My Quest

Following my epiphany at Trattoria La Festa in Stowe my quest was to find a recipe for a light creamy sauce worthy of that bowl of Fettuccine Alfredo. Over the years I've tried so many recipes – some ok, some definitely not.

A couple of years ago I came across “The Leftovers Handbook” by Suzy Bowler – remember what I said in the Guilty Pleasure post about the tab marking system when you're taking your first glance through your new cookery book, here's a photograph of my copy of the book :

The tabs, or rather the number of tabs indicate how good a book this is and I am delighted to report that my quest is over since the book contains, in my view, the best and definitely the nearest version of the sauce I had in Stowe. I know that I've written the words “keep it simple” in the past and time and again this proves to be the case. The bizarre thing is that I've spent hours try to recreate this sauce and it turns out that it takes three ingredients and takes only a few minutes to make.

For ease of reference, here it is :

Alfredo Sauce

Alfredo is traditionally served with pasta – however it's so good and tasty it lends itself to other dishes and particularly leftovers.

1 tbsp unsalted butter

200ml double cream

50g freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for sprinkling

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Gently heat the butter and the cream together, stirring, until the butter has melted, then stir in the Parmesan.

Slowly bring to a gentle boil, turn down the heat and simmer, stir continuously for a minute or so until you have a smooth, creamy sauce.

This sauce can be made ahead.

The above recipe would be sufficient for two servings – enough to coat 225g uncooked pasta. Traditionally there are no additions to Alfredo although I've had it served with petit pois.

Thank you to The Leftovers Handbook – you've made a grumpy old woman very happy!

Sensational Stowe

Stowe, Vermont, USA is sensational and particularly so in our Autumn - Fall in the USA.

On the Upper Mountain Road in Stowe you can find Top Notch at Stowe www.topnotchresort.com a truly luxurious spa et al and yours truly was fortunate enough to stay. You can absorb all the stunning scenery on foot, on a bicycle or, my personal favourite mode of transport, on horseback. You can even ski if that's your thing.

Absolutely random piece of additional information – Vermont is where Ben & Jerry's ice cream began.

Whenever I visit the USA I always pay attention to the weather forecasts – why you may ask – answer - because they're accurate. So, you can imagine that I was slightly concerned when it forecast snow in two days time. Hey, they might be wrong.

You know you can always tell when it has snowed – it's really bright when you wake up in the morning. That'll teach me to pack Wellington boots – pinpoint accuracy as usual – I should have known better than to doubt.

More concern, picture perfect though the snowfall was, that evening dinner was booked next door at Trattoria La Festa 4080 Upper Mountain Road, Stowe, VT 05672 www.trattoriastowe.com (see also La Toscana Country Inn – they have rooms too.) I feel I should clarify “next door” - next door in the UK means exactly that – in the USA and in this instance it's half a mile down the drive out of Top Notch and then a climb up the next drive to the restaurant – you might recall that the address is Upper Mountain Road – emphasis on “mountain”. Did we make it and was it worth the wrecked shoes – you betcha – big time. Without question I was served the best bowl of Fettuccine Alfredo I've ever eaten and more to the point, the only bowl of pasta I've ever finished in my life.

A perfect combination – over indulgence with the pasta and being able to walk it off in such a beautiful place. By the way the Alfredo sauce triggered a mission to recreate it that lasted years.

If you've any sort of holiday destination list, bucket or otherwise I would strongly recommend you add Stowe and Vermont!

A bit of red wine!

Thoughts from a grumpy old woman.

If there's one thing (actually there's more than one) that drives me crazy it's the constant misuse of the English language in particular when applied to the title above - a “bit” refers to a solid, i.e. a morsel of food, of “bite”. To the best of my knowledge red wine is not a solid ….. if you think the same way I apologise because from now on when either watching your favourite cooking show/magazine programme or listening to your radio – in my case crystal set since as I write I know I sound like the grumpiest old woman ever - I now realise I've turned you into a crazy person. I don't care, I've kept this to myself for so long there must be others out there who think as I do.

I appeal to the major culprits of said misuse who are, you may not be surprised to learn - the celebrity chefs – the word to use is “drop” i.e. a small quantity of liquid. You don't need to go to catering college or train as a chef to attain this earth shattering information!

Whilst I'm on the subject, of celebrity chefs that is, I might as well have another moan – in particular relating to kitchen hygiene or rather lack of. Will someone please let these chefs know that wearing a big fat designer wrist watch whilst you are cooking is not a good idea hygienically speaking – if you want to keep an eye on the time pin a fob watch to your whites or better still buy a large kitchen wall clock that can be wiped down and everyone gets the benefit.

I feel so much better having got that off my chest!

I shouldn't have bothered

… to get out of bed!

When I try any recipe for the first time, particularly one of the baking variety, I follow it to the absolute microgram – baking is a science and unless you have super powers you can't wing it!

So, stall set out for the latest trial – a “loaf cake” type of thing. My mise en place is done and I'm ready to rock and roll.

Everything seems to be going swimmingly – not a complicated recipe – it's in the oven and my trusted timer is set. Note to self – whatever timing is given in a recipe I always set mine to at least 5 minutes before that stated. In this case however it didn't help at all.

I don't know why – may be it's just a sight thing – it didn't look right – there's a lot of mixture for the tin bearing in mind it has to rise – or rather I hope it will.

In this case my misgivings proved to be entirely correct and despite the comfort of setting a timer something told me I needed to sneak a peek and look at progress way before the time was up. Thank goodness I did – horror of horrors there was a molten dripping mess oozing over the sides of the tin, on to the baking sheet the tin was on - over the oven shelf the baking sheet was on - over the next two oven shelves and onto its final resting place, the bottom of the oven where (thankfully) I have an oven liner. Note to self if you haven't got an oven liner can I suggest you invest in one!

If at this point you're thinking what's all the fuss is about can I put it another way – have you ever dropped and broken an egg and watched it spread at the speed of light – have you ever knocked over a mug of coffee or a container of milk – it's impossible to stop the spread of liquid and mop it up fast enough before the coffee/milk has accelerated and landed in your cutlery drawer.

The Bionic Man or Woman ain't go nothing on me – oh and don't forget the oven is hot - the faster I tried to stem the flow of the molten lava the messier it got.

The moral of this story, not surprisingly, is that not every recipe is as good as it should be.

Happy baking oh and spare a kind thought for any competitor on the Great British Bake Off when it looks as if they've made a complete hash of what we (obviously sat on our sofas at home) consider to be straight forward baking!

What to serve

… with the Orange Cake

A slice of cake is very nice but I'm serving it as an after supper treat for friends.

The Orange Cake is moist – moist is good but, to use the northern vernacular, it can be claggy. So, as I would make extra “drizzle” to serve with a lemon drizzle cake lets make an orange syrup (or drizzle if you prefer)

Orange Syrup

200g icing sugar

250ml orange juice (no bits)

Put the sugar and orange juice in a small saucepan and heat gently so that the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes.

You'll then have a syrupy drizzle ready to dress your cake.

Here's a photo of the one that I made earlier :

and it works brilliantly. If you wanted to add another element then why not the white miso or plain vanilla ice cream (there are recipes for both of these, both no-churn, on the blog).

I suppose I should point out that this is what I would call a weekend pud – when you're in need of a treat or just good old fashioned comfort food!

A perfect combination

… the “old” meeting the “new”.

In Book alert! I wrote about Claudia Roden and her books.

In All around the book shelves I mentioned that the perfect combination in a cookery book would be history and recipes too - here's one that is definitely in the “desert island/burning building” category.

Claudia Roden's “The Book of Jewish Food” was first published in the UK in 1997 and is divided into The Ashkenazi World and style of cooking and The Sephardi World with its many styles of cooking.

By “old” in the above title I do not disrespect – I just mean that by modern standards it's probably considered to be so - it's 19 years is old. I have read one particular recipe in this book from The Sephardi World section so many times I could recite it without any prompt.

It is :

Gateau a l'Orange

(Orange Cake)

2 oranges

6 eggs

250g sugar

2 tbsp orange blossom water

1 tsp baking powder

250g ground almonds

Wash the oranges and boil them whole for 1 – 1 ½ hours or until they are very soft.

Beat the eggs with the sugar. Add the orange blossom water, baking powder and almonds and mix well. *Cut open the oranges, remove the pips and purée in a food processor. Mix thoroughly with the egg and almond mixture and pour into a 23cm cake tin – lined with baking parchment, preferably non-stick and with a removable base. Bake in a pre-heated oven 190c/170fan/Gas 5 for an hour. Let it cool before turning out.

What put me off baking this cake was the boiling of the oranges.

Now for the “new” - it should really read “up to date” since I suppose it's not rocket science to use a microwave. Instead of boiling the oranges, microwave them for 8 minutes on high. I used 3 medium sized oranges (as a guide 67-74mm) and turned after 4 minutes. Make sure your fruits are in a covered vented microwave container. Continue with the recipe at *.

I'm not a cake eater generally but in the interests of being true to the art I tasted this and – I know I shouldn't say it of my own efforts – it was everything I like in a cake – moist and the depth of the orange flavour was really good. Everyone else who had a slice loved it too.

Here's what it looked like :

I rest my case!

Guilty pleasure

or, how sad am I!

When I acquire a new cookery book there's a certain protocol that needs to be observed in order to get the most of your latest acquisition.

Don't rush into this … anticipation is the key – I definitely need to get out more.

The first step is to sit comfortably – cuppa or tipple of your choice optional. Ensure you have a supply of coloured tabs (like the post it notes but smaller) so that any “notations” are done carefully since it would be sacrilegious to spoil pages by turning them.

Then go through your book cover to cover, take your time inwardly digesting (sorry for the pun). Any recipes that appeal get a tab – this way you don't miss anything and it doesn't matter if, later on, you decide to discard an original marker.

What is beyond irritating – it may be that it's a senior thing – if you don't “mark” recipes, or anything you want to refer to later for that matter – you can never find it second time around – hence the marker system.

When I'm trying to decide which books should be given away I'll keep the tomes with all the tabs showing – hey it's a start.

In the post A perfect combination coming shortly it illustrates why you should hold on to books that may be considered old or out of fashion.

Chutzpah!

All along the bookshelves

… decision time!

How many books do you have in your collection - how many of them have you had for years and never actually opened or may be you've flicked through once and then shelved, doomed to that cookery book box in the sky.

May be you need to make space for books that you'd like to add to your collection but how do you decide which are to stay and which are to go.

My collection falls into different categories – reference, history, classics, new discoveries, favourite cuisine. Sometimes if you're lucky the categories overlap and you'll have a fantastic history book crammed full of recipes too.

What's the definition of a great cookery book – for me that would be a book that I refer to over and over again.

Buying cookery books is an addiction, like buying shoes or handbags and we all know that sometimes we don't get it right so the “never opened” books are easier to pull off the shelves and dust before finally deciding on their fate.

May be it's time to do a spot of recycling and send a box or two to your favourite charity shop so that someone else can benefit.

I know this won't be easy - think of it as you do when clearing out your wardrobe and the golden rule … if you haven't worn it for six months then you don't need it – out it goes or rather into the recycling bag/box – alternatively ask yourself which books would you take to your desert island or rescue from a burning building.

Bonne chance!

The F Word - The art of disguise

… of fish, continued - Nasi Goreng, or not

Set down below is my standard recipe for this favourite.

 Nasi Goreng

3 eggs

1 tbsp water

1 tbsp oil

4 tbsp vegetable oil

2 onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed or garlic paste

half tsp chilli powder

8oz (225g) cooked rice

6oz (175g) cooked chicken or turkey meat, diced

6oz (175g) peeled prawns, defrosted if frozen

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp soft light brown sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

6oz (175g) cooked wafer ham, thinly sliced

black pepper

Serves 4-6

Beat the egg lightly with the 1 tbsp water.  Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok or frying pan. Pour in the egg and cook until set underneath, turn and cook until set on other side.  Slide the omelette out of the pan, roll up into a cigar shape and slice into strips – set aside.

Add the vegetable oil to the wok and heat gently. Add the onions, garlic and chilli powder and fry until lightly browned.  Add the rice and cook for a few seconds then stir in the chicken and prawns.

Mix the soy sauce, sugar and lemon juice together, then stir into the rice mixture. Stir in the ham then season to taste with pepper.  Spoon the mixture into a serving bowl and garnish with the omelette strips.  (serves 4-6)

Nasi Goreng literally means “fried rice” - in effect, leftovers i.e. everything in it, apart from the onion, garlic and chilli and the sauce is already cooked.

Here's a thought or two to “perfect” the disguise.  Omit the omelette element at the beginning of the recipe.

Substitute the cooked chicken with thin strips of smoked salmon and/or smoked salmon flakes.

Substitute the ham with 4-6 hard boiled eggs, chopped.

Garnish the completed dish with chopped coriander or chopped flat leaf parsley – whichever you prefer.

Serve wok to table as part of your sharing fish salad platter.

My final tip – why not serve with a bowl/basket of Little Gem lettuce “cups” then your guests can spoon the Nasi Goreng into the lettuce cups and enjoy.  A little extra – serve individual dishes of sweet chilli sauce to each person so they can dip their lettuce cup full of Nasi Goreng.

Healthy stuff and no batter in sight!

The F Word - "It's too boring!"...

In the boring, tasteless fish camp I immediately think of salmon – you usually find it poached and plonked on a platter with a miscellany of equally boring bits and pieces.

No taste, no flavour, no wonder!

I've mentioned the following recipe previously and I make no apology for repeating it. If you haven't tried this, you should or you haven't made it in a while you'll be glad to be reminded.

Asian Spiced Salmon

Serves 2

2 x 110g Salmon fillets

2 tsps garlic paste or 2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tsp powdered star anise or one star anise

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

Mix together the garlic, star anise and soy sauce and pour over the salmon fillets, turning to coat thoroughly, cover and leave in fridge for an hour or so.

When you are ready to cook, pre-heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6. Place the fillets in a foil tray and bake for 10 minutes.

Whilst the salmon is baking bring a medium sized saucepan of water to the boil. When boiling add a tsp of salt and drop your asparagus tips into the boiling water. As soon as the water comes back to the boil, drain, add to the baked salmon and serve.

Any leftover salmon and asparagus is excellent served cold.

Note to self :

For the purpose of this recipe I would use the small, fine asparagus spears – they are tender and sweet. Asparagus comes in all weights and sizes and, for those who may not be aware, the best way of preparing it is to find its natural “break”. Hold a spear between your thumb and index finger and bend gently, it will snap where it needs to, removing the “woody” end which you discard or keep for soup. When you've “snapped” your spears neaten the edges so that they are all of a similar size – don't want to be untidy! As a guide 4-6 spears per salmon fillet.

What's not to love and I hope you change your anti-fish mind!

The F Word.. "It's too fishy!"

The fish that springs immediately to mind when using this title is smoked mackerel. It is usually presented in a paté which is fine but there are other ways.

For the following idea combine ingredients so that the fish doesn't overpower – in particular seasonal new potatoes, delicious served as part of a warm salad.

As an added bonus the following recipe can be made with sour cream or if you want to be a little more health conscious use a low fat crème fraiche.

Warm smoked mackerel salad

Serves 2

350g new potatoes

1 tsp horseradish cream

juice of 1 lemon

2 smoked mackerel fillets, skinned and

flaked (200g approx)

black pepper

100g sour cream

bunch of spring onions – approx

85g when trimmed and finely sliced

handful of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

OR use baby spinach

Cook the potatoes in salted boiling water until tender. Whilst the potatoes are cooking mix the sour cream, horseradish cream and lemon juice in a large bowl. Season with black pepper.

Drain the potatoes and cut in half lengthways – let them cool and then tip into the sour cream mixture so that it covers the potatoes – the mixture will loosen. Add the flaked smoked mackerel and the spring onions and combine gently. Sprinkle with finely chopped flat leaf parsley and serve whilst warm.

Ps. If there is any left, box it, fridge it and lunch it next day! If you like cold leftovers so be it – if you don't then just pop into the microwave (at home or the office) for a minute to warm through and instant lunch!

I think that's one or two boxes ticked!

Here's a photo of one I made earlier.

Back to salad sharing plates - The “F” word ...

After our brief interlude it's back to salad sharing plates.

The one ingredient that we've not covered yet is fish (and seafood too) hence “the F word”.

Fish is tricky - it always seems to produce quite definite reactions – like the “don't do green” scenario.

The comments go something like, “it's too fishy”, “it's boring and has no flavour” or “I only like it when it's covered in batter and comes with chips”.

Do you feel that you should eat fish (without the batter) because it's good for you – oily fish being rich in Omega 3 oils and forms part of a balanced diet?

There's no doubt that the strong flavour of some fish is overpowering.

There's a way that you can make “strong” fish more palatable and that's to put it with other ingredients that are more neutral – for example, potatoes.

The other extreme – it's boring and has no flavour is decidedly underwhelming. There's a way you can make “boring” fish more appealing and tasty by adding spices and herbs.

Do you avoid fish and seafood but will eat it under sufferance? You could try the art of disguise – in other words include it in a dish with other interesting ingredients so that it doesn't either take over completely or is so boring and tasteless it needn't be there at all.

As with previous sharing plate ideas, variety is the spice of life – serve both hot and cold.

The final element to be considered - what is in season? There are two particular candidates that certainly fit the bill – new potatoes – Jersey Royals in particular and asparagus.

Lets begin with “it's too fishy”.

A Brief Interlude ...The taste test

The best thing about this recipe is that it doesn't really matter what variety of cherries you use. You can, for example, buy Morello cherries frozen from Asda - £2 for 350g or Sweet dark cherries frozen from Sainsbury's £2 for £480g. It really is a matter of personal taste.

Here's the test :

The test team were given the jar of compote made from morello cherries shown in the photograph - each team member armed with a tasting spoon. Morello cherries produce a sharper, zingy flavour and the team loved exactly that – it wasn't too sweet.

I served the test team the compote made from the sweet dark cherries warm - leaving the cherries whole, ladled over white miso ice cream.

11 minutes well spent! The compote is brilliant whatever form it takes - it sets perfectly if you prefer it that way - it has a glossy shine because arrowroot is used and not cornflour. If you use cornflour the result is cloudy and opaque – not a good look!

P.s. If you want the recipe for the ice cream it comes from Nigella Lawson's latest book, “Simply Nigella”

No churn white miso ice cream

Makes 1 litre of ice cream

100g sweet white miso

397 tin condensed milk

300ml double cream

Combine the miso paste and condensed milk in a bowl, mix well so that it loosens. Add the cream and whisk until it begins to thicken.

Decant into suitable containers – I'd suggest 2 or 3 smaller pots – freeze overnight.

Take out of the freezer to allow it to soften for 10 minutes before serving.

If you've never tried using miso and you like the flavour of salted caramel then you'll like this ice cream.

and the Team's final words ...

“...great. Next time I entertain it will on the menu

...well it was beautiful

…the ice cream has a smooth taste and is less sweet than vanilla. Compote is to die for – love cherries!

...delicious

...yummy.”

A Brief Interlude ...the latest experiment

whilst I think about it … 

Thought you might like to have this recipe up your sleeve for emergencies. All you need to do is add a bag/box of frozen cherries to your shopping list - oh and have 11 minutes to spare.

Cherry Compote

350g cherries, defrosted if frozen

50g granulated sugar

2 tbsp cherry juice

¼ tsp almond essence

2 tsps arrowroot

1 tbsp cold water

Place the cherries, sugar and juice in a saucepan heat gently, stirring. Cook for 10 minutes then break up the cherries so that there are no whole cherries left. Add the almond essence.

Blend the arrowroot and water together then add to the cherry mixture, on a gentle heat, stirring continuously. When the mixture has thickened heat for another minute.

Use over ice cream when warm or set aside to cool and decant into a clean screw top jar and “fridge”.

This cherry compote has many uses – apart from warm served with ice cream. Spread it on toast, serve with yogurt, on top of cereal and definitely with scones.

Here's a photo of the cherry compote. The recipe given fills the 370g jar shown.

Can't think of a down side to this recipe – unless of course you don't like cherries!

Hollingworth Bakery Heaven, continuing the brief interlude

You'll find the usual range of bakery products – when it comes to pies – in particular the savoury kind - they are great and freshly baked daily.

On the bread side of the establishment, my personal favourite, sunflower & rye bread rolls are to be found – they are the best – so much so that when I'm visiting my sister I order ahead and bring home a supply to freeze.

Here they are in all their glory :

The fruit pies ain't too shabby either – blackcurrant, blackberry & apple, apple – the usual suspects may be but in this case familiarity does not breed contempt.

There are other products that the Bakery is famous for - their range of pork pies - with a list of choices that would tempt any meat eater out of their comfort zone, for example :

Pork with stuffing and cranberry

Pork with stuffing and apple

Pork with Stilton

Pork with chilli jam

Pork with black pudding

If you are wanting to sample any of these delights could I make a suggestion – call ahead and order – if you “fly by the seat of your pants” you'll be disappointed, especially if you want to try the sunflower & rye bread rolls or any of the “bespoke” pies.

Don't forget to check the opening hours and more importantly, make sure you've got their telephone number in your phone!

Hollingworth Bakery – 01457 765913

Enjoy!

A Brief Interlude!

I'm interrupting the flow of sharing salad plates with information that may come in handy over the coming Spring and Summer months.

Are you off on your travels for a long weekend – is there a chance that those travels may take you to the Peak District – if so then I'd like to let you in on a little secret.

Hollingworth is a small village which actually has a postal address “Hyde, Cheshire”. In reality Hollingworth is closer to Woodhead pass on the A628 in one direction and the A57 to Glossop and then on to the Snake Pass, in the other.

If you take a look at a map you'll see that both Hollingworth and Glossop are situated on the western side of the Peak District.

Whilst I appreciate I'm not writing a travel blog I consider that this qualifies since it's food related – you've got to eat and if you're looking forward to a picnic then here's the place to stock up on supplies and fill your picnic basket!

Hollingworth Bakery is probably the tiniest bakery I've ever been in – you know what they say “small is beautiful”. Damian Weatherhead is the Baker and has a Facebook Page “Hollingworth Bakery”.

What is special about this place is that you'll find all the favourites that everyone loves and expects - from great pies, to moreish jam tarts - then there's the “out of the ordinary” stuff.

The staff are just lovely and ready, willing and more than able to make up your personal butty on bread of your choice.

Check it out.

Hollingworth Bakery, 56b Market Street, Hollingworth SK14 8HR – telephone: 01457 765913.