As
promised here are the recipes and the bits and pieces mentioned
during my chat with Bernie Keith, on his Radio Show, The Bernie
Keith Show, BBC Radio Northampton on Monday 30th
October 2017 at 10am
First
up :
Fun
Stuff
Between
the sheets
No
– not the cocktail of white rum, cognac, triple sec and lemon juice
– sorry to disappoint!
It's
sheets of baking parchment for easy chocolate biscuits the kids can
make.
Chocolate
biscuits
Takes
2½ hours
250g digestive biscuits
300g dark or milk chocolate broken into small even-sized pieces
100g unsalted butter
100g golden syrup
100g tart cherries or cranberries, chopped finely
100g pecans, chopped finely or blitzed to a crumb
icing sugar or cocoa to dust
Place the biscuits in a plastic bag, clip the end and roll with
a rolling pin until you have a fine crumb. Melt the chocolate,
butter and golden syrup in a bain-marie, mixing until smooth. Remove
from the heat, add the digestive biscuits, cherries (or cranberries)
and pecans - mix well, coating everything in the chocolate syrup.
You will need :
4 x
sheets of baking parchment -
45cms
x 30cms
a
pastry board as large as the parchment
Place a sheet of parchment on your board, divide the mixture in
half and place one half on your parchment. Place another sheet of
parchment on top of the mixture and press down then roll out thinly –
0.5cm approx. Take the board with the mixture between the sheets to
the fridge and slide straight onto the fridge shelf. Repeat with the
remaining sheets and mixture. Leave to set in the fridge for at
least 2 hours.
Peel off the top sheet of parchment and dust with icing sugar
or cocoa, then cut out your biscuits in shapes of your choice. I
managed 25 biscuits per batch, 50 in total although this will vary
depending on the size of cutter used.
The final bonus is that you finish up with a “jigsaw” of
chocolate biscuit bits. Bag or box them and freeze. Blitz them as
required for a crumb to sprinkle over your favourite ice cream.
Next
up, the tiramisu, here's the recipe :
Orange
Tiramisu
Serves
4 large or 6 smaller
servings
Grated rind and juice of 2 medium oranges – 200ml
plus an additional 4tbsp of juice if you are not
adding alcohol
(as a guide one medium orange has 4tbsp of juice)
20fl oz whipping cream
20 sponge fingers or Madeira cake
4tbsp caster sugar
225g Mascarpone cheese
2 tbsp orange curd plus extra to decorate
2oz chocolate flake crumbled to decorate
For
the adults
4 tbsp Cointreau or other orange liqueur
plain chocolate chips to decorate
If you are using orange liqueur then substitute it for the
additional 4tbsp of orange juice in the recipe.
Mix the cream carefully with the caster sugar and mascarpone,
then whisk with a hand mixer to thicken, gently fold the orange curd
into the mixture so that it gives a ribbon effect. If you're using a
hand mixer use the blades to fold through the curd.
For one large tiramisu and using sponge fingers, a rectangular
dish is the best shape. Dip the fingers into the syrup and arrange
in a row, then add the mascarpone mixture and repeat.
For the kids, bash a chocolate flake in its packet so that it
doesn't fly all over the kitchen worktop, open carefully and sprinkle
over to decorate. If you want grown-up “sprinkles” use plain
chocolate chips or grate a plain chocolate bar to decorate instead.
Cling film and fridge until you're ready to serve.
The
success of this recipe is in its versatility – kids love it – a
welcome, refreshing change from the coffee version. I suppose it
doesn't go down too well with the tiramisu purists but who cares –
surely the whole point is to give people food that you know they are
going to love.
If
anyone wants to know the chapter and verse - for the small,
individual servings I used small glasses with a capacity of 160ml –
they measure 7 cms in diameter and 7 cms deep. They benefit from
being made ahead – time to soak up all that lovely syrup – and
the alcohol too if you are indulging in a grown-up version.
The
small servings are given height using a circle of cake soaked in
syrup at the bottom of the glass and then circles of soaked cake to
line - the filling is spooned (or piped if you are proficient) into
the centre and topped with another circle of soaked cake. Add a
teaspoon of curd to the cake top and then sprinkle with the
chocolate – the curd “glues” the chocolate in place. The size
of the cutter used is 4cms in diameter and the cake should be 1cm
slices approximately.
You
can buy plastic sundae dishes with lids that also double as a base
exactly the same size as the glasses. A practical solution if you
are giving a party for both adults and children and less washing up
too! When you are ready to serve, remove the lid and clip to the
bottom to create your sundae dish.
I
buy these sundae dishes from SCS Packaging in Orchard Road, Finedon.
Aladdin's cave!
SCS Packaging,
Units 1 & 2, Orchard Road, Finedon, Wellingborough NN9 5JG –
01933 681681 – www.scspackaging.co.uk
By
the way - you can make your own orange curd in the microwave –
recipe below, it takes 12 minutes max!
Microwave
Orange Curd
4 whole eggs plus 2 egg yolks
170g caster sugar
2 tsps finely grated orange rind
185ml fresh orange juice
125g unsalted butter, cubed
Put the butter, rind and juice in a large microwave-proof bowl.
Cook on high for 3 minutes. Add the sugar to the bowl and stir for
1 minute until it has almost dissolved. Return to the microwave and
cook on 100% power for 2 minutes, stirring every minute.
Beat the eggs and the yolk together, then whisk into the
mixture, a little at a time.
Cook on medium (40% power) for 10-12 minutes, whisking every 2
minutes, until the curd thickens.
Ladle into hot sterilized jars, cover and seal. When cooked,
fridge and use within 2 months.
Notes :
This recipe is based on an 800 watt version. For microwaves
with a different wattage, adjust cooking times as follows, 900 watt –
subtract 10 seconds per minute. 850 watt, subtract 5 seconds per
minute, 750 watt, add 5 seconds per minute. 700 watt, add 10 seconds
per minute.
You
don't have to go to the trouble of making your own curd – you can
buy it from most supermarkets these days. A word to the wise it
varies in price and taste. Waitrose produces its own brand and it
gets my vote on both counts.
Autumn
Stuff
Chillier mornings mean we
begin to turn our attention or rather tummies, towards comfort food.
Somehow it's more of an effort to produce hot food – what follows
is me “banging on again about getting yourself organised!” If
you're in the kitchen make the best use of the time – what I call
the “whilst I'm at it, I might as well” principle.
If
you have turned on the oven, fill it.
Here's
what I do. Bake half a dozen jacket potatoes – they don't take up
too much space if, for example, you're cooking a roast. Prick them
and wrap in foil – bake for an hour – check – depending on the
size they make take a little longer. Set them aside to cool and then
bag and fridge.
Wrap
500g of fresh fish of your choice in foil, bake for 15 minutes. Your
oven should be set at 180fan/200c/Gas 6. Set aside, cool and fridge,
ready to turn into a fish pie.
If
you are cooking a roast, get into the habit of prepping extra veggies
– you won't be sorry. Bag your extra roast potatoes and parsnips,
carrots et al when cooled and fridge, ready for a savoury crumble.
Slow
cook a whole chicken – it takes 10 minutes at the most to place the
chicken in the cooker and then spread with garlic and a stock pot
(mixed to a paste) then sprinkle with oregano.
Grate
mature cheddar cheese - bag, box and fridge. Grate Parmesan too –
bag, box and fridge.
Make
a sauce that will go with so many things it can't possibly fail –
this really is the quickest and most amenable sauce you'll ever make.
It only has one downside and that is that you cannot microwave it –
it will split. Don't say you haven't been warned! In my view it's a
price worth paying.
Alfredo
Sauce
2 tbsp unsalted butter (50g)
400ml double cream
100g freshly grated Parmesan
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.
The sauce can be made ahead and fridged or you can freeze it
too.
A
note or six
Half the recipe given serves 2 with 225g of uncooked pasta.
Traditionally there are no additions to Alfredo although
sometimes
it may be served with peas.
Add to mushrooms to serve on toast
Use as a sauce over chicken or fish
Pour over roasted veggies – especially leftovers
Serve drizzled over asparagus
If you decide to freeze the sauce use small containers
(check out the baby aisle in the supermarket)
you won't waste it – you can always take out another
I mentioned getting into the habit of cooking extra veggies –
cut them into similar size chunks, pour over the Alfredo sauce and
complete with “3p topping”.
3p
savoury crumble topping
Serves 4/6
mix
together 100g Panko crumbs, 50g Parmesan
and
a generous sprinkle of Parsley
Preheat
your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.
Perfect for a vegetarian meal but could be served with meat or
poultry if the mood takes.
I can only tell you that by spending a little time planning your
shopping list to produce quick, easy and tasty food not only saves
you time it saves you money too – you're less likely to throw
random stuff into your shopping trolley real or virtual - that you'll
never use.
The
plan is that you've the beginning of suppers for the following week
that will take minutes to pull together so that when you arrive home
feeling like you've done 10 rounds with a champion boxer - the last
thing you want to do is have to think about food.
Food
should be a pleasure – it should make you happy!
The
trouble is we live our lives at warp speed – constantly chasing our
tails, juggling balls, whatever the description they mean the same.
There are not enough hours in a day and it's so easy to resort to the
ding of the microwave and a processed meal or rely on takeaways.
Please
don't think that I'm being a pain in the posterior – everyone
indulges in one or the other or indeed both, from time to time.
In the spirit of “fast” or “takeaway” food - how about
Friday night is pizza night – your own – sort of. These days you
can buy good quality frozen pizza bases - all you have to remember is
to take the base out of the freezer.
Try this on for size :
Pizza bianca
Use
leftover cold Alfredo sauce, spread on a pizza base, add mushrooms,
black olives and Italian meats of your choice – or diced chicken
Sprinkle
with freshly grated Parmesan and ditto of oregano and bake
in a
preheated oven at 180fan/200c/Gas 6 for 20 minutes until hot and
bubbling
This
pizza takes no longer to assemble than the telephone call to the
takeaway and infinitely cheaper and, take my word for it, tastes
great.
Enjoy!