Class Time - The Ice Cream

Remember the recent post for the Chocolate truffle no-churn ice cream taken from “delicious.” magazine March issue - here's another alternative. All you need to do is substitute the milk chocolate, chopped into small chunks with a 125g bag of Terry's chocolate orange minis - they are miniature segments of “whole chocolate orange” fame – cut the segments in half and fold into your ice cream mixture. They are widely available in all the major supermarkets.

Check out these cute pots – I wanted the ice cream to look good and I think these do the trick – you'd never believe they are paper baking cases and not ceramic but I thought they'd make perfect disposable ice cream pots. They are sold in different colours – fuscia, pale pink, pale blue and what you see below – aqua. 60mm – 24 pack - £2.95.

For those who live in the Northamptonshire, UK area and in particular Finedon, there's a hidden gem called SCS Packinging – Units 1 & 2 Orchard Road, Finedon, Wellingborough, NN9 5JG – 01933 681681 - email : sales@scspackaging.co.uk – www.scspackaging.co.uk.

They have a small shop open to the public – or should I say Aladdin's cave! If you want anything packaging related or cake making stuff, from boards of every shape and size to paste, decorations and a fab selection of great quality serviettes – this is the place for you!

P.s. Want to make the most of your ice cream treat? Did you know that you can unroll the rim of the pot, open it out like a flower – turn it inside out and lick it clean of ice cream.

How much fun would that be!

Class Time - The Sauce

Before you begin to make your sauce, time for the leftover veggies – try and make sure your parsnips and potatoes are of a similar size. Place in a foil tray and drizzle with rapeseed or similar oil and season with salt and black pepper. Pop into a pre-heated oven 200c/180fan/Gas 6 for 25 minutes to allow them to finish roasting and become crisp.

Calvados cream sauce

15g unsalted butter

15g plain flour

1 tsp garlic paste or 1 clove, crushed

glug of Calvados

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

200ml stock

300ml double cream

salt and black pepper

Melt the butter, take the pan off the heat, add the flour and whisk. Return to the heat and cook out the flour for 2/3 mins, stirring continuously – add the garlic paste and mustard and then, on a high heat, add the Calvados – cook on high for 1-2 mins. Add the cold stock straight into the sauce and whisk until smooth, then cook on a low heat for 10 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.

Add the cream and simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve in bowls with the veggies and then the pork and drizzle with your sauce.

This sauce re-heats very well so you could make ahead, cover and fridge.

Class Time - The Main

Halloumi and Pomegranate Salad

Slow cooked leg of pork

with Calvados cream sauce

Chocolate truffle and orange no churn ice cream

You've already seen the Halloumi and Pomegranate Salad in “My mezze … contribution that is” … I think I'll let the Ladies do the talking!

… the main

This dish would be ideal for mid week. If you subscribe to the multi-tasking method when you're spending time in your kitchen, prepare more veggies and par boil or roast them - whatever you fancy – for the sake of this exercise I par boiled parsnips and potatoes.

Slow cooked pork with

Calvados cream sauce

1.5kg ish joint of pork – boned and rolled

1 vegetable stock pot/cube

generous sprinkle of dried herbs – sage or

thyme

2 tsps of garlic paste

Place your pork in the slow cooker and, if you are using a stock pot, mix the garlic and stock together and spread over the joint. Sprinkle with herbs. Switch your slow cooker on low and leave it for 8 hours.

Here it is :

In readiness for the sauce, you'll need to reserve approximately 200ml of stock from the cooked pork - strain, cover and fridge until cold and ready for use.

It looks good enough to eat!

Book alert!

The previous three posts bring me to another suggestion for your already creaking book shelves.

There are some books that are destined to stay on your shelves gathering dust and there are others, as in this case, that become invaluable and form part of an ever growing reference library. If it's possible to become attached to inanimate objects, books do it for me!

If you've enjoyed the “sharing” theme and want to know more, why not try Claudia Roden's “Arabesque A taste of Morocco, Turkey & Lebanon”. This jewel was first published in 2005 so I suppose in today's terms of cookery book publication it's probably not on the best seller list.

This book is bursting at the seams with history and information from all three Countries mentioned along with recipes covering starters, mezze, mains and desserts.

If you liked the posts on tagines and mezze you'll love it.

I know that these days the fashion is to up-date or re-work a recipe and there may be certain circumstances where it's appropriate, but there are some books where the expression “if it ain't broke don't fix it” most definitely applies and this book is one of them.

Is your appetite suitably whetted? If so, there are more jewels from Claudia Roden – A New Book of Middle Eastern Food, Tamarind & Saffron, Mediterranean Cookery – the list goes on.

Inspirational!

My mezze …

contribution that is

As you've come to expect with me, what follows is my take on a Lebanese mezze dish which formed the appetiser for my class :

Halloumi and pomegranate salad

Serves 6 as an appetiser

50g walnuts, toasted and chopped

250g Halloumi – sliced

salt and black pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

cherry tomatoes, halved

Warm the oil in a frying pan. Season and fry the sliced halloumi for 1-2 minutes each side – set aside and keep warm, add the tomatoes and repeat. Serve in small bowls, sprinkle with walnuts and drizzle with dressing.

Pomegranate Dressing

2 tbsp pomegranate molasses

juice of two limes

2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

Generous pinch of nigella seeds

1-2 tsps sumac

Mix all the ingredients together. Drizzle over the halloumi and tomatoes.

Serve with warmed mini pitta breads or

rustic bread of your choice

By the way – if you have bottled lime juice in your pantry 2 tbsp of juice = 1 lime.

Mmmm – Mezze

… or meze or kemia

Lebanon, Turkey and Morocco respectively. The spirit of mezze is that of a sociable, sharing experience.

There's something really decadent about picking and choosing from small bowls or plates, using your fingers and delicious bread.

Everything changes when you're sat round a table, you are much more likely to try dishes you've not tasted before or even to re-visit a dish you've previously disliked. It's like the salad bar principle, because you can serve yourself and there's no pressure - if a dish looks colourful and therefore tempting you give it a go and who knows – you might like it!

I think the other crucial ingredient is good bread – not just for dipping but to use almost like a piece of cutlery picking up small pieces of food. Once again there are loads to choose from and if you don't want to go to the bother of making your own you can buy great varieties, pitta I suppose being the most widely available. If you are lucky enough to live in an area that has an artisan bakery you're sure to find a rustic bread that will fit the bill for your mezze. One to put on your list is “pide” - a Turkish bread that uses semolina and it is absolutely delicious.

There are so many mezze dishes to choose from – some you can make ahead so the flavours can infuse – a bonus when catering for the guests. There are the popular dishes that we're all familiar with, hummus made with chickpeas, tarama (which is known as taramasalata in Greece) made with smoked cod's roe and baba ganoush (ghanouj) made with aubergine.

If you think about it you can transfer the same principle of sharing plates, appetisers, call them what you will, all over the world – Tapas in Spain, Cicchetti in Italy to name but two.

Whatever Country takes your fancy the end result is the same – who doesn't like tearing and sharing bread and dipping in.

As usual, this is just the tip of the iceberg!

P.s. If you can't find pide then Italian focaccia is a good alternative.

Talking of Tagines

… which I know we weren't, but in a roundabout sorta way we were - the tagine is a cooking pot used for slow cooking meat and vegetables.

The North African tagine is smaller and shallower than the Middle Eastern which is larger and deeper.

This slow cooking method is similar to stewing except that we would generally stew meat and vegetables in liquid – i.e. water or stock. The tagine is so shaped – it has a distinctive tall, conical shaped lid, so that the water formed from the ingredients turns into vapour, running down the sides of the conical lid inside, to the edges of the base ingredients. The meat and/or vegetables brown which you would not get with the stewing method where the ingredients are submerged in water.

The tagine was generally made out of clay or earthenware and sat cooking gently over a fire with the heat dispersing evenly all around the tagine – the end result is a naturally reduced sauce.

These cooking vessels were used for centuries before such luxuries as ovens. Which begs the question – when you consider how small a tagine is – what happens when there's a party – good question – answer – cook the food in giant pots, made out of copper, aluminium or stainless steel and you can buy or rent – known as “qdra”.

With “street” and “souk” food the stews are cooked in saucepans as they are in the poorer areas and more remote countryside too - known as “marqa”.

The word nowadays, though completely incorrect, has come to mean the contents of the pot, i.e. a stew in its various forms, for example - “M'quali” are cooked in oil and containing saffron and ginger and the sauce is yellow. “M'hammer” are cooked in olive oil or butter and spiced with cumin and paprika and the sauce is red.

So, in restaurants the “tagines” or “stews” are made in the larger pots and then transferred to the smaller tagines to serve at table.

If you are a lover of the sweet and savoury combination of flavours then this is the cuisine for you since the “stew” is very often enhanced with either apricots, dates, prunes and/or honey – I could go on!