I’m still into Mexican food big time. Every now and then I manage to catch Thomasina Miers of Food Network doing something exciting and that was the case with these empanadas. I’ve never tasted an authentic Mexican empanada, but what I made this evening tasted a bit British, apart from a slight chili kick. The filling was simple, but delicious. Chopped ham, grated cheddar, some spring onion, dijon mustard, mayo, salt and pepper, a small red chili. Wrapped in all – butter puff pastry, brushed with egg yolk and baked till dark golden brown. Enjoyed with green salad and tenderstem broccoli. Excellent, filling, simple.
Monthly Archives: February 2017
Venison curry and naan bread from scratch.
Saturday Kitchen gave me this idea for a Sunday evening meal, plus I happened to have some venison in the freezer. My neighbour Dave gave me some, as he hunts and fishes, but doesn’t seem to have an idea about cooking meat or fish, I think he simply chucks it at his wife and that’s that. The venison he gave me must have come from some ancient animal, cause although I cooked it for nearly 2 hours in small pieces it was still rather tough- the weakest link in the whole meal, which is a shame, it should have been a star of it. But the reason this plate of food is being written about is my naan. I forgot to buy it, never made it before, so I thought, it is time to have a go at it. And it was brilliant. I’m pretty confident I will not be buying naan again, when there’s curry, there will be proper naan from now on.
Easy to make; 50 g of Greek style yoghurt( grams, not ml), 90 ml of milk, 250 g of plain flour, 0,5 tsp of baking powder and 2 tbps of oil. All this kitchen aided until combined, then left to rest for an hour. After an hour 2 minced garlic cloves and lots of fresh coriander worked in, then rolled out and cut into about 5 medium size breads. I have no special naan pan, but pancake pan did the great job. About 3-4 minutes on each side, dry pan, medium heat. They were lovely, even Izzie had some. Will play with more flavours, cumin seeds next, methinks. 
Ptysie.
According to Dorota from mojewypieki. com, these were the taste of our childhood. Only having made and tasted them I understood what she meant. The filling reminded me of “warm ice cream” sort of treat we used to get as kids, a super sweet meringue served in a cone. Ptysie today had about 50 ml of blackcurrant juice/puree added to the Italian meringue, good call, otherwise they’d be far too sweet.
Choux pastry according to Dorota’s recipe turned out to be quite thick, difficult to squeeze through the piping bag, but still rose in the oven and turned out alright. The filling; Italian meringue made with 120 g of sugar, a splash of water, 50 ml of blackcurrant juice for the sugar syrup and 2 egg whites and 20 g of sugar for the meringue. It holds rather well the next day. Ptysie are light and pleasant, but I think I’d like that filling to have a bit more character. Nice though. 🙂
Chicken kievs from scratch.
Tom Kerridge made them on telly. I normally get ours from Waitrose, but might now stop buying them, as what came out of the oven this evening was the moistest chicken dish I’ve ever made. And easy too! Two nice breasts cut on the thick side to make a pocket for the butter, I must have done a decent job as none of the butter got out while cooking. Garlic butter- 2 crushed cloves, parsley, cayenne pepper( not a mind blowing addition for me), salt, all blitzed. When stuffed, I seasoned the breasts, tossed in flour, egg and panko, quickly panfried and cooked in 200 degrees for 15 minutes. Like I said- super moist. Served with mixed greens and cold San Miguel beer. Destroyed the lot.
Salted caramel macarons.
I wanted to bake macarons again and looked to Macarons & more website for a flavour inspiration. A chap called Tim Kinnaird took part in Masterchef a few years ago, reached the final but did not win. His macarons are still remembered, but now he runs his own company, inspiring guy! One of the flavours he sells is salted caramel, my new favourite. I thought chocolate shells would be better and reduce the sweetness a bit, so I baked them replacing 40 g of icing sugar with cocoa. The filling was wild and random, yet successful- I blitzed about 2tbsps of mascarpone, 1 tbsp of Philadelphia, 3 tsps of salted caramel spread- roughly and just a tsp of peanut butter. And it tastes pretty damn good. A smear of salted caramel on top and a sprinkle of toasted nuts. Thumbs up.
Salted caramel cheesecake.
New favourite flavour. I bought a jar of salted caramel spread (“Wilkin & Sons”) and made 4 small round cheesecakes the usual way; a base of biscuits and melted butter and the filling of whipped cream, Philadelphia ( a small packet) and the said spread, maybe 2tbsps. No sugar needed, naturally. Dark chocolate grated on top with a few roasted chopped nuts.
Very enjoyable.
Gingerbread. Nearly perfect.
I might have found the ultimate gingerbread recipe. It’s moist, not too sweet, rich and delicious, all I have to do when making it next time is double the amount of ginger, both fresh and ground.
The recipe is from bbcgoodfood.com. 140 g of Medjool dates, pitted, chopped and soaked in 125 ml of boiling water for about 30 minutes, then blitzed into a paste with the liquid and all.
75 ml of oil( I used vegetable), 75 g of black treacle, 50 ml of maple syrup and a tsp of freshly grated ginger( moooooooore needed!!), all well mixed together.
In the bowl of kitchen aid 250 g of plain flour, 50 g of muscovado sugar, 1 tsp of bicarb soda, 1 tsp of ground ginger ( more needed, or perhaps mine is a bit out of date, it is down the sink now) and 1,5 tsp of cinnamon, a lot, as always. Finally 175 ml of buttermilk and 1 whole egg complete the list of ingredients. They all make quite a runny batter, which bakes for about 40 minutes in 140 degrees. The author of the recipe is right, when the cake is wrapped in foil overnight, it’s even better the next day, sticky and moist. Yum.