her Store Cupboard Chocolate Orange Cake is really the best I have ever felt about my kitchen-self for the minimum effort.

‘Nigella Express’ is possibly the most useful cookery book I have ever owned – things that you really can make after work that are genuinely impressive.  Her chicken cacciatore in particular has become a staple of my weekday repertoire – also her ‘cheat’ macaroni cheese (more like a Caribbean macaroni pie, and delicious).  Plus, what I love most is that when she claims to eat vast quantities of ragu (by itself, from a cereal bowl, to the horror of her husband) when she’s feeling miserable, I believe her entirely.

Those are my favourites.  What are yours?

Are we all Atkins-ed out? I’m not sure, but contemplating my large, wobbly post-Jamaica belly in the mirror last week, it was a question I had to seriously ask myself. Knowing drastic action had to be taken I bought a copy of the lastest diet book  “Neris and India’s Idiot-Proof Diet”. Well, it did seem like Neris and India were normal gals going through the same pain as everyone else and they certainly had got thinner, so I decided to give it a go. It is without doubt Atkins-esque (and if that isn’t a word, it should be!) there is great emphasis on virtually no carbs, loads of fats and proteins. Low carb diets feels so wicked though, don’t they? All that butter and cream and beef, just so delicious that I can almost overcome the pain of no alcohol for the first two weeks.

One of the best parts of it is, that I can make my own mayonnaise! it’s so easy, please give it a go! You can make it by hand, but it’s really tedious to do all that beating, so it’s much, much easier to use a food processor (use the whisk attachment though, not the blades). Here’s what you need: 2 egg yolks, pinch of salt, 1/2 teaspoon dry english mustard, grind of black pepper, 10 flozs of olive oil, 1 tablespoon lemon juice…that’s it!  Optional: Add all sorts of lovely flavours afterwards such as garlic, wholegrain mustard, chilli (not all at once, individually!) or crumbled roquefort cheese and a spoon of sour cream make the most divine blue cheese dressing the world!

                                                                                                                                                                                                         Method: Add the egg yolks, salt, mustard and pepper in to the food processor and start to beat until it is all combined and is starting to thicken.

Keep the processor on, and gradually start to add the olive oil, a very little at a time – if you add it too quickly, it will curdle. it should start to thicken up nicely, and once it does, you can add the oil a little more quickly. Beat in a few drops of the lemon juice from time to time as this will prevent the mayonnaise getting too thick.

Continue until all the oil and lemon juice has been added. taste it for seasoning and add more lemon, salt, pepper etc according to your won tastes. There you have it! Beautiful, yellow, glossy home-made mayonnaise.  Add all sorts of delicious flavouring too it, if you wish, or just have it au naturel.  It’s wonderful with salads, fantastic with egg and tuna, great mashed with roquefort on top of a steak, and is even good in mashed potatoes. Store it in the fridge in a screw top jar and it will keep for about a week. Quick note, this tastes quite strongly of olive oil, if you want a lighter flavour, use sunflower oil or groundnut oil. Now….Give yourself a pat on the back, you deserve it!