Wednesday, 8 January 2020

Radio Recipes – 13th January, 2020


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 13th January, 2020 at 10.10am

Bubble and Squeak (Squeak)

This is a “fly by the seat of your pants”/”live dangerously” recipe! Normally I wouldn't give a recipe, it depends on what you've got leftover, how many mouths you are feeding and how big are their appetites!

Squeak
Serves 2

250g (ish) cooked potatoes, sliced or cubed
125g cooked sprouts, finely sliced
1 medium onion, finely diced
Salt and black pepper
20g unsalted butter & glug of rapeseed oil
125g of diced chorizo
1 egg per person
Glug of malt vinegar
Water for poaching eggs

You'll need one large frying pan for the Squeak
- preferably one that can be transferred to the oven

One small frying pan for the chorizo

One small saucepan, with water and a glug of
malt vinegar

Melt the oil and butter in a large frying pan, add the diced onion and sauté on a medium heat for 2/3 minutes. Add the potato and mix together, sauté for a further 2/3 minutes fold in the sprouts and cook for a further 2/3 minutes. Transfer the Squeak to a pre-heated oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Heat the small frying pan then add the chorizo and fry on a medium heat.

Bring the water to the boil, add the vinegar and turn down to simmer, ready for the poached eggs.

As soon as the chorizo begins to crisp immerse the eggs bring to the boil and set your timer for three minutes – long enough to heat your serving bowls!

You can serve this dish as large or as small as you like – Jackson Pollock style or posh :






The old ones are the best!

Here are two more variations on the theme of Bubble and Squeak – they are all “much of a muchness” as we say – they are all delicious, made from leftovers or, as I prefer to say, “deliberates”.
Pea and Spring Onion Champ

1.5kg Potatoes, scrubbed
100g butter
500ml/18 fl oz milk (or if a richer consistency
75% milk to 25% double cream)
450g frozen peas
75g spring onions, chopped
4 tbsp chopped parsley
salt and black pepper

Cook the potatoes in salted water until tender, drain, peel and mash. You could use a ricer for absolute “lump free”. Add half the butter – 50g, after mashing or ricing. Place the milk/cream in a pan with the peas and onions and boil, gently, for 4/5 minutes. Add the parsley, take off the heat.

Add the potatoes, keep some of the milk back – you may not need it all. Season to taste and beat until creamy and smooth – add more milk if required.

Serve piping hot with a knob of butter melting in the centre.

P.s. If you wish you could add grated mature cheddar cheese.

Colcannon

Savoy cabbage, finely shredded – half a cabbage
approximately 350g in weight
30g butter
Bunch of spring onions finely chopped
1.5kg Maris piper potatoes,
Salt and black pepper

There are no exact weights here – you may have leftover mashed potatoes and cabbage – it really doesn't matter.

If you've not got leftovers, cook the potatoes in salted water until tender, drain, peel and mash. You could use a ricer for guaranteed lump free.

Put the cabbage in a pan with the butter and cook over a low heat for 2-3 minutes until tender, stirring frequently.

Add the spring onions and cook for another minute or two. Mix with the mashed potato and season well.

If you've cooked your potatoes ahead or are using leftovers, pop the completed dish into a pre-heated oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6 for 20 minutes. You could use oven-proof ramekins and serve straight to the table.

Dorset Apple Cake

225g cooking apples, peeled and chopped
slice an extra apple to decorate the top
juice of half a lemon – 1 tbsp
225g plain flour
1½ tsps baking powder
115g unsalted butter, diced
165g dark muscovado sugar – gives a dark
Chrismassy style cake or use light for a lighter
version – golden demerara too – reserve 50g of this
for the topping
1 egg beaten
2-3 tbsp of milk
½ tsp ground cinnamon
25g ground almonds

Preheat oven to 160fan/180c/Gas 4.

Grease and line a 8” round cake tin.

Toss the apple with the lemon juice and set aside. Sift the flour and baking powder together then rub in the butter until you get breadcrumbs then add the ground almonds.

Stir in 115g of the sugar, the apple and the egg, mix well, adding a drop of the milk at a time to make a soft doughy mix.

Transfer to your tin.

Finally, mix the reserved 50g of soft brown sugar, sliced apple and cinnamon and arrange on top of the cake mix.

Bake for 45-50 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

As is obvious this cake uses cooking apples – you'd never know – they are soft and taste like plump pieces of squidgy toffee apples.

More pluses - this cake is good warm or cold – serve with vanilla ice cream, clotted cream, custard or a combination of all three. It keeps well. I made it on a Friday and double wrapped in foil when cooled. By Tuesday it was as good as Friday – just that there were only two portions left!

I'm not a huge cake eater but I loved this. It's a perfect Winter comfort blanket with a cuppa on a chilly afternoon which is why it's now known as Comfort Cake!

If you want to see a photo or three, check out the Cake label on the blog 5/10/19.

Calvados Dessert Sauce

as a drizzle over the Dorset Apple Cake

50g caster sugar
20g unsalted butter
40g Cox apple, peeled, cored and
diced
80ml of pressed apple juice
½ tsp of arrowroot, diluted in a drop
of water
1 tsp Calvados

Heat the sugar in a small non stick frying pan (I used a pan measuring 23cms/9” approximately) until it's a dark golden caramel. Stir in the butter and the diced apple. Cook for 30 seconds – do not interfere with the pan – resist the urge to prod. Add the apple juice and bring to the boil. Add the slaked arrowroot, a drop at a time until it thickens. Remove from the heat and add the Calvados.

This is a perfect drizzle for the Dorset Apple Cake. If you want more than a drizzle then make double the recipe!

The drizzle will keep – I covered the pan when cooled and fridged it. When I wanted to serve the sauce I warmed it gently.

Enjoy!

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