SOUP, glorious soup!

Winter is a time for soups, that's for sure!  Whilst I love good thick, creamy concoctions, at the moment I'm making myself lighter, more oriental-inspired soups.

I don't really measure things for this, but I generally start with a couple of finely chopped spring onions (everything about these soups needs to be very finely chopped/diced). Then I add some smoked streaky bacon if I have it or, better still, make tiny weeny meatballs out of a sausage.

For simplicity's sake, take it as read that everything is finely chopped - I'm not going to keep typing it!

Then it's a thumbnail of fresh ginger, a quarter of a carrot, quarter of a baby turnip, a bit of fennel, a teaspoon of a rather nice spice paste called Massaman paste (from Epicure) plus about half a teaspoon of Harissa paste - depending on your heat tolerance - plus a squelch of tomato paste.

Stir it all up in a saucepan over a good heat and add about 200ml boiling water. Bring back to the boil and add one portion of fine Oriental noodles.  Simmer for as long as the noodle packet says (generally 3 or 4 minutes), add some soy sauce, some coconut milk perhaps and salt if you need it.

Serve in the biggest soup bowl you can lay your hands on - the noodles flop about and splash all-over the place.

This lovely bowl is made by a local potter who clearly thought I was bonkers wanting anything quite so big as a soup bowl!

CHRISTMAS CAKE

I don't really 'do' Christmas, but this year I'm seeing my brother and his family, so thought it best to make a cake...

I've never been a lover of the traditional 'black' xmas cakes, so my recipe has always been based on a Dundee cake.  However, it's ten years at least since I last made one, so I've decided to zap the recipe into something a bit more interesting. The dried fruits mentioned are simply what was available locally...

2012's CHRISTMAS CAKE:

Roughly 100g each of:
Dried apricots,  dried peaches,  crystalised pineapple,  dried figs,  glace cherries, chopped dates,  hazel nuts,  walnuts,  raisins and sultanas (1kg in all).

Also:
500g softened butter,  500g dark brown sugar,  6 eggs (free-range, naturally!),  2 tsp vanilla extract,  pinch of salt,  300g plain flour,  300g self-raising flour,  100g ground almonds,  grated rind of one lemon and a generous 2 tsp mixed spice.

Day 1:

Mix together the fruits and nuts in a large bowl, chopping into small pieces if need be… Moisten with alcohol and cover tightly.

Day 2:
Add more alcohol to the fruit if you feel it needs/deserves it - stir… and inhale deeply. Remember to cover the bowl again! You can repeat the exercise a number of times if you like...

Day 3:
Turn the oven on to 140°C (gas mark 2?  I don’t have a gas cooker, so this is guessing a bit). Double-line an 8” square or 9” round cake tin and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugar and beat in the eggs, followed by the vanilla and the salt.
Stir about ¼ of the flour into the fruit mix along with the ground almonds, lemon peel and spice. Stir the rest into the creamed mix, combining well. Add in the fruit and mix up very thoroughly - now do you see why I said a 'large' bowl?!  If it all seems a bit stiff, add a little milk.

Pour into the prepared cake tin, place that on a sheet of brown paper on a baking tray and bake for 1 hour at 140°C.

Lower the temperature to 130°C (gas 1?), open the oven door very gently and cover the top of the cake with brown paper. Cook for a further 2-2½ hours, until a skewer stuck in the centre comes out clean.

Turn the oven off and leave the door ajar for about 10 minutes, then take the cake out.  Leave it a while longer, till it’s warm rather than hot and souse with alcohol. Leave to cool in the tin.
Finally, remove from the tin, wrap in greaseproof paper and foil and leave it alone for a couple of weeks to mature.

Marzipan and icing I leave up to you…

ENJOY!

Here's the cake glazed up with apricot jam (note I've trimmed the crown of the cake off to make a flatter area for decorating)

Here's the same cake covered in marzipan.  I'll leave it for a week or so for the marzipan to dry out a bit.

Then it'll be a matter of rediscovering my plastering skills!

...and here's one I made earlier - twenty years earlier in fact!  The delightful little figures came from the wonderful 'Christmas Shop' in Lechlade, Gloucestershire.

BREAD

I don't often make bread - with the B&B business there's usually masses of brown or white sliced in the house.  However, at this time of year business is negligeable, so I set to the other day and made some bread.

I've 'discovered' Eichkorn flour (from  Doves Farm ) which is ground from a prehistoric variety of corn - very good it is too!   I'm really not into kneading bread, so I call this my 'No need to knead' loaf:

(I use small quantities, as it's only me eating it - multiply up if you need to)

250g  Eichkorn flour
50g  Buckwheat flakes (optional, in which case use 300g flour)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp quick yeast
1 Tbsp olive oil
200ml  warm water
(I also added a Tbsp of caraway seeds, cos I like 'em)

Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl, pour in the oil and then about half the water. Stir well until combined and add more water as you go until you get a sticky dough (not too stiff). You may need a little more, or a little less water.

Stir it up well, prodding it with a spoon generally moving it about the bowl (a little more oil helps) for just a couple of minutes. Set aside to rise, covered with a cloth.

When it's nicely risen (a couple of hours, depending on room temp) bash it down again with the spoon and prod, push about and fold the dough - again just for a minute or two - with a bit more oil to keep it from sticking to the sides of the bowl.

Set the oven to 160C

Grease a small loaf tin and scoop the dough into it. Cover loosely with oiled cling film, or grease-proof paper and set aside for another hour until risen.

Slap it in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes - until it sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from the oven and tip out to cool...

Sorry about the half picture... dunno what happened there!!

Darkest of Dark

Being the eco-friendly bunny that I am, I would like to have been able to use organic sugar for my marmalade but, alas, it's very hard to come by out here in the sticks! So, instead, I tried one batch using 100% unrefined sugar - Billington's Dark Muscovado. There's a serious cost implication here as unrefined is four times as expensive as refined, but hey an experiment's an experiment!

The resulting brew is so dark as to be almost black.....
and needed particular care with stirring. The end result is an amazingly rich, almost chocolatey marmalade, quite unlike anything I've tasted before!

This batch will have to be kept as 'special' and will only find its way to my guests if I am aware they have a particular liking for very dark marmalade...

Here's a photo to show what a difference there is between the 'original' - on the left - and the 'dark' - on the right.

Marmalade-time

[NB: this article has been re-edited January of 2021]

It's been a while since I posted anything in here, but it's marmalade time and I'd like to share my 'new' recipe... This year I have been experimenting with the 'old' family recipe - which created a very light, fresh-tasting brew - and have ended up with something a little darker and more... succulent? 

You will need: An apron and ideally a bandana. A large pan, a long-handled spoon, a measuring jug etc 800g Seville oranges (I use organic when I can get them) 1 lemon 2 litres boiling water 1.5kg granulated sugar .5kg dark muscovado sugar. [To be honest, I just use all granulated these days - 01/21]

First of all, put the fruit in the freezer for 48 hours! This has revolutionised my marmalade-making this year. Once de-frosted, slice all the fruit in half and squeeze the juice (just in your hand) into a small bowl - hopefully all the pips will come out too, but just check. Discard the lemon rind at this stage [2021 edit: I now keep the lemon rind]. Slice the rinds to whatever thickness you like (I prefer thin-cut myself) - cutting each half into half first helps - and put into a large mixing bowl. 

Pour over 2 litres of boiling water and leave for 30 minutes or so, or until needed. When ready to begin, strain the pips out of the juice  and tie them up in a small piece of muslin. Pour the juice onto the chopped rinds. Transfer the rind and liquid to a large pan and drop in the bag of pips (tie it to a piece of string round the pan handle to stop it wandering). Bring the pan to the boil and then simmer, covered, for 1 hour, followed by another hour uncovered. Stir once in a while to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom. The point of this is to completely soften the peel - you should be able to 'cut' a slice of peel just by gentle pressure with the spoon. Remove the pips and discard. 

Put six or seven 1lb jam jars into a warm oven. Add the sugar to the pan, stirring well to dissolve it, then bring up to a good 'rolling' boil for 30 minutes. DO NOT COVER THE PAN!! 

Do not leave the kitchen - keep an eye on it! After 30 minutes, turn the heat up to get a really 'volcanic' boil. Stir often so that nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan. Beware spitting marmalade!  

During the last ten minutes, test for set by dribbling a little of the juice onto a saucer and placing in the fridge. When ready, it should not slide down the plate if held vertically! Turn the hot plate off, or move the pan to a cool part of the stove and leave for ten minutes or so, stirring occasionally to the froth dissipates. Then, using a glass measuring jug, fill your warmed jam jar with the marmalade, wiping away and dribbles straight away. Finally, slap the lid on whilst it's all still piping hot and leave to cool down. That's it! Apart from putting your label on it of course!

[2021 edit: now that I'm making marmalade on a slightly more commercial scale, I do double these quantities, in a much bigger pan...]