A couple of Cherry Recipes

A huge thank you to everyone who joined in with our Kickstarter! We did it! We hit our target and raised all of the money, more infact! So I am very excited to get on with work at the new place and welcome you there as soon as we can! We have a planning application in and the builders will be starting soon, I will keep you up to date as it progresses.

Back to food! It's cherry season! I love cherries, being particularly partial to a black cherry ice-cream, or a maraschino cherry at the bottom of a strong cocktail in Nite Hawks, in a bakewell, or morello cherry jam on toast... There are big boxes of cherries for sale in the Grainger Market for £2 at the moment, it really would be rude not to... So I thought I'd share two simple recipes...

The cake is my take on a bakewell, all the flavours, but in a simple cake. The pickled cherries are a slight twist on a Diana Henry recipe, they go very well with a plate of cheese and are also good with things like chicken liver pate, terrines and cured meats. Enjoy cherry season while it lasts! 

Cherry and Almond Cake 

First a simple but delicious cake recipe! Heat the oven to 160˚C. Then melt 150g of butter in a pan, once melted set it aside to cool slightly. Combine 225g of self raising flour, 225g of caster sugar and a teaspoon of baking powder in a bowl. Then beat 2 eggs and 1/4 teaspoon of almond essence together in another small bowl.

Prepare the cherries, for this I used 2 handfuls cut in half and de-stoned. Line a regular cake tin with greaseproof paper, I cut mine into a circle and tuck it in rather than faffing on with different pieces, it also makes it easy to lift out at the end.

Finally combine the flour mix, butter and egg mix. Bring it together with a spatula, it is quite a thick batter like mix when it's done, mix it until it is smooth. Then add 3/4 of the mix to the cake tin and spread it out. You will think it seems like not very much but don't worry. Then lay the cherries over the mix in an even layer. Add the final 1/4 of the mix to the centre of the cake on top of the rhubarb. Quickly pop it in the oven and bake for 50 minutes. 

Pickled Cherries - For a 1 litre jar 

Leave the cherries stone in and stalk on, this avoids a lot of faffing about but also makes them easy to eat and pretty I think, you need about 500g. Then heat 350ml of white wine vinegar with 400g of caster sugar, 4 cloves, a cinnamon stick, a pinch of chilli flakes, 10 black peppercorns; stir so the sugar doesn't stick to the bottom. Bring to the boil and then add the cherries for 2 minutes.

Scoop them out into a 1 litre sterilised jar. Then continue to boil the liquid until it is a bit more syrupy, just for 5 minutes or so, then pour over the cherries. They should sit for a week or so before you eat them and will still be good after a year, getting more and more wrinkly and intense.

Apple and Cinnamon Cake

We have a ton of apples again this year at the allotment, part of one of our trees has collapsed due to the weight of apples and our trees sag across the path blocking people's way with apples. I am pretty sure everyone at the allotment thinks we are useless, we haven't been as much as I'd like this year, but I still love it.

Our allotment is 'wild' in style. I'm very tidy in the rest of my life, constantly picking things up, cleaning, reordering, stacking, straightening... I think you need to be like that to run an efficient kitchen... but it's nice to have a place in my life that is just a bit messy and free and still beautiful at the same time. I don't care if you can't get down some of the paths, or that you have to crawl under the apple trees to get in. It is overgrown with apple boughs, flowers, vines, blackberries, honeysuckle, creeping nasturtiums, huge fennel plants that have gone to seed, but I personally think that that is the beauty of it. It's not like it's a big patch of nettles; but I'll await my next warning email because I don't think the allotment committee agree...

I think I've been asked for this recipe more than any other recently, pretty much everyone who has ordered it at Cook House wants to know how to make it so I thought I'd better get on with writing it up.

Incidentally it is the cake that a woman once described on Facebook as 'so dry it was impossible to swallow'. She laid into me in front of lots of customers at Cook House when I had just opened, I'll never forget it. She said she would never be back, thankfully. I'd also like to add that she ate every last (dry) crumb of her cake. Thankfully everyone else seems to like it a lot. I suggest you try it and see for yourself...

Get your cake tin ready and lined and preheat the oven to 160˚C.

Peel one large cooking apple... I'm going to have to make a lot of cakes to get through all the allotment apples! and cut it into thick slices.

Melt 150g of butter in a pan on a gentle heat. Then add 225g of self raising flour to a bowl, followed by 225g of caster sugar, a teaspoon of baking powder and 3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. Give all the dry stuff a good mix and make sure there are no clumps. Beat 2 eggs in another bowl and add a dash of almond essence, about 1/4 teaspoon.

Then add the eggs and the melted butter to the dry mix and quickly bring it together using a spatula, it is almost like a batter when it is fully mixed.

Add 3/4 of the mix to a lined cake tin and spread it out. It might seem like there's not much of the mixture to you, but don't worry, that's how it is meant to be. Then add a layer of apples to the top of the mix, covering the whole lot. Then add the remaining 1/4 of the mix to the middle, on top of the apples. Then quickly pop it in the oven and bake for 50 minutes.

Sprinkle the top with a tiny bit of sugar when it comes out, it will smell amazing, all being well. The batter like mix means you almost get a buttery crust to the edges of the cake, with the middle staying warm and crumbly with soft layers of sweet apple. It is very good still warm from the oven with a dollop of cream, and will keep well for a couple of days in an airtight tin if you're feeling restrained and don't eat it all at once...

Grilled Peaches with Cheese - Sweet or Savory

I had some amazing peaches arrive at Cook House a few weeks ago, the perfect sweetness and the perfect ripeness, I have been putting them on the menu at home and at events as much as possible ever since. It's a good time for these late summer fruits; apricots, nectarines, grapes too... I've been cooking, grilling, pickling, poaching and more.

We held a big BBQ night at Cook House a few weeks ago and decided to do every course on the BBQ, including pudding and cheese accompaniments... When you have cooked all the meat and vegetables on your BBQ it often gets to the point that you think it's a shame that you still have such a nice fire and nothing else to cook. So I loaded the grill up with fruit! Grilled grapes are delicious with cheese I've found, just pop them on the BBQ at the end until they start to blacken and burst, let them cool a little and let people pick at them with some lovely local goats cheese.

Grilled peaches are my current favourite, and can be served in a number of ways, just with a dollop of cream or here I've included two recipes; a lovely lunch dish with feta on toast, and also served as a pudding with a delicious sweet whipped cheese.

Your peaches need to be ripe to start with, there is just no point in putting on a rock hard under ripe peach. This might mean buying them a good few days before you need them if they are not ripe in the shops.

Run a knife round to half them and twist to free from the stone, then lever the stone out with a knife. Brush the cut side with some oil and place cut side down on the grill. I grill them for about 5 minutes on this side, don't move them around, just leave them, if your fire is particularly hot they may need less time. Then using a fish slice scrape them free and flip over, and leave them to grill until hot and juicy, until they look like they are starting to collapse a bit. The fire brings out all the juices and delicious sweetness. Remove from the heat when you think they are done, they can be served hot or left to cool to room temperature.

They are great in a salad, with crumbled cheese, toasted nuts and rocket or with some cured meats. Here I have included a savory lunch dish and a sweet pudding both based on the same idea of fresh cheese with peaches and mint...

Grilled Peaches with Feta & Mint on Toast

Toast some sliced sour dough and drizzle with some good quality extra virgin olive oil, crumble over some feta cheese and top with the room temperature grilled peaches, some torn up mint leaves, a bit of black pepper and some more olive oil. The sweet peaches are delicious with the salty cheese and fresh mint.

Grilled Peaches with Whipped Fromage Blanc, Mint & Toasted Hazelnuts

Whip together 150g cream cheese, 100g double cream, 150g yoghurt and 75g sugar. Whip with an electric whisk until it starts to thicken, it takes a while, then add the juice of half a lemon and whip for a few more minutes. Serve this sweet cream with warm grilled peaches, a sprinkle of toasted hazelnuts and some torn mint leaves. The sweet cheese is a bit like a cheesecake topping and is so delicious with the juicy peaces and the crunchy toasted nuts.

Poached Peaches with Ginger, Lemon & Cardamom

Apricots, strawberries, peaches, cherries, raspberries are all abundant at the moment and we've been ordering them by the box load at Cook House. The window between not ripe and overripe can be small, sometimes overnight on a hot day... Remember those, we had a few before we hit monsoon season...

We're pickling cherries by the bucketload, using a Diana Henry recipe with vinegar, sugar, cloves, black pepper and juniper, they are totally delicious with cheese... I want to keep plenty for autumn however as I think they will be brilliant with some autumn game; duck, venison, pigeon... The syrup even has a use when the cherries have all been eaten, a splash of soda and you have yourself a brilliant cherryade! Add gin at your own discretion... 

I've been poaching the apricots and peaches, to serve with a cardamom panna cotta and also with yoghurt and granola for breakfast. I love the flavour of both and I think poaching them really brings it out, it's like that peak ripeness that you get for 5 minutes extended into something that keeps for a while. It also takes me back to those tins of fruit that my granny used to serve with ice-cream and a wafer. I always liked the peach, the bright red cherries were the best, and I staunchly avoided the gritty white bits which I guess were pear perhaps? 

I've been poaching them in a 1 part sugar 3 parts water syrup, it isn't overly sweet, I prefer it this way as I want to taste the fruit not a sugary sweet syrup, but if it is not sweet enough for you just increase the amount of sugar.

Take 400g sugar and add to a pan with 1.2litres of water and heat to dissolve. I've added a few different flavourings, I really like a bit of fresh ginger, if the peaches are quite ripe they need a bit of lemon and today I added 2 bashed pods of cardamom. Other ideas I might try are rosemary, juniper, thyme, pepper, star anise, fennel seeds...

I added 1 lemon, the juice squeezed in and the squeezed halves added in too, 6 or 7 slices of fresh ginger and 2 bashed pods of cardamom. Simmer this for 5 minutes, then add the peaches. I used 6 large peaches cut into quarters with the stones removed. Simmer the peaches gently for between 5 and 10 minutes, until soft. It will depend on how ripe they are to start, it's better to be a bit under cooked as they can fall apart when overcooked. The skins will fall away as they cook, just pull them off. Cool them in the syrup and keep them in the fridge.

They are delicious with yoghurt for breakfast, or with a bit of thick cream for pudding. I've been serving them on top of a cardamom panna cotta too which is bloody lovely!

Blackberry Jam Crumble Tart

You might have to be quick to catch the last of the blackberries this year, but there are still some around. I think they came early this year, but while it is still 18 degrees outside I kind of forgot it was meant to be autumn...

I've been climbing around in bushes in the Ouseburn to gather what I can. I've made a little stock of jam, which is delicious with some toast in Cook House of a morning, but I also discovered a blackberry jam tart with a crumble topping...

It came about by accident as I needed something sweet for the menu at Cook House but had run out of eggs, cakes without eggs wasn't filling me with ideas or inspiration. A simple jam tart seemed the answer, then came the thought of crumble... it's so good... Unfortunately it uses a whole jar of jam each time I make one, so I'll have to get back out and find some more blackberries...

For the jam I started with a small batch, so you can scale up if you have more. These amounts made one large jar of jam. Take 300g of blackberries and wash them thoroughly, I came across some of the biggest spiders I've ever seen picking these guys... Put them in a pan with 20ml of water, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and a piece of lemon rind and simmer very gently for 15 minutes until the fruit is really soft. Then add 300g of caster sugar, dissolve it slowly, then turn up the heat and boil for about 10 minutes, until it reaches 105°C. Turn off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes, then fill sterilised jars and label.

For the tart I made a small batch of shortcrust pastry, 125g of plain flour, 55g of cold butter cubed, blitzed in the food processor to a fine crumb, then drizzle in a tiny amount of very cold water until it comes together. It often turns out better if you make double this amount however, then you get two tarts for your money, or you can freeze or refridgerate the other half...

Roll the pastry out and line a shallow tart tin, then spread a thin layer of the jam over the base of the pastry. To make the crumble topping melt 60g of butter in a pan, then add 5 tablespoons of oats, 4 tablespoons of caster sugar, 5 tablespoons of self raising flour and 2 tablespoons of ground almonds. Mix with a fork until you get a crumbly mix then sprinkle over the top of the jam.

 

Finally bake the lovely tart at 200°C for 15-20 minutes. It is a delicious autumnal jam tart that has me constantly making more jam so I can eat it again at the moment...

Pear Frangipane at Rochelle Canteen

So I found myself in London a couple of months ago walking over the Thames to work. What began as a slightly farfetched idea for a spot of kitchen experience had become reality and here I was about to start a week’s work at Rochelle Canteen, a lovely little place just off Arnold Circus, E2. It’s a canteen, open for breakfast and lunch, based in the old bike shed of a former Victorian school, now home to Shoreditch creative types. They also cater for events large and small, with an often high end client list, and are owned and run by Margot Henderson, whose husband Fergus is responsible for St John group and her business partner Melanie Arnold. The pair have been part of the London culinary scene for 20 years and more, initially starting out above The French House in Soho, one of my favourite spots for a glass of wine...

I arrived to some confusion, but once everyone realised who everyone was, I was given uniform and set to work. Washing nettles being the first task, but a good one to begin with as I could settle down and survey my surroundings. A simple, open, bright white shed space that is half kitchen, half dining room, with a lean to open air kitchen prep area out the back. They have their own little garden of raised beds growing salad and herbs and with the sun shining, the breeze blowing through and plants growing around you it was a lovely place to work. I was pretty happy standing there washing the nettles and smiled to myself that I was actually doing this.

Standing in Rochelle Canteen kitchen surrounded by their team of chefs it was easy to feel that I knew very little at all. I was there to learn though, how they did everything, even simple tasks like making mayonnaise or dressings. Everyone has their own method and I wanted to see how other people work. How they organised themselves (very well), how long they kept things, when they ordered stuff, how they reused leftovers, recipes, ideas, presentation; I wanted to know everything. So I set to it... Cut, chop, prep, observe, clean, watch, learn...

Anna Tobias is the head chef at Rochelle Canteen, she runs a tight little ship there, confidently and efficiently sending out tasty, interesting dishes everyday as well as catering for events. While I was there, there was a day long feeding of some fashion folk - which had an afternoon tea, picnic feel, all prawn cocktail, quails eggs, sausage rolls, poached chicken and cucumber sandwiches - and an elegant birthday party for thirty.

My first day’s work over, we all sat down for staff lunch, which included leftover rabbit faggots, (so good) mash, salad, lemony roast chicken, followed by some leftover blood orange sorbet and golden syrup biscotti. Well you don’t get much better than that in my books. I was (nervously) having a wonderful time.

The following days brought scone making, mango chutney to go with ham or kedgeree, pickled prunes, a ham and parsley terrine, a delicious deep onion, thyme and Lancashire cheese quiche and sausage rolls. I learnt new things with all of my jobs; techniques, recipes and new ideas.

One day a delicious looking roast chicken with crème fraiche and tarragon stuffed under its skin, roast to golden wonderfulness, a rib of amazing pink beef with horseradish and beetroot salad the next. They have a friendly, interesting and enthusiastic team, who were always chatting away about how they did things, no steadfast rules and always keen to hear each other’s ideas. They had collectively worked in some pretty prestigious kitchens around London from The River Cafe to Quo Vadis and St John.

Each day I left and found an interesting spot to write about my day. My memory is definitely not the best so it was important to note it all down before it slipped away. We were usually done by about 4.30pm and it was lovely to sit in the sun with a glass of wine or a coffee. I frequented all the Shoreditch spots, Allpress Coffee one day, Albion Cafe another and the Ace Hotel the next. I was the only one without a macbook in the Ace Hotel, I wrote with a pen in a book and people looked at me; but on my way out of the super cool lobby looking over their shoulders I realised they were all just on Facebook anyway...

The kitchen turned out some delicious food over the week, a rich black cuttlefish stew, a lovely chicken salad with lovage, capers and soft leeks; witch sole with a tartar sauce that is better than any tartar sauce I’ve ever had... full of tarragon, capers, chopped eggs, rich homemade mayo; and this lovely pear frangipane tart which I’ve had a go at myself...

Make your own pastry to start, it is very simple and so much tastier... In a food processor blitz 175g of plain flour with 115g of cold butter cut into cubes until you get a fine breadcrumb, then add 50g of icing sugar, 2 egg yolks and a pinch of salt and blend until it comes together in a ball, it’ll only be a few seconds, be careful not to overwork it. Then form it into a ball, wrap in cling film and put it in the fridge to rest. This might be more pastry than you need for one tart, but it will keep for a week in the fridge and also freezes well.

Peel two pears, something firm like a conference pear, and add them to a pan with 100g of caster sugar and 750ml water and simmer for about 20 minutes until soft. Leave them to cool in the syrup. Keep this and use it in cocktails! Delicious...

For the tart itself heat your oven to 220°C. Roll out your pastry, and gently line your tart tin, pressing the pastry into the edges. Leave it to rest in the fridge for half an hour, then line with baking paper and blind bake for 20 minutes, remove the beans (I use dried chickpeas) and leave to cool.

Using a food processor cream 250g of softened butter with 250g of caster sugar until light and fluffy, then add 250g of ground almonds, I like to grind these myself so you can keep some a bit chunkier, keep a handful back if you’re doing this to add texture. Then add 5 eggs one at a time, incorporating each one before you add the next so you don’t curdle, then add 50g of plain flour and mix thoroughly, adding in the courser almonds at the end. Fill the pastry case with the frangipane mixture. Then core the pears and cut into quarters, arranging them evenly over the mixture, so every slice gets a bit... Bake for 40 minutes at 180°C until golden and firm to touch.

I have tried a few different versions of this, some are very cake like and light, others use more of a dense almond paste, this recipe was the most consistent for me, but I’m still experimenting. It is delicious and almondy with sweet pears and buttery pastry, serve with crème fraiche...

Rhubarb and Ginger Compot

Our rhubarb at the allotment has survived and begun to re-emerge, I think it is the only thing growing on our plot aside from weeds at the moment, but I'm full of good intentions again this year and will try hard to have a tidy and productive allotment all season long. This is my second lot of rhubarb, I killed the first by stepping on it... I have never managed to do that well with my gardening, time being the main issue, but I seem to improve ever so slightly year on year; when I don't trample on my plants... I wish I had more time to spend there as I really love it. I'm a big fan of rhubarb, unfortunately ours is a little way off from being able to eat, but the shops are full of it at the moment.

I've been making this tasty little Rhubarb and Ginger compot for a long time now, it has even appeared in The Sunday Times. Fancy that... It was part of an article about Britain's best food bloggers, I was asked to send them a picnic recipe, and even though I have never taken this on a picnic and I'm not sure how you even would transport it, I chose this... I think nerves had something to do with it...

You can just eat this on it's own as a little pudding, it is lovely with clotted cream and meringues and I made it into a crumble at the weekend which was delicious. I added a few apples too and topped it with a thick crumble full of oats, butter and ground almonds. I think the ginger is the star of the show here, it just makes the whole thing so delicious!

These amounts will make 5 or 6 little puddings or a small crumble base. To start chop 400g of rhubarb into inch long chunks, finely dice two balls of stem ginger, then add the rhubarb, ginger, 2 tablespoons of the ginger syrup and 30g sugar to a baking tray. The amount of sugar will depend on the natural sweetness of the rhubarb, so start with 30g and keep checking it as it cooks, you might add up to 70g depending. Cover with tin foil and bake in the oven at 170°C until the rhubarb is soft and stewed, about 20 minutes. Serve it cold with cream, meringues or use as a crumble base. It is sweet and tart with lovely spicy candied ginger.

Margot Henderson's Turkish Coffee Cake for a 3rd Birthday

I only noticed at the last minute that my blog is three years old today, but fittingly I had a cake ready to tell you about, and what is a birthday without cake... It doesnt even seem that long ago that I first sat down and chatted about squid but here we are 179 posts later... And we have cake, and Margot Henderson cake at that...

Margot Henderson has become a bit of a role model slash hero of mine over the past year or so. I don’t quite know how it began really; I have always been a huge St. John fan, restaurants, books, recipes... and I had read snippets about Margot, Fergus Henderson's wife. Then I went to a wedding last summer where she did the food, and it was perfect. JUST what I wanted, exactly how wedding food should be, terrines and salads to start, and then chicken pies to share, the pastry was just heaven, golden and suety, I can still remember it quite clearly, even through the haze of endless negroni’s. Really simple but incredibly well done. It brought everyone together in a lovely way that only pie sharing can do, the whole table got on like a house on fire. Hands down the best wedding food ever, there was fois gras in the terrine, how could it not be the best wedding food ever.

And then I read more about Margot and realised that she pretty much does everything I aspire to do... She puts together beautiful looking suppers, caters and has a little place called Rochelle Canteen where you can go for breakfast or lunch during the week, a base for all her catering. And it is all un-fussy, simple, delicious, very well thought out food that I want to eat every day, and hope to emulate in some way as time goes on. I’m going there for lunch on Friday and I couldn’t be more delighted. Her book is my most recent favourite; I am gradually getting through her stories and recipes; lovely beetroot soup with porcini, calming celeriac soup, bloody amazing sticky ginger cake and this Turkish Coffee Cake, which is just a revelation.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and mix 100g of wholemeal flour, 100g of plain flour, 250g of soft brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander and 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg in a large bowl. Then add 175g of butter cut into little cubes and rub it through the mix until you have a large breadcrumb mix; this always gives me really sore crampy hands, which doesn’t bare well for the future, I may be arthritic and unable to bake one day I fear... Then take half of this mix and press it into the base of your cake tin. This gives a lovely crunchy base to the cake.

Then add to the remaining mixture 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda, 250ml of sour cream, 2 beaten eggs, 60g of chopped walnuts and 4 tablespoons of espresso coffee and beat it all together. Pour this into the tin over the base mixture, and bake for 30 minutes. It is ready when it feels firm and springy to the touch, I perhaps slightly under baked mine, my oven is being a bit temperamental at the moment. I’ll just have to suffer the hardship of making it again; and eating it again... it’s tough. It is so tasty, very moist from the sour cream, caramelly and full of cinnamon, with a lovely crunchy base, very unusual...

Candied Orange Peel

I’m testing puddings at the moment for my upcoming festive supperclubs at Lindisfarne Castle in a couple of weeks time. It is a continuation of my collaboration with the National Trust that began earlier this year and has taken me in all kinds of exciting directions. In truth I’m not really a pudding person, but I can’t say that I’m hating a day full of sweet treats! I’m planning to serve a smorgasbord of different puddings at the supperclubs, all delicious and Christmassy.

So yesterday was pretty much full of puddings from beginning to end, luckily I had some lovely friends from London to visit so we forced them to eat everything I hadn’t already ‘tested’; perfect timing. There will be little pots of Christmas Cream or Christmas Syllabub, I can’t decide what to call it; but it’s full of whipped cinnamon cream, sherry sultanas, candied ginger and citrus zest. As well as lush candied spiced nuts, rich chocolate truffles, walnut shortbreads and these pretty little sticks of candied orange peel. They are so beautiful, and smell amazing, another contender for Christmas gifts I think too... You could just parcel them up in a brown paper cracker tied with ribbon, or a little cellophane bag? I have seen them dipped half in dark chocolate too if you’re feeling decedent.

You will need 2 large oranges and you will end up with roughly 60 pieces of candied peel, give or take... To peel them slice off either end of the orange, run your knife in a circle round the top in the pithy bit, then slice down through the skin, stopping before you get to the juicey bit, into equal sixths. You should then simply be able to peel away each sixth pretty neatly and evenly, the pictures explain it better than I have!

Then bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook the sliced orange peel for 15 minutes. Drain the peel then get a fresh pan of water and repeat the same process again for another 15 minutes. In another pan, bring 300g of granulated sugar and 300g of water to the boil, then simmer gently until the sugar has dissolved. Add the drained peel to this sugar syrup and bring it back to the boil. Then heat and simmer on a low heat until the peel is soft and translucent, it should take about 45 minutes.

When they are ready drain the pieces of peel and let them cool separately on a sheet of baking paper. Keep the syrup as you can use it for baking or in cocktails, it is lovely sweet and orangey. Finally put the remaining 75g sugar in a bowl and roll each piece of peel in it until totally coated. Then leave to dry for 24 hours on a sheet of greaseproof paper.

They are so tasty, a bit bitter, but sweet and orangey, just delicious! You can try one straight away, they seem to get a bit softer after a day or two, and will keep for a month or so. I think they will look so pretty on my pudding board of delights at Lindisfarne Castle.