The Thorngrove Table

Raspberry Semi-Freddo/Parfait, Ginger Glass Cookies & Raspberry Sauce

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For the current WTSIM's theme of "Terrines" I have no historical recipes to offer you, as Terrines and Pàtes per se are absent from the repertoire of the medieval cook. There are dishes which might - with a rather large leap of the imagination - be considered forebears (in the same way primordial slime might be considered our forebear) but the earliest definitive reference I could find in my bookcase was in my rather battered 1911 copy of the redoubtable Escoffier, which leaves a rather gaping hole of several centuries. So I shall leave it to experts such as Carolyn of C.18th Cuisine to illuminate the mysteries of terrine genesis, and concentrate on the modern era.

I make chicken liver pàte with some regularity during summer. It's an excellent lunch dish, in addition to keeping well, and it's easy to vary the recipe to stave off taste monotony and tailor to my food obsession of the moment (capers, peppadew, jellybeans, etc). However chicken liver pàte recipes are a dime a dozen, so I decided to stretch my wings a bit and attempt as my terrine something I wouldn't normally. Which with me, usually equates to a dessert that requires more than just basic assembly.

My final choice was a recipe from Gordon Ramsay's "Just Desserts" cookbook. Originally a guilty pleasure I bought just so I could read the recipes, look at the pretty food-porn pictures, and drool, I didn't actually expect to ever use this book. But I was wrong! I'm happy to say these are the fourth and fifth recipes I've now tried from Just Desserts (an astronomically higher number than from any other dessert recipe book I own!) and my first parfait recipe ever; the Strawberry and Vanilla Semi-Freddo.

The Parfait and the Pàte â bombe
This is a two-part recipe. First you make a pàte â bombe base (a mixture of 'hard boil' sugar syrup and egg yolks) and then you make the fruit and vanilla cream parfait, and put the two together. The recipe is for strawberries, however there was a box of raspberries in the freezer that were heading towards freezer-burn, so I thought I'd use those instead. I drained off the excess liquid and got about 300g solid weight fruit to use in the parfait. This was my only deviation. The pàte â bombe and parfait recipes were fairly straight forward and the end result was a gorgeously rich raspberry creaminess, quite heavy on the tongue.

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Strawberry [Raspberry] and Vanilla Semi-Freddo
1 quantity Pàte â bombe [see below]
250g hulled Strawberries & 125g Redcurrents or 500g box frozen Raspberries
200ml double cream
1 vanilla pod

1. Make the pàte â bombe. Purée the [fruit] in a food processor or blender until smooth, then sieve to remove the seeds if preferred. Fold the purée into the pàte â bombe. Cover and chill the mixture for 1 hour.
2. Pour the cream into a bowl. Slit open the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds with the tip of a knife, adding these to the cream. Three-quarters whip the cream until softly peaking.
3. Fold the vanilla cream into the [fruit] mixture, then freeze in a 1.2 litre loaf tin or individual moulds.
4. To unmould a large parfait, dip the mould into warm water for a few seconds, then invert on to a board and soften at room temperature for 5 - 10 minutes before slicing. Turn out individual parfaits straight on to serving plates.

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Pàte â bombe
100ml Water
150g Caster Sugar
5 large free-range Egg Yolks

1. Heat the sugar and water until clear.
2. Beat egg yolks until creamy.
3. Bring sugar to 'hard ball stage' or 120°C.
4. Drizzle sugar into yolks, whisking all the while.
5. For ice creams and parfaits, whisk until mixture is a thick foam.
6. Use at room temperature or chill for up to 2 days, whisking again before use.
   
   Paraphrased from Gordon Ramsay's "Just Desserts" - buy the book! It's worth it.

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The Ginger Glass Cookies
I thought these pretty cookies would make excellent side pieces for dessert - they have a nice spicy kick to them. They're simple to make and the substitution of Golden Syrup for the Liquid Glucose/Clear Corn Syrup didn't go too badly. I'll try the other syrup another time. The recipe comes from "The Cookie Book" by Catherine Atkinson, and I've paraphrased it:

Ginger Glass Cookies
50g unsalted Butter
40 g Liquid Glucose/Clear Corn Syrup (I used Golden Syrup)
90 g Caster Sugar
40 g plain Flour
1 tsp ground Ginger

1. Put the butter and liquid glucose in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until melted together.
2. Sift flour and ginger into the sugar.
3. Stir into the butter mixture.
4. Cover with cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 25 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/GM4.
6. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment, or like I did, use a flexible silicon baking sheet.
7. Roll teaspoons of the mixture into balls and place them on the baking sheet.
8. Flatten them to as thin as possible. The book suggest laying another layer of parchment/silicon on top and using a rolling pin, but I found flattening the second lot with my fingers worked just as well, didn't show in the end result, and was a lot less fiddly!
9. If you want, stamp the cookies into rounds with a cutter or glass.
10. Bake for 5-6 minutes, until golden brown and lightly bubbling.
11. Leave on baking sheet a few minutes to firm up slightly, then either fold over or leave flat.
12. Leave to cool completely, then store in airtight container.

Note that I found the oven temperature too low to properly bake the cookies and had to turn my oven up to 190°C/375°F/GM5 to achieve success. This is probably because my oven is old, decrepit and anything but airtight, so your mileage might vary. I suggest doing this in two lots, as I did, and adjusting the heat accordingly if necessary.

The Raspberry Sauce
The sauce was made using the leftover raspberry juice (waste not, want not!), a cup of sugar syrup base, a tablespoon of cornflour and a shot of Bramley & Gage's delicious Blackcurrant Liqueur. Tasty, and the colour, as you can see, was glorious!

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And last, but definitely not least, Happy Birthday Johanna!

A Tudor Tarte of Prunes

As requested, here is the recipe for the prune tartlets from last fortnight's afternoon tea:

To make a Tarte of Prunes. Take Prunes and wash them, then boil them with faire water, cut in halfe a peny loaf of white bread, and take them out and strain them with Claret wine, season it with sinamon, Ginger and Sugar, and a little Rosewater, make the paste as fine as you can, and dry it, and fill it, and let it drie in the oven, take it out and cast on it Biskets and Carawaies.

Modern Redaction
1x 410gm can prunes in syrup / 350 g dried prunes
100 g fresh white breadcrumbs
200 ml red wine
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
100 g sugar
1 Tb rosewater
Short Pastry

1. Preheat the oven to GM 7/425°F/220°C.GM 7/425°F/220°C.
2. Soak dried prunes for a couple of hours, or preferably overnight. This step isn't necessary for canned prunes in syrup.
3. Preheat the oven to GM 7/425°F/220°C.GM 7/425°F/220°C.
4. Line a flan or pie dish with the pastry. Small individual tartlets are also ideal as this is very rich.
5. Bake pie case or tartlets blind at GM 7/425°F/220°C for 15 minutes or so until a light golden colour.
6. Remove baking beans/beads and paper and turn the oven down.
7. Simmer the prunes for 10 - 15 minutes until tender.
8. Drain and stone the prunes. Don't forget to do this!
9. Blend the prunes and other ingredients together to form a smooth thick paste.
10. Spoon the filling into the pastry case/s. The prune mixture will puff up, so don't overfill.
11. Bake at GM4/350°F/180°C for 1 hour - 1 hour 30 minutes (tartlets will require less time than a single tart).
12. Serve either hot or cold.

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Bibliography:
BREARS, Peter Food and cooking in C16th Britain: History and Recipes English Heritage Food Series, 1985.
This contains the original recipe which comes from the Tudor cookbook "A.W.: A Book of Cookrye Very necessary for all such as delight therin".

Chocolate Creams revisited

... no, not like that!

Saturday was the now annual Foodblogger's Picnic at Henley-on-Thames Regatta, organised by Jeanne of Cook Sister! Sadly I woke up sick on the morning, so ended up not being able to go.

I had organised pâté, Onuga caviar, quails' eggs, gherkin & capsicum slices and cream cheese with crackers as nibbles, Elderflower Cordial for the non-Pimms fans, and a Midori/Elderflower Cordial mix to make Jade Princesses with the bubbly Andrew of Spittoon was bringing.

My main contribution was to be my chocolate creams however. I even went out and bought the rather adorable and festively coloured little jelly moulds seen below. Perfect for individual picnic portions! Last year's chocolate creams were chilli flavoured, however this year I made them with ginger chocolate and changed the proportions of the recipe slightly; the ginger taste came through without being either overwhelmed or dominating too much, the little pieces of ginger spiced the dessert up, and the creams also set a lot better than last year's. My housemates (who once again benefited from the picnic's loss), declared them delicious also, so I count them as a definite success.

Ginger Chocolate Creams
serves 12+

150 gm Black & Greens Ginger chocolate (or any good quality flavoured chocolate)
200 gm Montezuma's coverture dark chocolate buttons (or any high quality cooking chocolate)
568 ml pot Extra Thick Double Cream (this is the double cream that's even thicker than normal)
5 Egg Yolks
1 pinch Salt
2 balls Candied Ginger in Syrup, sliced thinly (optional)

1. Break the chocolate into your food processor.*
2. Bring the cream to a gentle simmer.
3. Just before the cream boils, pour it over the chocolate and whizz until thoroughly mixed.
4. Add the salt and egg yolks and whizz until the consistency of thick cream.
5. Pour into individual little ramekins or glasses and place a thin slice of the candied ginger on top to garnish.

I got 6 jelly mould servings and 8 cupcake size servings from this amount, but it's so rich you could stretch it further.

*Note: If you don't have a food processor, grate the chocolate and use a hand whisk to beat the ingredients. Lots.

Beth & Steve's Thanksgiving Dinner

I had my own especial reason for thanksgiving this past week - my friends Beth and Steve were visiting from Maryland in the US. To celebrate, some friends and myself had a houseparty and ate and drank and talked the weekend through, catching up on what we'd done in the past 18 months, current events and our plans for the future (as well as the requisite gossip about mutual acquaintances!). It was fun and relaxing and I feel wonderfully recharged, which, given that the Season of Dodgy Canapes is almost upon us, is definitely a good thing. Back to the food front, on the Saturday I cooked a long, leisurely dinner. Beth and Steve contributed a couple of lovely bottles of Spanish cava that lasted us through the snail and venison courses, and a bottle of Australian Shiraz accompanied the main and cheese. We started at 7pm and finished about 10:30pm, but nobody was in any particular hurry!

Amuse-Bouche: Kebabs of Lime Prawns & Caramalized Chilli Kiwifruit

We ended up with two each of these, which I suppose is a bit more than an amuse-bouche should be, but I refuse to waste food. I originally intended them to be cubes of ham, but unfortunately I spent Wednesday and Thursday in bed with a headcold, and was meeting Beth, Steve and several other friends for dinner after work on Friday, so by the time I got to the supermarket it was 00:10 Saturday morning (thank god for 24 hour shopping!). Needless to say, the meat counter was closed, and I was hugely reluctant to attempt the Vaguely Pork products in the chillers. Fortunately these organic prawns were available and fresh so they shuffled in as a substitute. The kebabs were pronounced 'delicious' and a very cool taste combination, so I think the prawns actually worked better in the end, as ham might have been a bit too heavy. I served these with a shot of chilled Lemon Schnapps, which slid down very nicely.

Lime Prawns & Caramalized Chilli Kiwifruit Kebabs
4 ripe but firm Kiwifruit
200 gm Prawns
Juice of 1/2 a Lime
2 Tb Butter
1 Tb Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
1 Tb Brown Sugar
1 Tb Tequila [optional]
12 small wooden skewers

1. Peel and then cut the kiwifruit into cubes, then cut into quarters.
2. Put 1 Tb of the butter, all of the sugar, sweetchilli sauce and tequila in a frypan and bring to a low simmer.
3. Put the kiwifruit in the frypan, making sure they are thoroughly coated, and then cook on medium heat until caramalised.
4. Put under low grill/oven and keep warm.
5. Wipe out frypan, put back on heat.
6. Add butter, limejuice and prawns.
7. Cook on medium heat until prawn flesh is white - about 2 minutes.
8. Skewer a cube of kiwifruit and a prawn together on a single skewer. Mind your fingers - they're hot!
9. Serve.

Entree One: Snails in Garlic & Shallot Butter with Wholemeal Baguette

This is definitely one of those 'love it or hate it' foods. No prizes for guessing which side I'm on! I bought a huge can of 5 dozen snails when I was in Bahrain earlier this year, and have been just dying for the chance to open them. I figured four snail lovers in one room was reason enough, although about 10 each was more than enough, and the leftover dozen (uncooked) snails made dinner a couple of nights later. We had two abstainers from the snailfest, but I fed them a can of Mussels in Galacia Sauce from a very nice, if expensive, Spanish product range I keep a little stockpile of - just for culinary emergencies such as this (their octopus is divine). The boys (yes, the abstainers were the male members of the dinner party. No comment.) cheerfully dove into the garlic sauce with the bread as well. The sauce is a fairly simple one from the back of the can but as it so often turns out, simple is best.

Snails in Butter Sauce
4 dozen Snails
250 gm Butter
3 Shallots
6 big cloves of Wight Garlic
Salt & Pepper
Bunch of Flatleaf Parsley, chopped
French baguette

1. Finely chop the shallots and garlic cloves.
2. Mix together the butter, shallots, garlic and season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Put the snails into shells or snail dishes if you have them, otherwise a wide shallow dish is fine.
4. Cover with butter.
5. Cook in a pre-warmed oven at about 400°F/200°C/GM6 for about 8 - 10 minutes until the butter is bubbling.
6. Serve dressed with chopped parsley and slices of French baguette.

Entree Two: Polenta Slices topped with Pesto, Venison and Balsamic Syrup with Rocket Salad

When you don't want to go overboard on the protein early in the meal, but want your guests to feel they've been treated (and that you're not being skimpy!) venison, with its delightfully rich heaviness, is the ideal meat. Of course, at the price most places charge, that's all you can afford for a dinner party anyway! This entree is a particularly economic use of venison, as it took one £2.50 steak to feed six. Of course you could use more than I did, but for a multi-course dinner party this was all that was needed. The boys especially liked this dish and the Balsamic Syrup - a new release from specialty food purveyor Merchant Gourmet - was such a hit that when we went to the supermarket on Sunday we were charged with picking up a couple of bottles for people to take home with them. It's smooth and distinctively Balsamic, but not too sharp, and it pours beautifully for all us presentation-fussy cooks. I'm not a great fan of giving recipes which require a particular branded item, but in this instance it's worth it. Sorry my US readers, but I have no idea if there's an American equivalent. In truth the ingredients are not much more than Balsamic vinegar, cornflour and water so perhaps it wouldn't be too hard to make yourselves. Other than that, this is easy and quick to cook and assemble, and was my favorite dish of the evening.

Polenta Slices topped with Pesto, Venison and Balsamic Syrup
1 Polenta cake
4 Tb Pesto
1 Venison Steak
Merchant Gourmet Balsamic Syrup
Fresh rough ground pepper
Olive Oil
Butter
1 bag of Rocket salad

1. Either make up polenta into a cake or, as I do, buy it already made.
2. Slice six 1/2 inch slices of polenta from the cake.
3. Cut the steak into thirds and then slice in half sideways, so you have thin pieces of venison.
4. Fry the polenta slices on medium in a mix of olive oil and butter until browned - about 5 to 10 minutes.
5. If necessary, keep the polenta slices warm in a low grill or oven.
6. Fry the venison about a minute and turn over when the blood comes through and it browns.
7. Fry on the other side until browned.
8. Plate the polenta slices and spread with a thin layer of pesto. Homemade can't be beaten of course, but at a pinch, jar pesto is convenient and will just have to do!
9. Place a piece of the venison on each slice of polenta & pesto.
10. Dribble the Balsamic syrup over it in a zig-zag.
11. Dress to the side with rocket. The slightly peppery, slightly iron taste of the rocket balances the rest of the dish very nicely.
12. Serve.

Main: Roast Duck with Mango Couscous Stuffing, Cranberry Sauce, Buttercup Squash Mash, Baby Potatoes & Mangetout & Almonds in Lemon Sauce

Duck is a huge favorite amongst my friends, in fact I believe it's the only meat that all of us like, oddly enough. So the roast of the day was quite a simple choice. This turned out to be an extremely tasty bird and I'm happy to say it cooked beautifully. I've been guilty of overdrying duck in the past - finickity bird! - so I stuffed it with a couple of slashed lemons and although I couldn't personally detect any lemon taste, I think the internal moisture defintely helped.

I had intended on making peach and pinenut stuffing but then I discovered a can of mangos buried at the bottom of the cupboard and was diverted from my course. This eventually became an amalgamation of mango, pinenuts, pork & sage sausagemeat and couscous (as I'm not a huge fan of rice stuffing) and was a definite hit - I think there were only a couple of tablespoons left over. The Oceanspray Cranberry Sauce was jazzed up a bit with some powder forte spice and homemade cherry brandy (because basically I'm incapable of leaving commercial sauces in their virgin state!).

Val makes an absolutely gorgeous sweet potato casserole which everyone loves, and although I made Squash Mash, I stole part of his recipe for the topping. Due to a lack of pecans we ended up with walnut and hazelnut topping, but it was just as delicious. The texture of the mash was a little too soft, as I always forget squash isn't as fibrous as the pumpkins I usually cook, but it tasted good.

I sometimes wonder if you can unlearn how to cook an item? The potatoes were boiled and put in the pan to finish off roasting, and although they were cooked, weren't at all crispy and roasted on the outside. Very disappointing. The leftovers fared much better in the next morning's fry-up. This is the third or fourth time I've had problems with my roast potatoes however, so obviously it's something I need to look at. The Mangetout tossed with sliced Almonds & Lemon Sauce are a standard of mine - it's a lovely sauce and conveniently makeable well beforehand, and the end cooking is nice and fast - almost as fast as they disappear!

Mango Couscous Stuffing
1 cup Couscous
1/2 can Mango Slices, diced
Mango Syrup
3 Tb Pinenuts
1 Tb Flatleaf Parsley, minced
4 Pork & Sage Sausages
Butter
Salt & Pepper

1. Top the mango syrup up to 2 cups with water.
2. Mix together the couscous, diced mango, mango syrup and water, pinenuts and parsley. Leave until the couscous has absorbed the liquid. It should swell to twice its size.
3. Squeeze the sausagemeat out of the sausage casings and partition into teaspoon sized lumps.
4. Fry the sausagemeat on medium in a small amount of butter until just cooked (i.e. no pink showing anymore).
5. Thoroughly mix together the couscous mixture and the sausagemeat.
6. Season.
7. Put in the oven with the duck for the last hour of cooking (i.e. on 400°F/200°C/GM6).
8. Serve.

Butternut Squash Mash with Val's Nut Topping
2 Butternut Squash
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
Salt and Pepper
1 Cup Nuts, preferably Pecan but Walnut, Hazelnut or similar are also good
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Flour
1 Egg

1. Cut the squash into eighths and deseed.
2. Roast the squash until soft and cooked - about an hour in a medium oven.
3. Skin the squash and mash. I use a potato ricer - wonderful invention!
4. Add the cream and season to taste.
5. Put in a casserole dish, leaving about a third room.
6. Beat the egg.
7. Mix together the nuts, sugar, flour and beaten egg.
8. Cover the squash mash with the topping.
9. Put in the oven with the duck for the last hour of cooking (i.e. on 400°F/200°C/GM6).
10. Serve.

Sugar Sauce Base
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 Tb cornflour
Flavoring, i.e. 1 Tb lemon juice, 1 tsp essence, etc
4 Tb Alcohol

1. Bring the sugar, salt and water in a pan to a low simmer, dissolving the sugar.
2. Add a tablespoon of the hot liquid to the cornflour, dissolving it and add back into the syrup.
3. Simmer until the liquid is reduced to a thin sauce.
4. Add the flavoring and and half the alcohol, and simmer until reduced to a medium sauce. At this point you can leave the sauce overnight. It'll thicken up even more and the taste will strengthen.
5. Add the rest of the alcohol. Reduce to the consistency you want - I like it medium to thick.
   
   In the case of Lemon Sauce for Peas or Beans I use 4 Tb Lemon Juice and the rind of a grated Lemon, and don't bother leaving it overnight.

Cheese: English Cheeses, Grapes and Crackers

As Steve is British and missing the tastes of home every now and then (apparently the sad state of pickled onions in America is a sore spot!) I decided to buy an English cheeses platter for the dinner party. Included on it were Red Leceister, Gloucester with Chives, an English Brie, a vintage Cheddar and the inevitable Stilton.

Dessert: English Trifle

When I announced we were having trifle for dessert there was a marked lack of enthusiasm - years of soggy sponge, canned fruit and instant custard have relegated this dessert to the ranks of Unspeakable English Cuisine, which is a great shame. English trifle to me brings back memories of Boxing Day, this being the only time my lactose-intolerent mother ever made it, and although it wasn't my favorite childhood dessert (Bananna Custard was awarded that distinction) I still retain a huge amount of affection for it. Freshly made and alcohol redolent, trifle serves as an example of the best of traditional English cooking. And I'm happy to report everyone loved this version and the glasses were all scraped clean. . .

Trifle is one of those useful desserts that actually taste better if made the day before, and it lasts well too (I must confess I deliberately made extra helpings and ate them for breakfast the next couple of days). There are a hundred different recipes for trifle - mine includes a sauce for the fruit and only uses strawberries - but as long as you have the sherry-soaked sponge layer, the fruit layer and the custard layer, you're set (pun not intended!). Don't be tempted by cheap sweet sherry for this dessert - use good quality dry Spanish sherry. Your palate will thank you.

English Trifle for Eight (or six and breakfast!)
Sponge Layer:
8 Sponge Fingers or Cakes
1 cup good quality Dry Sherry
Fruit Layer:
250 gm fresh Strawberries (or other fruit)
Basic Sugar Sauce (see recipe above)
4 Tb good quality Dry Sherry
1 Tb Strawberry Essence (optional)
Custard Layer:
750 ml Heavy or Double Cream
5 Egg Yolks
1 Tb Vanilla Essence
1/2 cup Castor Sugar

1. Break the sponge fingers into three and put each in a glass (I used plastic throwaways - worked perfectly and no dishes afterwards!) or bowls. If you want, you can make it in one big bowl, but individual portions look much nicer.
2. Drizzle the sponge with the sherry, making sure it is soaked.
3. Cover, and leave the sponge at least 3 hours and preferably overnight.
4. Cut up the fresh strawberries or other fruit into halves or 1 inch pieces and put on the sponge.
5. Make the Sugar Sauce (see recipe above) and add the sherry and the strawberry flavoring.
6. When the Sherry & Strawberry Sauce has cooled (it makes a very pretty baby pink colour), pour it over the strawberries.
7. Heat the cream in a pot to a gentle simmer.
8. Beat the egg yolks until they pale slightly and add the vanilla essence.
9. Very slowly pour the heated milk onto the egg yolks, whisking all the time.
10. Pour the egg and milk (custard) mixture back into the pot and on a low medium heat stir the pot - usually 10 - 20 minutes. Make sure the custard doesn't overheat and seperate.
11. At this point, add the sugar to taste.
12. Stir the pot until the custard 'catches'. This usually happens suddenly, so don't get distracted by other things.
13. When the custard has cooled a little, pour over the sponge and fruit layers.
14. Leave the trifle to cool.
15. Garnish with wafer quills or chocolate or sugar sprinkles and serve.

EBBP #1: from Something's Cooking

My box of goodies for the first Euro Blogging By Post (as hosted by Andrew of Spittoon) arrived from The Netherlands, courtesy of Taina of Something's Cooking.

I ripped it open with great anticipation (no, I'm not one of those people who keeps my wrapping paper at birthdays and Christmas) and was delighted to first of all pull out some traditional Dutch Stroopwafels. Yum! I got addicted to these several years ago when my twin sister lived in Rotterdam. Sadly the only kind you get here always seem to be stale, so these were a happy surprise. They're especially nice if, as Taina suggests, you heat them in a dry frying pan for a couple of minutes. All sweet and caramelly. Mmmmm.

Next out of the box was a packet of Licquorice Drops, the mild, slightly sweet kind. I must admit I'm one of those strange people who don't like liquorice. I tried a piece, but nope, still don't like it. However the guys at work are happily munched their way through the bag and said it was lovely.

Last but certainly not least, were a bag of Bella Biscotti, straight from the talented hands of Taina herself (recipe here on her weblog). They were delicious - wonderful texture, with the subtle taste of cardamon, cinnamon and honey blending together beautifully. I so wish I could bake like that - I've tried, but my biscotti always resemble crumbly plaster. In absence of any ability to bake on my part, I shall just have to enjoy the fruits of other people's labor. And I am.

Thank you Taina!

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The Gelée de Shiraz I put in my box for Cecile of English Patis was made using Clotilde of Chocolate & Zucchini's Gelée de Pomerol recipe with the addition of half a teaspoon of powder forte - a medieval spice mix of long pepper, grains of paradise, cinnamon, nutmeg, blade mace and black pepper. It adds a little more 'background depth' to what has become one of my favorite condiments for meat.

Fresh Lemon Curd! Who doesn't love it? This Lemon Curd recipe makes a tangy, creamy sweet n' sour spread, ideal for sponge cakes, desserts, ice cream or just indulging yourself with it on a slice of bread. I've had the recipe for ages and don't remember its origin, but it goes as follows:

Lemon Curd
Makes about two jars
225 gm/1 heaped cup Sugar
85 gm/4 Tb Butter
2 lg Lemons or equivalent citrus fruit
3 Eggs, beaten lightly

1. Grate the citrus fruit finely, avoiding adding the pith (white bit) as it tastes bitter.
2. Squeeze the juice from the citrus fruit.
3. Put the citrus zest, juice, butter, sugar and lightly-beaten eggs into a heavy saucepan or double boiler (bain marie) and gently heat.
4. Stir continuously until the mixture is thick. Be patient! It may take a little while but it will 'catch' quickly so you need to watch it.
5. Strain into warm jam jars* and cover.

Notes: This curd will keep in the fridge about 3 weeks. If it boils accidentally, the acid and sugar should keep the egg from seperating.

*To make sure the jam jars are hygenic, I boil them in a saucepan covered with water for ten minutes and then put them in the oven on the lowest setting until they are needed.

What to do with the leftover coconut and eggwhite?

1. Just add alcohol

Four fifths fresh coconut juice (i.e. the clear stuff that comes out when you puncture a whole coconut) and one fifth Malibu. Divine.

2. Meringues!

Is there anything better to do with leftover eggwhites? No, I didn't think so either. As per the divine Ms Nigella Lawson, here's the world's easiest meringues:

Meringues
egg white
60 gm castor sugar for every egg white

1. Preheat the oven to 275ºF/140ºC/GM 1.

2. Beat the egg whites until the peaks hold.

3. A tablespoon or so at a time, beat in all the sugar. The mixture should be glossy.

4. Place a dessertspoon of mix onto a greased baking tray (or ungreased silicon! I have a new silicon tray and it's brilliant), making into 6cm rounds. You should get about 10 per eggwhite.

5. Bake for 60 - 70 minutes.

6. Turn oven off.

7. Leave meringues in cooling oven for a further 20 minutes.

8. Eat. This stage usually doesn't last long either.

Dinner for an American friend

Sunday I was broiling - and I'm not talking about the cooking technique! It was outstandingly hot for London this weekend, with a high of about 32 degrees (yes, I know that's mild elsewhere, but this is England we're talking about). Everyone's appetites took a nosedive as the temperatures soared and the dinner party I threw for Rhona, a visiting American friend, ended up starting at 9:45 pm. Although dark, it was still warm so we decided to eat outside.

Entrée: Panfried Crevettes with a Lime & Vermouth Sauce

We started off with Panfried Crevettes with a Lime & Vermouth Sauce, on a fan of blanched Mangetout and accompanied by Carmargue Rice with Pinenuts. Nothing breaks the formality barrier at a dinner party faster than prawns with their shells still on. It's just so impossible to eat them tidily! I got the crevettes from my Turnham Green fishmonger and they were huge - a good three mouthfuls of plump, sweet flesh each. Delicious. The Lime and Vermouth Sauce was a hit (Tanya later confessed to licking her fingers to get the last little bit of it). I'd originally intended to make a Thai-style chilli-lime sauce, but then decided it would be overkill with the dessert. I'm a deadkeen fan of gin Gimlets, so decided to give this a whirl instead.

I'd also originally intended using black rice, but decided it was just so hot I wanted something lighter and nuttier tasting. I cooked the Carmargue rice with pinenuts, a healthy splash of vermouth and minted water (that is, chilled water that has been standing with mint in it for a couple of hours) and then chilled them. For moulds I used little silicon bowls, a new acquisition. When I was in America my twin and her husband took me to a couple of kitchen stores and I went wild on silicon bakeware and utensils. So far I'm having a wonderful time - it's so flexible and easy to clean.


Panfried Crevettes with a Lime & Vermouth Sauce
2 crevettes per person (more if it's small prawns)
1 Tb butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 Tb cornflour
60 ml vermouth
juice and grated rind of 1 medium lime

1. Bring the sugar and water in a pan to a low simmer, dissolving the sugar.
2. Add a tablespoon of the hot liquid to the cornflour, dissolving it and add back into the syrup.
3. Simmer until the sauce is reduced to a thin sauce.
4. Add the lime juice and half the vermouth, and simmer until reduced to a medium sauce. At this point you can leave the sauce overnight. It'll thicken up even more and the taste will strengthen.
5. Add the rest of the vermouth. Reduce to the consistency you want - I like it medium to thick.
6. Heat the butter in a frypan on medium high.
7. Toss in the crevettes and cook for a couple of minutes each side, until the colour starts to go pinkywhite.
8. Pour in half the sauce and cook for another minute each side.
9. Plate the crevettes and pour the rest of the heated sauce over the top.
10. Serve.

Main: Black & White Lamb Noisettes with Mint Crabapple Sauce, Baby Potatoes, Steamed Asparagus with fresh Lemon Mayonnaise

Sadly my photo does the lamb noisettes little justice - they were the most gorgeously prepared meat I'd seen in a long long while. Little rounds of lamb were spiced up with an inset round of quartered black pudding and white pudding, reminding me of a set of Turkish inlaid wooden chequers I own. Now, I'll be the first to admit the black pudding you get in normal English Breakfasts is usually just plain nasty - but this was beautiful quality, as was the lamb. Even the black pudding haters liked these. They grilled for about 15 minutes each side on medium and then were served with a splash (or more) of the Mint Crabapple Sauce.

I suddenly realised as I was bringing in the entrée dishes that I hadn't put the baby potatoes on yet - eek! What an idiot. So I chopped them up and fortunately there wasn't much more of a wait between courses than normal. The asparagus was a lovely bunch of fresh English spears and as I didn't really fancy making hollandaise, I made my usual mayonnaise with lemon.


Mint Crabapple Sauce
1/3 cup water
1 - 2 Tb sugar
Handful fresh mint, chopped finely
1/2 Tb vinegar
2 Tb Crabapple Jelly

1. Simmer the water and sugar until dissolved and thickened (I must admit I just nicked some of the sugar sauce/syrup from the entrée sauce for this).
2. Add two-thirds of the mint and all the vinegar and simmer for five minutes.
3. Add the jelly and stir until dissolved. At this point you can leave it to cool and thicken for a couple of hours.
4. Reheat if necessary and add the rest of the mint.
5. Serve.

For 1/2 Cup Lemon Mayonnaise
1 egg yolk
pinch salt
pinch pepper (preferably white, for aesthetic reasons)
1 Tb lemon (as above)
1/2 cup oil (make sure it tastes good - I prefer hazelnut, walnut or macadamia, but any light, pleasant tasting oil will do)

1. Lightly beat the egg yolk until it lightens color.
2. Add the salt, pepper & vinegar and beat until slightly frothy.
3. A tablespoon at a time, drizzle in the oil, lightly beating it until it has blended with the egg mixture.
4. Repeat the above step until you've used all the oil.
5. At this stage you can add what you will - capers, chives, etc or more lemon juice, lime juice, etc to flavour.

Cheese: Mrs Appleby's Cheshire and Cerney Goats Cheese with Pepper

The delicatessen at Turnham Green has an impressive range of artisan cheeses, and although tempted to go cheese-buying crazy, I restrained myself and decided to get two only - a medium and a fresh - for this course. The Cerney, which came in it's own little thin wooden box from a farm in Devon, was met with universal approbation. It melted, fluffy and creamy, in your mouth with the added kicker of the pepper it was rolled in. The slice of Cheshire was a lovely golden orange, strong with a tangy aftertaste and with a good firm texture. I liked it even better than the Cerney. Both were definitely worth a repeat buy.

Dessert: Chilli-Chocolate Creams with Brandy-flambéd Figs and a Raspberry Coulis

A new dessert for me - and as usual, nice and simple to make. But very, very rich. I couldn't actually finish my Chilli chocolate cream and so had it for dessert last night as well. Rhona and Mark happily polished theirs off in one sitting however - obviously they're more hardy than me! The Figs were nice ripe Spanish offerings - Tanya amused me by admitting she'd never eaten one before and had thought they only came dried. Rhona was entertained (at a distance) by the flambéing which she had never seen done outside of television. I've doubled the chilli chocolate in the recipe below as it wasn't as strong as I wanted. The combination worked well though - the raspberry coulis was sour, the figs sweet, and the chocolate creams mildly hot and, er, creamy.

Chilli Chocolate Creams
280 ml double cream
50 gm chilli chocolate
100 gm good quality cooking chocolate
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp salt

1. Break the chocolate into your food processor.*
2. Bring the cream to a gentle simmer.
3. Just before the cream boils, pour it over the chocolate and whizz until thoroughly mixed.
4. Add the salt and egg yolks and whizz until the consistency of thick cream.
5. Pour into individual little ramekins or glasses. I got 4 servings from this amount, but it's so rich you could easily stretch to 6 servings.

*NB: If you don't have a food processor, grate the chocolate and use a handwhisk to beat the ingredients. Lots.


With the meal we had a small bottle of Chardonnay - I forget which, though I didn't find my small glass as unpleasantly sharp as most. Still not a big fan of chardonnay however. We also drank a bottle of Apple Wine which was a present from Christmas, and which proved to be a nice medium white. All in all, it was a very pleasant and sociable dinner and evening. However, I think it's time for me to invest in a table lantern!

"Goode fruyte and noble" or, Apple Mush through the ages

Whilst I have mostly recovered from my bout of bronchitis, sadly my laptop has still not recovered from its bout of Shiraz. It is currently somewhere on the Continent being pored over (hmm, horrible pun) by French support engineers, who have said they can fix it - by replacing most of its boards, connections and keyboard. Naturally, this will cost.

[looks glum]

I can think of dozens of better things to do with a week's wages and a trip to France.

Most of them to do with art and cuisine. Definitely time for some comfort food. And in an effort to forget about expensive technotoys, let's make that medieval comfort food.

This dish - Apple Moye or Moyle or Moyse - appears in several incarnations in English recipes throughout the middle ages, ranging from a fourteenth century meat dish[1], to a fifteenth century pottage[2], to a sixteenth century medley[3] as well as the confection seen below. I've no doubt there's Jacobean and Georgian versions, and I wouldn't be surprised to find one in Martha Washington's Cookbook either. It's interesting to note the historical changeover from honey to sugar as a sweetener in the recipe, although the basic premise of cooked and sieved apple pulp remains its central constituent. And for thrifty cooks, these recipes would have been an ideal use for the leftovers from cider pressing.

Very early English apple dishes may not all have been particularly sweet. English cider apples are cultivated for dryness, rather than sweetness, and the crabapple or wild crab (Malus silvestris) is the only appletree native to Britain, having grown wild here since Neolithic times. The crabapple has a sour fruit with a high acid level - ideal for making verjuice (a common English usage as grape verjuice had to be imported and citrus fruit was largely unknown), but not so ideal for straight-out eating.

Domesticated varieties of apple didn't appear until the establishment of apple orchards by the Romans. The first large-scale orchards were planted in Somerset in the C.6th, and were known by the Anglo-Saxon word for orchard - 'apulder tun' (apple enclosure). This points to the fact apples were the most common fruit at the time.[4] The Normans in particular gave a boost to the apple industry in the twelfth century, and introduced firstly the importation and then the manufacture of cider in huge amounts. The history of cider in England - which even included a rebellion in 1524! - is a fascinating study of itself.

But back to apples. The first record of a specific apple variety in England occurs in 1204, when 200 Pearmain apples [later Old English Pearmain] and 4 hogsheads of Pearmain cider constituted part of a tax from the manor of Runham in the county of Norfolk. Another economic advantage of cider was that it saved the grain for brewing. The other widely popular apple of the time was the Costard, which lends itself to the the term costermonger (costard apple or fruit seller) which still exists in the English language today. And by 1629, the 22 varieties of apple recorded by Pliny had swelled to no less than 57 different varieties. Nowadays there are over 2,000!

My preferred recipe is English Renaissance, rather than strictly medieval. However it's easily made, light as air, fluffy and delicious - just the thing to cheer you up when you're sick on a cold winter's day (it's also a lifesaver when those unexpected guests turn up and there's nothing in the pantry). This version is from one one of the first cookbooks printed in English, 'A Proper Newe Book of Cokerye' from the mid-16th century.

Original:
To make Apple Moyse: Take a dozen apples and ether roaste or boyle them and drawe them thorowe a streyner, and the yolkes of three or foure egges withal, and, as ye stryne them, temper them wyth three or foure sponefull of damaske water yf ye wyll, than take and season it wyth suger and halfe a dysche of swete butter, and boyle them upon a chaffyngdysche in a platter, and caste byskettes or synamon and gynger upon them and so serve them forth.

My Redaction:
[reduced for 2 people]
2 large or 3 - 4 medium cooking apples (I used Bramleys)
2 egg yolks
1 tsp rosewater
1 T sugar
1 T butter
Ground cinnamon & ginger

1. Peel and core the apples. 
2. Roast them for an 45 minutes to an hour in a medium oven until cooked. 
3. Cut off any too-brown bits. The eggs will lighten the puree, but you don't want brown flecks in it.
4. Puree your apples. You can of course put them through a strainer or potato ricer at this stage, but I find that for pureeing, a food processor is a wonderful thing! 
5. Add the egg yolks as you mix, then the rosewater.
6. Keep beating until the apple mix is light and fluffy and thoroughly blended.
7. Put the apple mix in a pan on a gentle heat and mix in the sugar and butter. Remember to taste.
8. Serve it with a light dusting of ground cinnamon and ginger on top.

Notes and other historical recipes cont...

Belated Burns Night Dinnerparty

Sometimes you invite a lot of people over for a dinnerparty and then think afterwards, "Friday? What the heck was I thinking?" My Belated Burns Night dinnerparty was definitely one of those. But we all have these moments of temporary stupidity insanity. . .

Entrée: Carrot & Orange Soup
Given I'd have only about an hour or so after getting home from work before the guests arrived (disregarding the probability they'd be 'fashionably late'), pre-preparation was definitely the way to go. I decided to make a soup for the entrée, one that matured overnight, and going with the Scottish theme decided on a Carrot & Orange Soup. The recipe was based on a combination of a couple I found on the web. The carrot and orange turned out to be an excellent taste combination, and the resulting soup was slightly sweet, slightly spicy, very mildly herbed and with a pleasant purée texture.

Carrot & Orange Soup
[For 8 people]
1 kg gm carrots, cut into sticks
800 ml fresh orange juice with bits
300 ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 handful of chopped parsley
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp freshly grated white pepper
Pinch sea salt

1. Cook the carrots in salted water until tender.
2. In a food processor, whizz the carrots with half the orange juice.
3. Put the carrot/orange juice mix back into the pan and heat gently.
4. Slowly add the orange juice and stock.
5. Add the parsley, nutmeg and seasoning, and cook for a further 15 minutes until the soup reduces slightly.
6. Leave overnight to mature.
7. Reheat, and garnish with a swirl of cream and a sprig of parsley.

Main: Haggis, Chicken Breast with a Whiskey & Marmalade Glaze, Clapshot, Green Beans with Mustard Sauce
Haggis is an absolute requirement for Burns Night, but time restrictions made the stuffing of a sheep's stomach with various bits of liver, heart, lungs, etc unfeasible, so I bought a commercially-made Scottish haggis instead (that's the excuse I'm giving at any rate!). As some people are a bit touchy about eating offal I served it on a seperate dish rather than plating it with the rest of the main (which is why it isn't in the photo). Once again however my friends surprised and pleased me by all partaking and enjoying. It isn't the first time I've fed it to a couple of them, but apparently Adriana was our only haggis-virgin.

A belated Twelfth Night Dinner Party

This weekend past was a much-belated Twelfth Night Celebration for my friends and myself. As I had the whole day to cook, the meal was a trifle more elaborate than normal, comprising five courses.

Amuse-Bouche: Grilled Cape Gooseberries in Thyme, Maple Syrup & Bacon

I love little boxes - those small, pretty trinkets your friends and family give you to hide your shiny baubles within. Gooseberries (or physalis as they are known in the Northern Hemisphere) have always seemed to me to be the fruit version of this - you pull open the wispy husk to reveal the glowing yellow berry and a whiff of sweetness. Wonderful. They also remind me of summer weekends spent with my sisters working in my father's large vegetable garden; weeding and popping the occasional berry into our mouths - and rather hurriedly spitting them out when we got one that was a little too sour!

As I had the time, I thought I'd introduce my friends to the idea of the amuse-bouche. They approved (except for Val, who liked them so much he wanted his couple of mouthfuls as an entree instead). It's not too fiddly and the combination of tart, sweet and savoury with a tinge of lemony herbaceousness is a delightful mouthful.

1. Grilled Cape Gooseberries wrapped in Thyme, Maple Syrup & Bacon
   8 Gooseberries, dehusked
   fresh Lemon Thyme, chopped finely
   Maple Syrup (the real stuff, not the flavoring)
   2 large (or 4 small) rashers of Bacon (I used rindless bacon)
   16 Toothpicks

1. Cut the rashers in half, and then cut each half diagonally so you have two triangles.
2. Brush the bacon with the maple syrup.
3. Sprinkle lemon thyme lightly over.
4. Place a gooseberry in the center of each piece and wrap the bacon around it, overlaying each corner.
5. Spear a toothpick through to keep the package together.
6. Put under the grill for 5 or 6 minutes, turning a couple of times so each side is cooked.
7. Serve immediately!

Entree: Scallops on Puy Lentils with Sherry Sauce

I got the idea for the sherry sauce on scallops from Gordon Ramsay's masterclass in January's Olive magazine. Making three different sauces the day before was a bit much for me however (I still had to run around and tidy), besides which I doubted I'd get the guys to eat the cauliflower puree. As it was, I only informed them I was feeding them lentils as I placed it in front of them. All of us have vivid and rather visceral memories of the lentil dishes occasionally served to us at various medieval re-enactment feasts. . .

I especially like Puy Lentils however - they have a bit more pepper and bite to them than their little orange cousins. I boosted this with a bit of chilli and added a touch of bitterness with some parsley. The lentils were then topped with quickly pan-fried scallops and the salty/sweet sherry sauce. I managed to convert them - there wasn't a lentil left in sight! Even Mark, Lentil & Greens Hater Extraordinaire, ate all his - though I believe that was more on account of the sauce.

Remember the sauce is to complement a main item, so try to imagine what it would taste like on the scallops, rather than just what it tastes like on its own.

Sherry Sauce
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cornflour
3 Tb sugar
4 Tb dry Sherry
1 cup water

1. Put water, sugar & salt in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
2. Rolling simmer for about 5 minutes until the sugar is dissolved and liquid has reduced slightly.
3. Taste. It should be a slightly salty/little too sweet mixture.
4. Pour a tablespoon of the heated liquid into a separate bowl with the cornflour and stir until dissolved.
   Add the cornflour to the sauce and simmer for about 5 minutes until the liquid thickens.
5. Add about 2 tablespoons of the sherry to the sauce.
6. Taste.
7. Continue to simmer lightly until the sauce reduces.
8. Add a tablespoon or so of sherry.
9. Taste.
10. Continue to simmer, add sherry and reduce the sauce until it’s of a thickness and suitable sherry taste you are happy with.

Puy Lentils
1/2 tsp fresh Chilli (flesh & seeds)
1 large handful of Flatleaf Parsley, chopped
150 gm Puy Lentils
Water

1. Put the lentils, chilli and majority of the parsley into a saucepan and cover with twice as much water.
2. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15 - 20 minutes, until cooked al dente.
3. Drain.
4. Mix in the rest of the parsley just before dishing up.

Scallops - Gordon Ramsay, quoted from "Olive" Magazine, Dec 2004 issue, p.30
"Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan until it is just smoking. Put the scallops in the pan evenly starting at 12 o'clock and working around the edge, so you'll know when to turn them. They need about 30 seconds on each side so once you get around to the top again start turning them over, then when you reach the top again take them out. Put them on kitchen paper on a plate."

Putting it all together

1. Reheat the sauce if necessary. I have one of those very invaluable little tealight & saucepan rigs that keeps the sauce warm without boiling. I recommend them - couldn't live without it.
2. Ladle the lentils into the middle of the plate.
3. Place the scallops on top. We ended up with 3 halves each, though you could get away with 2 as the lentils are very filling. (I fried up the roes for dinner the next day with some of the leftover lentils and sauce, and it was very nice).
4. Ladle sherry sauce on top of the scallops.
5. Garnish with a piece of fresh parsley and serve.

Main: Roast Beef, Wasabi Mustard, Red Wine Jelly, Persimmon & Roast Capsicum Pepper Salad, Lemon & Almond French Beans and Green Rice with Pumpkin Seeds

  The Beef was an Argentinean Tenderloin Roast. I rubbed it with mustard and then basically followed Nigella Lawson's roasting instructions from How to Eat. It was pleasant, but a little too tough on the outside. I think next time I'll avoid the '15 minutes on high' idea. I'd also forgotten my friends have a different attitude towards their dead cow than I do. Imagine a Steak Restaurant:

Waiter: How would you like your steaks?
Val: Well done, please.
Meesha: Very well done, please.
Mark: Indistinguishable from a charcoal briquette, please.
Me: Just bring it mooing to the table.

Fortunately there were enough 'just pink' slices to go around. I worked out this is the first beef roast I've cooked in 7 years - my BSE paranoia has meant I've avoided them since I left New Zealand.

Anyway, the beef was topped with a couple of sauces. I made the Red Wine Jelly from Clothilde's Gelee de Pomerol recipe on her marvelous foodblog Chocolate & Zucchini. Rather than Pomerol I used a Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz and added a ground long pepper - the resulting sauce was strong, vigorous and very very alcoholic. It definitely would have overpowered a more delicate meat. The Wasabi Mustard was as follows:

Wasabi Mustard
1/2 cup Double Cream
Wasabi Paste
Whole Grain Mustard

1. Add a teaspoon of wasabi paste and 2 tablespoons of mustard to the cream (I used Lakeshore Wholegrain Mustard with Guinness, a fabulous Irish mustard with a rich mellow fire).
2. From there, add in small increments until you have a horseradish/mustard/cream taste you think will go well with beef.

Persimmons were one of my discoveries when I first came to the UK. I had only come across them in books previously, but had never seen one in the flesh or indeed, even a picture of one. I was immediately attracted to their beautiful yellow-orange colour and shiny skin, and was delighted to find out that not only could you eat the whole fruit, skin and all, but they were as delicious as they looked. Most often the particular variety sold in the UK is called Sharon Fruit (coming as it does from Israel), which was a trifle confusing until I consulted that great sage, the Internet. Chunks of persimmon add a sweet touch to ordinary salads, but as a main constituent with sweet peppers, it's a simple sweet salad that can hardly be beaten.

Persimmon & Pepper Salad
2 Persimmons, stalks removed and diced
2 Long Red Capsicum Peppers (the very sweet ones)
1/2 Tablespoon Basalmic Vinegar
Pinch of Salt

1. Cut the stalks out of the peppers and remove as many seeds as you can without chopping the peppers up.
2. Put them in an oven pan and drizzle them with olive oil.
3. Roast on a medium oven [GM 5 / 375 ºF / 190 ºC] for about 30 - 40 minutes until the skin is slightly blackened and has loosened.
4. Remove and leave until they have cooled to lukewarm. If you put them in an airtight plastic bag at this stage, it will also help loosen the skins.
5. Remove the skins.
6. Cut the peppers into strips about 1 inch long.
7. Mix with the diced persimmon.
8. Add the basalmic vinegar and the pinch of salt.
9. Either serve immediately (it's nice warm) or chill for later.

It was years before I would willingly cook Beans as an adult. To me 'beans' evoked memories of large, tough Runner beans with the texture of leather, or weedy, mushy French beans from out of the freezer. Happily, I have since discovered beans are lovely vegetables, especially when fresh and tender.

Lemon & Almond French Beans
200 gm fresh French Beans, julienned
1 Lemon, rind grated and juiced
75 gm slivered Almonds
Sea salt
Water

1. Put the beans into lightly boiling, lightly salted water and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Check to see if they are cooked. If not continue cooking until they are.
3. When done, drain.
4. Toss with the lemon juice, lemon rind and slivered almonds.
5. Serve.

Cheese Board: Stilton, Brie & Snowdonia "Red Devil"

We opened the ceramic crock of Blue Stilton we hadn't managed to consume at Christmas, which turned out to be a very nice Stilton indeed. By the Ilchester Cheese Company; gorgeous creamy texture, pungent smell, and a real blast of a taste.

Red Devil was a truckle of lovely Red Leicester with chillies & peppers from the Snowdonia Cheese Company. Rich, fiery, beautifully coloured and a must-eat for chilli-lovers. We had a truckle of their Ginger Spice (obviously a Geri Halliwell fan!) at Christmas. It was a slightly crumbly Mature Cheddar embedded with chunks of stem ginger, and just as delicious in a different way. The company also produce an Extra Mature Cheddar, Mature Cheddars with Whiskey and Garlic & Garden Herbs and a Mild Cheddar with Chocolate Chips. The last sounds. . . interesting.

The Brie was nothing special but Meesha also brought along some small bronze grapes, which were bursting with flavour and proved a nicely sweet counterpart to the stronger cheeses.

Dessert: Chocolate Fondant with Vodka & Lime Cream

Desserts, I must admit, are one of my failings as a dinner party host. Despite the fact it's the first thing I look at on a restaurant menu (the "Eat dessert now - you may be dead tomorrow!" philosophy), it's usually the course with the least amount of care and attention lavished on it on my own menus. This time I was determined to offer up a treat however.

I'd found a recipe in the Telegraph's food and wine section that contained an awful lot of chocolate (which all my friends love, and Tatanatanya had fortuitously given me some organic cooking chocolate for Christmas), was simple to prepare beforehand, and baked quickly. Sold! To cut the very rich taste and sweetness I made a tart cream to go with it. Despite being served to 5 instead of the intended 4, and the mysterious disappearance of my ramekins (I shall have to go shopping. Oh dear.), the fondants came out quite well in a rectangular configuration. They were very intensely and heavily chocolate however, so definitely needed the tartness of the lime to offset them.

Chocolate fondants - recipe by Xanthe Clay from the Telegraph Wine section, 13/11/04
Serves 4
Butter, sugar and flour to prepare the ramekins
3 eggs
3oz/85g sugar
A few drops vanilla extract
5oz/140g dark chocolate, melted
1 tbsp plain flour

1. Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Butter four ovenproof ramekins or teacups. Dust with caster sugar, then flour.
2. Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract together until pale and frothy. Stir in the melted chocolate. Sift over the flour and fold it in.
3. Divide between the cups or moulds and place on a baking sheet. Bake for about 10–12 minutes, until the puddings are risen and dry to touch. Unmould on to plates (loosen the sides with a sharp knife if necessary) and serve straight away.

Vodka & Lime Cream
1 227 ml pot of Double Cream (Yeo Valley do a lovely organic one)
1 shot Vodka
1 Lime, juiced & rind grated

1. Whip the vodka, lime juice and grated rind into the cream until it thickens.
2. Chill.

Accompaniments to all of this were a bottle of one of my favorite Australian bubblies, Hardy's Crest Methodé Champenoise; a bottle of Australian Chardonnay (which I didn't try as chardonnay tends to give me indigestion); the rest of the Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz; and the last bottle of Louis Jadot Beaujolais Villages 2003 left over from Christmas. All told, the menu was a success, with elements I'll probably repeat again sometime in the future.