Rhubarb and Custard Cake

British rhubarb grows prolifically and is available to buy from March through to October. As we have a good garden supply I have accumulated a number of rhubarb recipes over the years. This rhubarb and custard cake is one of my favourites from The Good Food Magazine. It is a delicious teatime treat served with a cuppa.

                       

Ingredients

250g pack butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

150g pot ready-made custard (not the chilled kind; I used Ambrosia)

250g self-raising flour

½ tsp baking powder

4 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

250g golden caster sugar

Icing sugar, for dusting

Method

1. Make the roasted rhubarb first. Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Rinse 400g rhubarb and shake off excess water. Trim the ends, then cut into little finger size pieces. Put in a shallow dish or a baking tray, tip over 50g caster sugar, toss together, and then shuffle rhubarb so it's in a single layer. Cover with foil, then roast for 15 mins. Remove and drain off the juices and then allow to cool.

2. Butter and line a 23cm loose-bottomed or springform cake tin. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.

3. Reserve 3 tbsp of the custard in a bowl. Beat the rest of the custard together with the butter, flour, baking powder, eggs, vanilla and sugar until creamy and smooth.

4. Spoon one-third of the mix into the tin, add some of the rhubarb, then dot with one-third more cake mix and spread it out as well as you can. Top with some more rhubarb, then spoon over the remaining cake mix, leaving it in rough mounds and dips rather than being too neat about it. Scatter the rest of the rhubarb over the batter, and then dot the remaining custard over.

5. Bake for 40 mins until risen and golden, then cover with foil and bake for 15-20 mins more. It's ready when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin. Remove the cake from the tin when cool and then dredge with icing sugar.

Savoury Brioche Coronne

I love it when a recipe works. Last week (or there abouts) I watched Paul Hollywood’s final programme in his BBC baking series. The savoury brioche couronne (that’s a crown to you and me), looked really great. My children umm’d and ah’d as he brought out the bread from his TV oven stuffed with mozzarella and parma ham. So, yesterday I felt that I must rise to the challenge and see if I could add this recipe to my repertoire. It was a total success and is definitely worth baking for teatime or for the children’s lunchboxes.

Ingredients

30 mins to put together

2 hours to make

500g/1lb 2oz strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting

10g salt

10g instant yeast

170ml/6fl oz warm full-fat milk

4 free-range eggs

250g/9oz unsalted butter, in small pieces, at room temperature

4 x 125g/4óoz balls buffalo mozzarella

8-10 slices prosciutto

6 handful fresh chopped basil

1 free-range egg, beaten

pinch salt

handful grated parmesan

Preparation method

1. If you have a food mixer with a paddle fitting, make the dough as

follows: into the bowl put the flour, salt, yeast, milk and eggs and mix

until the dough becomes smooth and shiny. Add the butter piece by

piece as you mix well for a further five minutes, until all the butter has

been incorporated into the dough. It’s important to add the butter

very gradually.

2. If you do not have a machine, make the base dough by bringing the

flour, salt, yeast, milk and eggs together in a bowl. Tip the dough

onto a floured surface and knead for about ten minutes, or until the

dough becomes smooth and shiny. Gradually incorporate the butter

piece by piece into the dough, kneading as you go.

3. Tip the dough into an oiled 1 litre/1 ¾ pint plastic container with a lid as it 

it needs plenty of room to rise. Leave the dough to rise until at least

doubled in (at least an hour, or overnight in the fridge).

4. Line a baking tray with baking parchment. Tip the dough out onto a

lightly floured surface, without knocking the air out of it. Roll it out to

a thickness of just under 1½ cm/ ¾ in, in a rectangle that’s about 

40-50cm/16-20in long. Have the long side facing you.

5. Cover the dough with a loose layer of ham. Break off large pieces of

mozzarella and distribute them all over the ham. Scatter the basil

over the top.

6. Roll up the dough from the long side furthest from you, into a long

sausage shape. Cut the roll of dough in half down the length to

expose the filling, leaving you with two long strips side by side.

7. Twist the two strips together, holding both ends of the dough and

twisting your hands in opposite directions, to make a long rope that’s

quite tightly twisted. Form the rope into a circle and join the ends

together so that the dough becomes a ring – a ‘couronne’ or crown.

8. Put the crown onto the lined baking tray, and put the tray in a large

plastic bag, big enough so that the risen dough won’t touch the

sides. Leave the crown to rise for 1-1ó hours, or until it has at least

doubled in size.

9. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. For this recipe you ideally

don’t want a fan oven.

10. Whisk an egg with a pinch of salt and brush the egg over the crown.

Finally top the couronne with grated parmesan.

11. Bake the couronne in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until

golden-brown. Leave to cool slightly. Serve warm or cold.

Two chefs cooking Japanese bento. One lady and her dog: Cooking with dog.

In my twenties I lived in Japan for a few years. I love Japanese food, I also love this series of "Cooking with dog" on youtube. There is quite a lot of footage covering a range of Japanese recipes with a dog called Francis dutifully observing its owner and chef as she throws together a range of easy to follow dishes with an almost robotic English voice over translation. The clips made me laugh out loud. Check out Francis in this one.

Pulled Shoulder of Lamb

What better dish than lamb in springtime? Instead of the more expensive cuts of lamb such as leg, why not try this slow roasted shoulder of lamb.

This dish is simple yet utterly delicious. It is roasted in the oven for a good four hours on a low heat and when cooked the meat will flake off the bone with ease, it can also be pulled off by hand which is why sometimes this dish is called ‘pulled lamb’. It is such a wonderful feast.

If possible, it is best to buy your meat from a good butcher as the meat will then have had the appropriate hanging which will add to the flavour. The sauce with this dish allows you to use all of the goodness accumulated in the tray from the long slow roasting of the meat. I like to serve this lamb with some sautéed potatoes, some roasted vegetables or some spring cabbage.  

Ingredients

Serves 6-8

2kg shoulder of lamb

1 large bunch of rosemary

olive oil

ses salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 bulb of garlic, unpeeled and broken into cloves

For the sauce

1 tablespoon corn flour

splash of red wine

500ml water

1 large bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Method

1. Preheat your oven to full heat.

2. Slash the fat side of the lamb all over with a sharp knife across the length of piece of meat. Lay half the sprigs of rosemary and half the garlic cloves on the bottom of a high-sided roasting tray, rub the lamb all over with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

3. Place the lamb in the tray on top of the rosemary and garlic, and put the rest of the rosemary and garlic on top of the lamb. Tightly cover the tray with tinfoil and place in the oven.

4. Turn the oven down immediately to 170°C/325°F/gas 3 and cook for 4 hours – it's done if you can pull the meat apart easily with two forks.


5. Remove the lamb from the oven and place it on a chopping board. Cover it with tinfoil, then a tea towel, and leave it to rest.

6. Pour away most of the fat from the roasting tray, discarding any bits of rosemary stalk. Put the tray on the hob and mix in the flour. Add a splash of wine and the redcurrant jelly and mix in well. Next add the water, stirring and scraping all the sticky goodness off the bottom of the tray. You won't need a lot of gravy, just a couple of flavoursome spoonfuls each.

7. Finely chop the mint and add it to the sauce with the red wine vinegar at the last minute then pour into a jug.

8. Place everything in the middle of the table, and shred the lamb in front of your guests. Serve with your chosen vegetables.

Chocolate Fondants

It’s official, the way to everyone’s heart is through chocolate. So if you would like to woo your partner, or if you are planning a night in with friends and family and you would like to wow your fellow dinners this February, then try out this wonderful recipe for chocolate fondants.

One of the joys of this chocolate pudding is that it can be made in advance. The mixture can be made, put into ramekins and left in the fridge the night before you want to bake them. You can even freeze the mixture for up to a month and cook the individual puddings from frozen. It is quite simply easy to put together. The trick is not to over cook them so that the chocolate sauce oozes out like a gurgling chocolate volcano when you cut into the fondant. It is a real chocolate feast that is great served with a caramel sauce and ice cream. It will not disappoint, I promise!

Ingredients

Makes 9 fondants

50g melted butter, for brushing

cocoa powder, for dusting

200g good quality dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa content), chopped into small pieces

200g butter, cubed into small pieces
200g golden caster sugar

4 eggs and 4 egg yolks

200g plain flour

For the caramel sauce:-

250g caster sugar

4 tbsp water

142ml pot double cream

50g butter

Method

1.     First make the caramel sauce. Tip the sugar into a heavy-based frying pan, stir in 4 tbsp water, then place over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and bubble for 4-5 mins until you have caramel. Take off the heat, and carefully stir in the cream and butter. Leave the sauce to cool, and tip into a squeezy bottle.

2.     Next, prepare your ramekin or dariole moulds by brushing the insides with the melted butter. Place the moulds in the fridge for 10 minutes. Brush more butter over the chilled butter, add a spoonful of cocoa powder into the mould. Tip and tap the mould so that it becomes completely coated with the cocoa powder. Tap any excess out onto a plate. Repeat this process with all nine moulds.

3.     Place a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Put the chocolate and butter into the bowl and gently melt stirring the butter and chocolate together until smooth. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.

4.     In a separate bowl use an electric whisk to beat the eggs and yolks together with the sugar until thick and pale and the whisk leaves a trail (what is technically known as the ribbon stage). Sift the four into the eggs and then beat together.

5.     Pour the melted chocolate in to the egg mixture in thirds, beating well before each addition. The mixture should be completely combined and like a loose cake batter.

6.     Tip the fondant mixture into a jug, then divide the mixure evenly between the nine moulds. Chill the ramekins with the mixture for at least 20 minutes before baking (or you can make up the ramekins the night before you want to bake them). At this point you can also freeze the fondants for up to one month. To bake from frozen, simply add on an extra five minutes to the stated cooking time.

7.     Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C or gas 6. Place the fondants on a baking tray and cook for 10-12 minutes until the tops have formed a crust and they are starting to come away from the sides of the moulds (15-17 minutes if cooking from frozen). Remove from the oven and allow the fondants to rest for 1 minute before turning them out.

8.     Loosen the fondants by moving the tops very gently so that they come away form the sides of the moulds and ease them out. Tip each fondant slightly onto your hand so that you know that they will come out then put them back into the mould so that you can serve them.

9.     If you are using a caramel sauce, add some swirls on to the centre of the plates then place a fondant into the middle of each plate. Serve with some good vanilla ice cream.

Gooey and Buttery Flapjacks

Flapjack in my opinion should have a bit of bite and lots of chew. This recipe delivers a wonderful texture in spades. You can add whatever fruit, nuts or seeds that you have in your store cupboard to add an extra flavour or two. If you want to make an indulgent flapjack you might want to dip the cooked and cooled slices to half coat them in melted chocolate.  





Ingredients 
Serves 9-12 
175g/6oz Butter 
140g/5oz golden syrup 
50g/2oz Light Muscovado sugar 
250g/9oz oats 
100g.40z  dried chopped apricots (or a mixture of whatever dried fruit/seeds you have in the cupboard)
For chocolate dipped flapjack
100g/4oz of a good chocolate with a at least 60% cocoa content

Method 
Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/Fan oven 160C. 

1. Line the base of a shallow 23cm/9in square tin with a sheet of baking paper. Put the butter, syrup and sugar in a large microwave safe bowl and put in the microwave for 3 minutes until the butter has melted and sugar has dissolved. Stir in the oats. 

2. Press the mixture into the baking tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown on top. Cook for 20 minutes for a gooier, chewier flapjack and the extra 5 minutes if you prefer them crispier. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then mark into bars or squares with the back of a knife whilst still warm. Cool in the tin completely before cutting and removing - this prevents the flapjack from breaking up. 

3. If you are going to coat the flapjack in chocolate, wait until the biscuits are cool. Melt the chocolate in a bowl placed over a saucepan of boiling water. Make sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water underneath. Melt the chocolate and dip half of the flapjack into the chocolate. Place onto some grease proof paper so that the chocolate can set.

Braised Beef Stew in Red Wine

During January the outdoors feels as cold as a snowball, the sky is as black as coal by 4pm as it is quickly turns to nightfall, and I generally want to hibernate for while after the excesses of Christmas. At this time of year I like to turn to some comfort food and I make some hearty stews to feed my family, usually I will opt for a beef stew. 

You can buy some wonderfully cheap cuts of meat such as braising steak or shin. Both are perfect for a long slow cook and become deliciously tender whilst remaining succulent. If you buy your meat from the butchers ask him to cut the pieces into large chunks, or if you buy your meat from the supermarket buy the slices of meat and then cut them into chunks. Small pieces of diced beef will disintegrate during the long cooking process and you really want to avoid this happening. 

The bottle of red wine in this recipe gives the stew a great boost of flavour and the carrots add a wonderful sweetness. I have used onions but you can substitute these for shallots instead. It is cooked on a slow heat for around four hours, so if you find that you do not have time to cook it in one evening you can cook it for two hours and finish off the cooking the next day. My children love this stew. I think they are sadly deluded that they will feel the effects of the bottle of wine despite the fact that I tell them that all of the alcohol has evaporated during cooking. I serve a bowl of stew with mashed potatoes, or some rice or just a hunk of fresh bread. Perfect. 

Ingredients 
Serves 6 people 
Olive Oil, for cooking 
1 kilo stewing beef (shin or braising beef), cut into chunks
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped 
1 large onion, sliced (or 175g shallots and roughly chopped) 
250g mushrooms, wiped and chopped (I prefer chestnut mushrooms) 
5 carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks 
2-3 stalks of celery, roughly chopped 
2 tablespoons of tomato puree 
1 tin (450ml) chopped tomatoes 
1 bottle of red wine of your choice (use one that you would be happy to drink) 
500ml beef stock (you can use water if you prefer) 
Few sprigs of thyme
 2 bay leaves 
salt and pepper to season 

Method 
Preheat the oven to 325 F/160 C/Gas mark 3 

1. Drizzle a little oil into a large ovenproof casserole dish. Use one that has a lid. Heat the oil, add the meat and season with salt and pepper. Brown the meat all over so that you get lovely caramelised flavours. 

2. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes, turning the meat in the pan. 

3. Add the tomato puree and mix. 

4. Now add the wine to the pan and let it come to a gentle simmer. 

5. Stir in the tin of tomatoes and stock (or water), and add the chopped onions, carrots, celery, thyme and bay leaves. Stir, and allow the stew to come to a slow simmer. 

6. Remove from the stove and place the casserole dish with the lid on into the oven. Cook for 3 ½ to 4 hours until the meat is tender. Stir the stew every 40 minutes and checking that there is enough liquid. 

 7. When the stew is ready to serve, remove the bay leaves and taste to make sure that the seasoning is okay. Add more salt and pepper if required before serving. If you have some thyme, chop up a few sprigs and scatter on individual portions when serving.