Basque Country (and Silwood)

When I started writing this blog post my social media students had just completed their blogging assignment which prompted me to look at my own blog. At the time (April) I had literally not blogged in over 3 months- shocking, atrocious and not a very good example to set. It's just been extremely busy with studying patisserie at Silwood. The course is part time (2 mornings a week) but as most of you who have worked  or studied part-time know,  you end up putting way more hours in. Class starts at 7:30am and ends around 1pm. Just like working in a kitchen we don't really have a break, so its a full on 6 hour day! The prep work before each prac is very time consuming and consists of studying for a weekly test,  shopping and sourcing ingredients, weighing them up and then packing everything. Not to mention the costings and production schedules which we need to put together so that we know what order we need to make everything in. In our Fridays Pracs we can make up to 5  things at a time so we need to plan our processes pretty carefully. Who thought Pastry could be so stressful? This may be a bit naive but I always pictured myself  in a Julia Child type scenario, wearing my red lipstick and pretty apron, singing along to the radio whilst whipping up whimsical treats to melt the hearts of those I love so dearly.  (Okay, so I kind of knew this would not be the case but I really wanted to believe it). The kitchen environment is generally a high stress environment- not sure why it has to be this way but I've come to accept that it's just the way that it is! 

We're half way through term 2 and exams are looming ahead, and I've learnt to make all kinds of pastries, cakes, puddings, breads and confectionary. One of the easiest and most simple desserts we've made is Mousse Au Chocolat Basque (Basque Chocolate Mousse) which I thought I would share with you. Its easy, simple, rich and super delicious.  This dessert is probably one of my best presentations out of all of my pracs, mostly because it was so early on in the year and I reckon I nailed it with my modern interpretation of this traditional dessert.

 Mousse Au Chocolat Basque  (Silwood recipe)

(Makes 4-6 small pots)

Nailed it!

160 g dark chocolate (below 50% cocoa)
5ml instant coffee dissolved in 1tsp boiling water
10 g butter
10 ml liquid
Pinch of salt
2 eggs separated 
Chantilly cream (to garnish)

Method 
Melt 160g chocolate chips with 5ml coffee (dissolved in 5ml hot water), 10ml sherry and pinch of salt over warm Baine marie. Remove from heat and beat in the 2 egg yolks one at a time. Allow to cool and thicken.Whisk the egg whites until soft peak stage and stir in 1/3 into chocolate. Then fold in the remainder. Pour into mousse jars/dishes.

To Garnish Make chantilly cream by whipping 250ml whipping cream to soft peak stage and fold in a few drops of vanilla essence and sifted icing sugar to taste.   Fill piping bag and pipe or spoon on top. Top with chocolate chards or grated chocolate and serve immediately. Double the recipe to make 8 -10 pots. 

Food and fun times from Oviedo to Barcelona. July 2014

 In August last year I was luckily enough to visit Basque country (a unique part of Northern Spain and France). It was a very good friend Natalie's  wedding in Oviedo, her moms home town.  A handful of us (Lisa, Ali, Steve, Sam and myself) decided to make a road trip of it.  Soon after the wedding we made our way to San Sebastian in Basque Country via The Guggenheim  in Bilboa and 2 nights in the rural mountains of Cantabria where we stayed in a quaint B&B called Casona de Quintana .

We eventually made it to San Sebastian with both Steve and our car intact. Here we literally ate ourselves into a a coma. San Sebastian is the food capital of modern and molecular cooking. Whilst known for their molecular cooking their traditional  Pinxtos ( Norths version of tapas) it is an important aspect of daily life in basque country. In fact Parte Vieja (The Old Town) has more bars per square metre than anywhere else in the world. There are so many different types of Pinxtos bars- day and nights spots, coffee bars, noisy bars, foodie bars that have put San Sebastian on the map and more traditional Pinxtos bars laden with Pinxtos and people spilling out on the streets.  As a tourist you generally visit a couple of bars a night for dinner. Nights in San Sebastián start late and go until the wee hours making it very different and exciting social eating experience. Do yourself a favour if you are planing to go to Spain- visit the North for the experience of the food. This is something you have to experience for yourself if you are ever afforded the opportunity. 

After San Sebastian we treated ourselves to one night at Casa de San Martin in the Pyrenees  via Pamplona and then made our way to Barcelona for 3 nights. Naturally I fell in Love with Barcelona- a vibrant city filled with art, historic sights,  awesome people and again fantastic food. Below are a few memories shared with awesome friends on the trip! If you have any questions about Spain and where to go or stay , please  just leave a comment :-) Spain is my most favourite European holiday destination, if not in the world.

  Happy holiday dreaming and happy eating!

The crazies we travelled and ate with...

Some curry with that naan?

Yup it't that time of year for curries and stews. I don't know about you but it's been quite an adjustment getting into the winter swing of things. One of my favourite winter dinners is a good old hearty indian curry.  

My friend Nina came around for dinner the other night and we decided to concoct our own curry with left over vegetables in our fridge. We had enough fresh ginger, garam Masala, cinnamon, cumin, and crushed coriander seeds to make it work! We also added a bit of paprika, regular curry powder and some dried crushed chilli's for an extra kick. The base of the curry was tomatoes and some yoghurt at the end.  We added a squeeze of lemon juice, some sugar and salt to get the "tomatoey" balance right.

Whilst the curry was tasty, the naan bread was the highlight of our dinner. I found an easy stove top recipe online and just changed it a bit here and there.  It is so easy to make and FLOP proof. The breads are soft and puffy but solid enough to scoop up the curry. You will knock the socks off your dinner guests by making  this, and the best part is it's so easy! I've made it 3 times over the past 3 weeks. 

NAAN BREAD RECIPE:

Makes 6 small Naan breads  (10 cm ovals)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of flour ( or use a mix of tapioca and almond flour for a carb-free version)
• 20 ml sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2.5 ml  baking soda
• 70ml yogurt a little water if dough too dry
• chopped garlic (optional) or crushed coriander seeds for a variation

Method:

In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients together.  Add the Yoghurt and Knead in the bowl until smooth. Cover for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough int 6 balls and roll into oval shapes 40 millimetres thick using flour on the surface and rolling pin to prevent sticking. 

Heat up a cast iron pan with a tiny dash of oil  or butter ( even tastier) and fry for 25 seconds either side or until the dough puffs up and browns ever so slightly. 

Once cooked I brushed some garlic butter on mine to give it a bit more flavour. Only Including the garlic in the dough is also very tasty  or you can even do both, or leave the garlic out all together depending on what you prefer. 

Serve with any Indian curry or stew : -)

TIP: You could also take this exact recipe and make pita breads

If you get a chance to make this recipe, please let me know how it goes!

Poaching an egg the fancy way (and a recipe)

After running the Two Oceans Half Marathon on Saturday I made a new carb-free concoction of eggs bacon and spinach.  It's not like I'm on the Noakes' LCHF diet or anything but I had no bread in the house. Damn this was tastier than most breakfasts I've had in a while. Maybe it's time to turn to the other side?

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Ingredients:

• Eggs
• Bacon ( shoulder bacon rounds are preferable)
• Spinach
• Greek yoghurt
• Red chilli- medium to hot
•  2 cloves Garlic 

Method:

1. Firstly make the chilli oil: chop up some chilli removing the seeds. Place in a small ramekin and add olive oil to cover the chilli. Add salt and pepper and a bit of crushed garlic and let it marinate while you whip up the rest of the breakfast. 

2. Fry the bacon rounds until brown and crispy. Shoulder bacon has less fat than other cuts so it wont go crisp-cripsy if you know what I mean...

3. Wipe out the pan with roller-towel and add a dash of butter or olive oil. Fill the pan with fresh baby spinach and toss lightly with a clove of garlic on top to infuse a little bit of the flavour. It shouldn't take more than 2 minutes- you don't want it to be too soft.

4. Fancy Poached Eggs: To Poach the eggs bring a  medium sides pot of water to a rapid boil. Make sure that there is enough water to cover the egg. Add a dash of white spirit vinegar. (If you don't have its not a biggy- not sure how much of a difference it makes but hey mine have worked every time doing this.) 

5. Crack en egg into a small pyrex jug. Slowly pour the egg into a serving spoon resting on the inside edge of the pot which helps shape it and keep it all together. It may look  a bit messy but give it 15 seconds or so to settle. If the white isn't sticking together carefully push the white toward the yolk. Cook for 3 minutes for a soft egg and a bit longer for a medium egg.  Repeat the above for each poached egg. I'm usually able to do 3 in a pot at a time.  It's really not that difficult and it looks so professional. I find it harder to fry and egg to be honest- I break it every time....

6. Now that the main ingredients are ready you can start stacking!  Start with bacon rounds, add spinach and then the poached egg on top of this. Layer a tablespoon of Greek yoghurt on top and add a half a teaspoon of the chilli/garlic oil. 

7. Top with salt and pepper to your taste. 

Devour.

Healthy Banana Flapjacks

A while ago an email went around going on about an easy 'Carb-Free' Banana Flapjack Recipe, ever since I have been making these as a healthy alternative to the real thing. The truth is that Banana's are filled with sugar- hence their lovely sweet taste, so the name isn't entirely accurate and certainly not suited to  Noake's LCHF diet.  However the recipe is gluten, wheat and dairy free which is a pretty good start!

Banana's are low in salt and loaded with potassium which is particularly good for sportsmen to prevent muscle cramping. Potassium also aids metabolism and lowers blood pressure. These yellow jacketed guys are also packed with fibre. Green unripened banana's are even better as they contain less sugar and a natural pro-biotic bacteria which helps with good colon health. How awesome? 

Enough about the health benefits and on to the yumminess of it all!  So, here is the recipe. I can't really call two ingredients a recipe but I will also suggest some healthy and not so healthy toppings ;-)

Healthy Banana Flapjacks:

1. All you need is one medium sized banana and one egg to make approximately 3 flapjacks. You can add a tablespoon of oats or psyllium  husks if you would like more bulk but I tend to leave it as is.

2. Mix the two together to form a batter. You can whisk it in manually using small slices of banana and then mashing it up with a potato masher OR use a handheld blender of some sorts to get it even smoother. 

3. Once the batter is light and fluffy you can heat up a pan with coconut oil (or any other kind). It's totally fine if there are banana lumps in the batter.

4. Spoon in two tablespoons of the batter to make a 6cm flapjack. These guys can be a bit tricky to turn, but flip it over carefully and you shouldn't have too much trouble. I usually don't put more than 3 in at a time.

5. Top with a topping of your choice.

Healthy version: 

Berries, strawberries with low fat or double cream greek yoghurt, drizzled honey, home-roasted cashews or almonds with a dash of cinnamon. 

My Healthy Banana Flapjacks: with berries, greek yoghurt, honey, home-roasted cashews and cinnamon. Yummmm

The not so healthy version:

Roasted figs, Marscapone cheese, and bacon drizzled with syrup or honey. (There 's just something about bacon and banana together....)

Or do both for a big group...

A weekend away with friend. Hemel and Aarde `Valley. Stylist: Sam Paddock :-)

Salted Caramel Macaroons

One of my favourite food author / chefs at the moment is Yotam Ottolenghi. I was introduced to him by a very good friend of mine Ali, who loves to cook and bake as I do. She introduced me to 3 of his well known cook books and since then I've managed to acquire 2 of them-  Jerusalem and Ottolenghi -The Cookbook. The only one Im missing is Plenty which is well known amongst vegetarians. Its on my list to buy before the end of the month! If you are planning to buy any of his books I would buy Ottolenghi or Plenty first!

My goal this year was to teach myself how to bake exciting and different sweets and cakes. I have tried to bake something new every second week in my quest to master the ins and outs pastry and cakes. When I came across Ottolenghi's Macaroons recipe in Ottolenghi the cookbook I had to give it a try. Yup, I threw myself in the deep end, considering I tried to make an orange Chiffon cake the week before  which flopped horribly!

Macaroons are delicate almond delights with a melt in the mouth meringue like texture. In France macaroon shops are on every street corner and that's all they sell. Its incredible but not surprising when you consider the level of awesomeness that you get when you take your first bite of the crunchy shell and reach the melt in the mouth centre! 

The recipe was a success as you can see in my very proud photo's. I followed it step by step leaving no room for error. These 'little guys' are not easy to make, but follow a sound recipe carefully and voila you have it! Package them beautifully and it makes the perfect thoughtful gift. 

The recipe is on Page 247 of Ottolenghi -The Cookbook and he gives 3 variations: Salty peanut  and caramel , lime and basil or chocolate variations. I went for the 1st option because I had all the ingredients. The Lime and basil is on my to do list though! Here is the recipe... It makes about 20 ( I wish it made more so next time I'll double up). 

Salty peanut and Caramel Macaroons:

• 110g icing sugar
• 60g ground almonds
• 2 free range egg whites ( approx. 60g)
• 40g castor sugar
• 20g natural roasted peanuts roughly chopped

Caramel Filling:

• 20 g natural roasted peanuts finely chopped
• 100g dulce de leche ( otherwise you can use Nestle caramel treat by stirring it to a smooth consistency)
• a pinch of salt to your taste. I added a tiny bit more salt to offset the sweetness of the caramel and the macaroon itself. 

Method:

1. Heat oven to 170 degrees celsius.

2. Sift icing sugar and almond flour through a regular fine sieve.  You can grind your own almonds to make almond flour using a magi-mix or food processor. Make sure it is a very fine consistency if you do this. I ground almonds with the skin and it still turned out like a treat. 

3. Mix egg whites and caster sugar to form a a think aerated meringue that is firm but not too dry ( which means it must still have a slight sheen to it)

4. Take a third of the meringue mixture and add it to the sifted  almond and sugar and fold it in carefully. Do this again and then again, until the mixture is finished.  The mixture must appear smooth and glossy. You can fold by using a metal spoon which you turn slowly in a figure of 8 as to not lose the air created. It's this air that forms the basis of the light meringue like texture.  

5. Using baking parchment you can dot the mixture onto a baking tray to keep it in place. (genius;-) Draw circles on the paper which are about 2.5 - 3 cm in diameter with a bit of space in between.  

6. Spoon or pipe the mixture onto each of the circles. This is probably the trickiest part of the recipe, so use a steady hand and give it your best shot. I had some which looked extremely peculiar and others which worked out perfectly. Over time you will master it. (I will let you know how that goes by the way.) 

7. Hold the tray firmly and tap the underside vigorously to get the mixture to smooth out. Leave the macaroons out and uncovered for about 15 mins before baking. 

8. bake for 12 minutes. They might take longer depending on the oven you use. You know they are ready when you can easily lift them off the paper using a palette knife. its important to take them out at this point so they don't over bake! Let the macaroons cool down completely.

9. Mix your filling together and spoon or squeeze  a pea-sized amount on the flat side of the biscuit.  Carefully sandwich them and squeeze together!  

10. Leave at room temperature to set and VOILA!

Do you have any awesome macaroon recipes to share?