Monday, November 30, 2009

Batter up!

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It's a long way to the shop if you wanna sausage roll.

It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll,
and it's a long way to the shop if you wanna sausage roll.

But they're so tasty...nom, nom, nom
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SAUSAGE ROLLS.

INGREDIENTS. - 1/2 a lb of sausages Or you can use sausage mince from the butcher if you prefer.
rough puff pastry

METHOD. - Boil the sausages for about 5 minutes, remove the skins, cut each sausage down and across into 4 pieces, and place them on squares of pastry.
Wet the edges, fold over, leaving the ends open, and bake in a moderate oven.

TIME. - To bake, about 1/2 an hour. SUFFICIENT for about 8 or 9 rolls. Or more if you are making party sausage rolls

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

"He has no more backbone than a chocolate eclair." - Teddy Roosevelt

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I scream, you scream, we all scream for rice ... pudding.

Rice pudding seems like comfort food to me.

Even though I couldn't tell you one instance where I had it as a child at a particularly trying time or anything.
But it seems like the thing to have.

I did however eat rice cream, which comes in a can, which is effectively what rice pudding is anyway.

30/07/2009

This is not the exact recipe in the book because the book has a baked rice pudding and we all know how well I manage baked custards.

It's also a pretty good way to use up any left over rice you may have. Waste not, want not...and all that jazz.

RICE PUDDING

INGREDIENTS. - Rice (cooked)
1 egg yolk
1/2 a pint of milk
sugar
vanilla essence

METHOD. - Warm the milk and rice together. Do not let the milk boil. Allow to cool a little.
Add beaten egg yolk gradually, stirring to avoid curdling.
Heat on low flame until thick.
Add sugar and vanilla essence to taste.

TIME. - 15 minutes. SUFFICIENT for 2 persons.

Obviously if you have more rice you can add more milk and egg yolks and make more rice pudding which is effectively just vanilla custard with rice in it... go figure.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

“....the art of cooking as practiced by Englishmen does not extend much beyond roast beef and plum pudding.” - Pehr Kalm 1748

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*Raspberries*

Seeing as everyone knows what roast beef looks like, I thought I'd skip straight through to Dessert... although technically it is called the Sweet Entremet as it is a large sweet.
It is also awesomely delicious and the entire thing got eaten save for about 1 spoonful left at the end.

I made 1 portion to begin with, but that was clearly not enough so I made double again (so in total 3 portions)... not only increasing the amount but also giving a pretty two toned effect (I totally meant to do it on purpose ;) )
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RASPBERRY CREAM.

INGREDIENTS. - 1/2 a pint of cream
1/2 a gill of milk
3/4 oz. of castor sugar
1/4 oz. of gelatine
the juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 as gill of raspberry syrup, or 2 dessertspoonfuls of raspberry jam
cochineal

METHOD. - When raspberry jam is used instead of syrup, pass it through a hair sieve, dilute with water to make the required quantity, and add a few drops of cochineal.
Dissolve the gelatine and sugar in the milk, add the lemon-juice, mix with the raspberry syrup, and stir in the stiffly whipped cream.

TIME. - About 1/2 an hour. SUFFICIENT for 1 small mould.

A few notes about this recipe. When adding the lemon-juice (an acid) to the milk/sugar/gelatine mix, wait until it has cooled a little and add it very gradually or else you get lemon milky curds when it curdles. Not so nice... however the lemon juice does add a lovely tang to the cream stopping the dish from being far too cloying and making it delectable. I actually used a Bundt cake pan for my mould and served with fresh raspberries and blueberries. If your cream is sticking too much to the mould, dip it very quickly in hot water... DO NOT LEAVE IT IN THERE FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME, or else you will melt the cream and get the run-off like you can see in the pictures... Learn from my mistakes.

THIS RECIPE IS DELICIOUS!!!!!!

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Monday, November 16, 2009

'Make a remark,' said the Red Queen; 'it's ridiculous to leave all the conversation to the pudding!'

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Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were -- Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.

The last part of the entrée was a surprise hit. I made it mainly to amuse myself, because after all, what's the point of cooking a fabulous meal if you can't have some fun with it?

But... a surprise hit and consumed by some people who had suggested that it was not something they ate.

It's not actually a Mrs Beeton recipe, but very close to, and similar to a potted meat, of which Mrs Beeton has many recipes. It is essentially a confit of rabbit, shredded and then pressed into a pot/mould.

RABBIT RILLET

INGREDIENTS. - 1 rabbit
duck fat
salt and pepper
sage

METHOD. - Cut the rabbit in to pieces and put in an oven dish. Season with salt and pepper.
Cover with duck fat. (And I really mean, cover, as in submerse)
Confit in an oven at 100oC for about 4 hours.
Drain over a bowl and shred the meat.
Mix with sage and more salt and pepper and then press into a mould or dish.
Cover with saved duck fat from the confit.
Warm before serving.

Warning: Will make your whole house smell like roasting rabbit for hours and can be used as some kind of mental torture for those you live with. Is pretty darn delicious.

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Friday, November 13, 2009

Tarty! *wink*

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It was... THE SALMON MOUSSE!!!

Just a little Monty Python for you readers out there...

Also for entrée was Salmon Mousse. This is not to be found in All About Cookery, so we will have to repair to the 70's (which perhaps is a better place for salmon mousse to reside) and Mrs Beeton's Simple Cookery in Colour for the recipe. Please note the tasty fish aspic that also surrounds my salmon mousse...

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SALMON MOUSSE

INGREDIENTS. - 1/2 lb of cooked salmon or 1 X 7 3/4 oz. can of salmon
1/2 oz. of powdered gelatine
1/2 a pint of fish stock
salt and pepper
1/4 of a cucumber, sliced
A few slices of tomato

METHOD. - Drain the oil from the canned salmon, and take out any skin and bones. Mash the fins in a basin.
Sprinkle the gelatine on the fish stock, to soften it. Season it. Then heat the stock gently, stirring it, until the gelatine melts; a spoonful will then be clear, without specks.
Rinse the inside of a china souffle dish or cake tin with cold water. Pour in a thin layer of the stock, and let it set.
Arrange cucumber slices on the set jelly in a pattern. Very gently, pour a little more stock over them. Let this set too.
Add a layer of salmon, press it down gently with a fork, cover with stock and leave to set once more. Repeat this process until you have used all the salmon and stock. (If the stock looks like setting, warm it a little)
Keep the mousse in a refrigerator or somewhere cool until you want to use it. Then turn it out. Run a sharp knife round the sides of the dish, to loosen the mousse.
Put a serving dish upside down on top of the dish. Turn the dish and plate over together, and jerk them to dislodge the mousse. (If it will not come out easily, hold a hot wet cloth over the dish for a moment.)
Decorate with cucumber and tomato.

3-4 helpings.

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Or use a fish mould which is way cooler... pretty yummy although a little too gelatinous for me... and definitely too much left over stock - hence the fish aspic...

Monday, November 9, 2009

I'm game if you are...

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Cannelons, not Cannelloni

26092009563 I've been writing this post for about 2 weeks and keep getting interrupted because I know you're all just dying to know about the rest of my dinner party.

Anyway, here are the entrées -

CHICKEN CANNELONS

INGREDIENTS. - Chicken croquette mixture
rough puff-paste
egg
breadcrumbs
fat
parsley

METHOD. - Roll out the paste as thinly as possible, and cut it into 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 inch squares.
Place a little of the chicken mixture in the centre of each square, and roll up rather tightly.
Coat them carefully with egg and breadcrumbs, fry in hot fat until lightly browned, then drain well, and serve garnished with sprigs of crisply-fried parsley.

TIME. - To fry, about 5 minutes. SUFFICIENT, allow 2 cannelons to each person.

CHICKEN CROQUETTES.

INGREDIENTS. - 6 to 8 oz. of cold chicken or fowl (boned)
2 oz. of cooked ham or tongue
1/4 of a pint of stock
1 oz. of butter
1 oz. of flour
1 tablespoonful of cream or milk
1 teaspoonful of lemon-juice
6 button mushrooms
1 truffle
salt and pepper
egg
breadcrumbs
fat (these last three ingredients are for if you actually want to make the croquettes)

METHOD. - Chop the chicken and ham or tongue finely, cut the mushrooms and truffle into small pieces. As I had several people who don't eat pork I just used more chicken. Also truffles are worth their weight in gold here so I used more mushrooms and covered them in truffle oil. Sue me.
Melt the butter, fry the flour without browning, add the stock, and cook well. Stir in the chicken, ham or tongue, cream or milk, lemon-juice, mushrooms and truffle, season with salt and pepper, and turn on a plate to cool.
Make into cork-shaped croquettes, coat carefully with egg and breadcrumbs, and fry until lightly browned in hot fat.

TIME. - About 1 hour. SUFFICIENT for about 6 persons.

This recipe is very delicious. I think it works better though if you make sausage roll sized cannelons, because it is less fiddle than the 1 inch ones... would be great for an afternoon tea.