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Crumbly treat for Easter

29/3/2018

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Easter Biscuits
Makes 20-25

Ingredients
110g (4oz) caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
110g (4oz) butter, softened at room temperature
1 egg, separated
good hefty pinch of ground mixed spice
​225g (8oz) plain flour, sieved
50g (1.5oz) currants or seedless raisins
15g (.5oz) candied orange and lemon peel
2 tablespoons of milk
​
Method
Heat oven to 160C (325F, gas 3). Line baking trays with greaseproof paper.
Cream the butter and sugar together, with a wooden spoon or electric mixer, in a medium to large sized bowl until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolk until well combined.
Fold the flour and spice into the mixture and stir in the fruit and peel.
Add a small amount of milk and bring the mixture together with your hands, adding extra milk if necessary until you have a stiff dough.
Roll the dough onto a lightly floured surface and cut out the biscuits with fluted cutter (6.5cm 2.¾in) to about 3 or 4mm. Place them onto the baking sheets and bake for 10 minutes.
Remove the biscuits from the oven and brush them with the reserved egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Return to the oven for around 10 minutes or until a pale, golden brown colour.
Put the biscuits on a wire rack to cool.





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Welsh cakes for St David

2/3/2018

1 Comment

 
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Ingredients
​125g cold unsalted butter, diced
205g self-raising flour
75g caster sugar (plus more for sprinkling)
quarter tsp ground allspice
100g sultanas
1 large egg, beaten
7.5cm crinkled round cutter
smooth griddle or frying pan

​Method
Rub the butter into the flour as if for pastry, then stir in sugar, spice and dried fruit. Add egg to make a soft but not sticky dough. If sticky add a tbsp of flour until it is of the correct consistency. Make into a disc, cover with clingfilm and leave in fridge for 20 mins.

Roll out on a floured surface to a thickness of about 0.75cm and cut out cakes.
Preheat an unoiled pan and cook cakes for about 3 mins each side until golden brown.

Remove to a cold plate and sprinkle with caster sugar
Makes about 20

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Cornish pasties

16/12/2017

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Cornish Pasties
Makes 10-12, 14cm (5in) pasties.

Ingredients
460g of pâte brisée (see below main recipe)
450g lean braising beef (skirt is really good, but will take longer to cook)
3 tablespoons groundnut oil
300ml ready-made beef stock (I use a Knorr stockpot mixed with hot water)
1 thinly sliced medium onion, about 150g
1 potato cut into 5mm (1/4in) dice, about 150g
swede cut into 5mm (1/4in) dice 150g
salt and freshly ground pepper
egg wash (1 yolk, mixed with 1 tablespoon of milk
​

Method
Cut the beef into 1.5cm (3/4in), heat the oil in a pan and sear the beef all over.  Pour off the fat, then add the stock and cook gently for about an hour or until the meat is very tender. If the stock reduces too much, add hot water, but sparingly. Season the beef as it’s cooking, tasting as you go. The meat should be coated with a gravy when it’s finished.  When tender enough put the meat aside in a bowl and leave to cool.
Cook the onion, potato and swede in separate pans in small amounts of salted water until just tender. Remove from the heat and leave to cool in the water, then drain and mix the vegetables in a bowl, season with salt and pepper, cover with cling film and along with the bowl of meat, chill for several hours.  You can make the mix the day before you use it.
To assemble the pasties. Break off or cut a piece the size of a large egg from your chilled pâte brisée and, on a floured surface, roll turning a quarter turn each time until it is a disc, 2-3mm in thickness and cut a 14cm disc either with a cutter or a suitable sized saucer or dish. I roll them individually not to overwork the pastry. When I make these pasties I usually make some for vegetarian friends, so I keep the beef and veg mix separate and only mix the vegetables and beef together once the vegetarian ones have been assembled.
So, brush a small amount of the egg wash around the edge of the pastry disc and put your mixture into the centre, approximately two level dessert spoons. (Don’t be tempted to put in too much, because you don’t want it spilling out of the pastry once it is folded). 
T
hen carefully bring one half of the disc over the top of the mixture and bring it together with the other half, pinching hard with your fingertips all around the edge then make small folds all around the semi-circle, to completely seal the pastry.
Place on a baking sheet and brush with the remaining egg wash. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.
Heat the oven to 180C (gas mark 4) and bake the pasties for 25 minutes until a deep golden colour.
They can be eaten hot from the oven or cooled and chilled and eaten the following day.
 
Pâte Brisée (From the book Pastry buy Michel Roux)
Makes 460g
260g plain flour
160g butter, cut into small pieces and slightly softened
1 teaspoon of fine salt
pinch of caster sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon of cold milk (if necessary)

Heap the flour on a clean work surface and make a well. Put in the butter, salt, sugar and egg.
Using your fingertips mic and cream the ingredients together.  Little by little draw in the flour, working the dough delicately until it has a grainy texture.  If the mixture is dry add some of the milk and incorporate gently.

Using the palm of your hand, work the dough by pushing it away from you four or five times until it becomes smooth.  Roll it into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate until ready to use.
Pâte brisée will keep perfectly in an airtight container in the fridge for a week or up to 3 months in the freezer.
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St Clement's cream cheesecake

6/11/2017

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I decided to make this dessert after discovering the sensational St Clement's cream in Simon Hopkinson's glorious book Week In, Week Out.
​It's a simple, set cheesecake using cream, cream cheese and sugar, but adapting Simon's fabulous recipe to make a really delightful dessert with the wow factor.
​This can also be adapted using different fruits. I made one using the juice of fresh blackberries for the jelly topping and a swirl of my own bramble jelly running through a vanilla cream cheese. Very nice, but the orange and lemon is always my favourite.

For the cream and base
300g of cream cheese (Philadelphia or Quark)
50g of caster sugar
Juice of 2 medium sized oranges and fine zest of half an orange
100ml double cream
200g biscuits (50/50 digestive and plain Hob Nobs)
100g butter.

For the jelly
200ml of freshly squeezed orange juice
Juice of half a lemon
Two sheets of gelatine (vegetarian if you can get it – then everyone's happy)

Method

Finely grate zest of half an orange and put aside.
Squeeze the juice of two oranges into a small saucepan or milk pan and gently heat until the juice is reduced to a medium thick syrup of about 40ml. It will take about 45 minutes or so. Then leave to cool off the heat.

While this is reducing, crumb biscuits with a rolling pin (in a freezer bag is good or by using a food processor, but don't allow the crumbs to get too fine)
Melt butter in a pan but do not allow to brown then mix with biscuit crumbs in a bowl until absorbed by all of the biscuit.
Put biscuit in an 8in sponge tin with removable bottom or better into a springform cake tin, with the bottom lined with cling film. Press mixture and level firmly with the back of a spoon. Put into fridge for at least 30 minutes.
 
Whisk cream and sugar until it just begins to thicken.
Whisk cheese/quark in a separate bowl then whisk together until creamy.
When cooled gradually add the orange syrup into the mixture, taking care not to make the mixture too sloppy. (If it goes sloppy just whisk more cream until thick and add).
Finally add the orange zest gently with a fork.
 
Before spooning onto the chilled biscuit base, take it from the tin and remove the cling film before returning it to the tin. Spoon the mixture evenly, making sure it goes right up to the edge of the tin. Level off neatly and return to fridge until set.

For the jelly
Put the orange and lemon juice into a small pan and heat gently (do not boil) and put the sheets of gelatin into a dish and cover with cold water while the juice is heating.
The juice needs to be heated just before boiling, just as tiny bubbles appear over the surface.
Remove from the heat and immediately pass through muslin (or clean fine kitchen cloth, like a J-Cloth) in a sieve and drain into a clean pan. Squeeze all the juice from the muslin with a spoon with care, making sure none of the contents mixes with the juice.
While the juice is still hot, lift the two softened gelatine leaves from the water, squeeze and add to the liquid and leave to cool to room temperature.
Once cooled, pour gently over the surface of your chilled cheesecake and return to fridge for around an hour. 
​

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The olive tree continues to bloom in tsilivi, zakynthos

28/10/2016

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Lakis and Diana - keeping it traditional

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To me good food is all about fresh ingredients cooked simply by someone who really cares.
Lakis Bouas is one of those people and he runs The Olive Tree taverna in the village resort of Tsilivi on the island of Zakynthos in Greece.
He has been running the taverna since the spring of 1984 from a time when tourism in the village was in its infancy. The resort is unrecognisable from those early days, but one thing which has been the most consistent is The Olive Tree taverna. 
Lakis, Diana and their staff have been providing terrific food to around 120 customers each night from May until October and, indeed, many of them have been returning as friends and customers since. 

As you may now realise, The Olive Tree Kitchen book has been published and is available at my email address above or at The Olive Tree itself. While you're waiting to buy a copy try out these recipes which appear in the book.
​For more about The Olive Tree taverna see Facebook and look for Olive Tree Taverna in Tsilivi, Zakynthos.​

If you would like to stay in the beautiful olive groves on the outskirts of Tsilivi in Kypseli go to www.olivetreevillas.com
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    Let's get cooking

    From those early days of peeling potatoes for Sunday lunch and stirring the gravy for mum while she finished the rest of the food, my love of cooking and, indeed, eating has continued to grow

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