Christmas lights

It seems like London has finally caught up with the Christmas markets fad.

Not that they’re a new thing, mind you, having been around for a couple hundred years some of them. But they seemed to be more of a central European/nord-Germanic thing.

Recently, they seem to have realized it’s as good an opportunity as any other to encourage the compulsive buying that seems to affect most Londoners. Hence the Oxford Street (teenee-tiny) Christmas market but charming anyway.

BTW, I was delighted to discover a stand selling Dutch poffertjes (I fell in love with those tiny pancakes when visiting Vollendam on my first visit to Holland), so much so that I bought my very own poffertjes pan! (remember this?)

Poffertjes

Serves 4

250 g flour

pinch of salt

10g fresh yeast (use half if you go for powder yeast)

3,5dl milk

Mix the salt and the flour.

In a separate bowl, dissolve the yeast in a pich of warm milk. Add the flour alternating with the remaining milk until you have a smooth paste. Leave to prove for about 1 hour.

Butter the holes of yout poffertjes pan and heat on the hob. Fill with the equivalent of 1 tsp. flour of paste in each hole.

Let it fry just until the surface is dry (see the photo). Turn over with the help of a wooden  spoon. Finish frying the other side.

Serve hot, about 12 poffertjes per portion, with a knob of butter in the centre and a good sprinkle of icing sugar.

You can also replace the icing sugar with some Dutch advocaat liqueur.

Christmas for one… or two

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas morning breakfast 

  

Ever since last year I started a sort of “tradition” if you like: begin Christmas morning with a steaming mug of hot chocolate and something sweet. This year the “sweet” turned out to be these gorgeous biscuits. A friend of mine gave me some tasty cranberries and that sort of gave me the idea…

 

 

 

Cranberry and white chocolate cookies (adapted from a recipe from Feast by Nigella Lawson)

Makes 30

 

140g flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt 

75g rolled oats (I used fine wholegrain and they turned out just fine)

125g soft usalted butter

75g dark or light brown sugar

100g caster sugar

1 egg

½ tsp. vanilla extract (I didn’t have any this time so I guess it’s optional)

75g dried cranberries

50g pecans, roughly chopped

140g white chocolate chips or white chocolate chopped with a knife

 

Preheat the oven to 180°C.Measure out the flour, baking powder, salt, and rolled oats into a bowl.

Put the butter and sugars into another owl and beat together until creamy (I used an electric mixer) – then beat in the egg and vanilla.

Beat in the flour, baking powder, salt and oat mixture and then fold in the cranberries, chopped pecans and white chocolate, chopped into small dice. Set the bowl of biscuit dough in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.

Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into a ball with your hands, and then place them on a lined or greased baking sheet and squish the dough balls down with a fork. You may need two baking sheets or be prepared to make these in two batches. (I needed 2 and a half actually).

Cook for 15 minutes, when ready, the cookies will be tinged a pale gold, but be too soft to lift immediately off the tray, so leave the tray on a cool surface and let them harden for about 5 minutes. Remove with a spatula or whatever to cool fully on a wire rack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Lunch 

It’s amazing how, in the pre-Christmas rush, there are whole debates and polemics as to how long you need to cook a turkey for the Christmas lunch (turkey being the traditional choice in many Germanic countries). Coming as I do from a country where temperatures can range from anything in the vicinity of 38°C (give or take a few), the whole issue is rather pointless. Even more so, given that at the moment I don’t have such a large audience as to justify the sacrifice of such noble bird.

Nevertheless, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas for me without a traditional meal (if there is any one time when I like to make an effort with the food it is this one). So I got round it with these boneless chicken drumsticks. The great thing about them is that, as long as you keep the base of egg and breadcrumbs to hold it together, you can add pretty much anything to it. Traditional Christmas lunch in the UK is normally roast turkey with stuffing, roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts and a variety of sauces including: cranberry sauce, bread sauce and, of course, the gravy.    

 

 

 

Boneless stuffed chicken with prune and mushroom stuffing

chicken drumsticks (one or two per person)

1 egg, beaten

fresh breadcrumbs

sausage meat or one sausage per person without the skin

chopped mushrooms

prunes

salt and pepper

spring onion

string to hold everything together

 

Bone the legs.

For the filling:  

Mix the breadcrumbs, egg, sausage meat, chopped mushrooms and chopped prunes together. Season with salt and pepper.

Fill the chicken legs and hold together with string. Place in a baking tray, season and sprinkle lightly with oil. Cook in a hot to moderate oven for 40 minutes, turning halfway through. Once cooked, cut the string off the chicken and slice carefully.

 Arrange on a plate with some cranberry sauce.

So there you have it: bird with stuffing and vegetables for two!

 

Cranberry jam – adapted from Nigella Lawson’s Feast

makes 350ml 

350g cranberries

350g caster sugar

 

Put a film of water in the bottom of a large saucepan and add the cranberries and sugar.

Stir patiently over a low heat to dissolve the sugar; this will take a little while.

Turn up the heat and boil the pan rapidly until setting point is reached, approximately 7 minutes. (Alternatively it will have reached a jam like consistency).

Pour the jam into a sterilized 350ml jar and seal immediately.

  

 

 

 

Brussels sprouts with bacon and chestnuts – adapted from Nigella Lawson’s Feast

 

 

handful of Brussels sprouts per person  

1 slice of pancetta or bacon per person cut into 1 cm cubes

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

10g butter

10 chestnuts per person boiled and peeled (see below) or 1 packet vacuum-packed chestnuts

60 ml Marsala wine (I had Cassis sherry handy so I used that instead)      

Trim the bottoms off each of the sprouts, cutting a cross into each as you go. (This is applicable only if you’re cooking less than 100 sprouts, otherwise you’re spared). Then tip them into a large pan of salted boiling water and cook until tender (7 to 9 minutes or so).  

Up to this point you can do this in advance. If this is the case, plunge the sprouts into a bowl of cold water as soon as you take them off the heat so that they don’t carry on cooking. 

Drain them and set aside until you’re ready to finish them off. 

Roast the potatoes and the chicken and only when everything is almost ready, finish the sprouts.

In a large saucepan, cook the bacon cubes in the oil until they’re bronzed and crisp, but not cooked to the point of having dried out. Add the butter and the chestnuts and, with a wooden spoon press on the chestnuts to break them up a little. When they’re warmed through, turn the heat up and throw in the Marsala, letting it bubble away, fusing with the bacon fat and chestnutty butter to form a syrup. Add the drained sprouts and turn well, giving a good grinding of pepper. 

 You shouldn’t need salt, given the bacon but taste to see. 

 Note:

 If  you, like me, can’t find vacuum-packed chestnuts in the supermarket, buy fresh ones and boil them with a bay leaf, some thyme branches and some orange or tangerine skin until the shell is soft. Play it by ear but it can take a bit over an hour to do so. I know it seems time-consuming but other than chucking the stuff in the pan, there’s hardly any work involved. 

Perfect roast poatoes

 2 or 3 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut in half per person

2 or 3 garlic cloves, unpeeled and whole

goose or duck fat or, failing that, a mixture of olive oil and butter

sprigs of thyme

salt and freshly ground black pepper

zest of ½ lemon

zest of ½ orange 

Parboil the potatoes in boiling, salted water for 10 minutes.

Drain and toss them until they’re fluffy.

Drizzle the oil or fat on a roasting tray.

Add the garlic cloves, whole, and the thyme sprigs.

Arrange the potatoes on top. Grate the lemon and orange zest on top.

Season with salt and pepper and toss them thoroughly.

Bake in a hot oven for 40-50 minutes but check them after 35 minutes. 

 

 

Christmas edible gifts: clementine candy

 

Christmas in Argentina means HEAT. Nothing like Europe. But since here clementines are in season for Christmas and this is a no-cook recipe, it makes a nice fusion for people in both hemispheres who want a nice recipe for Christmas. 

My friend Mary was in for a treat as I made it with freshly squeezed orange juice (although I suppose you can use normal orange juice out of a carton and nobody will complain).

 

 

 

Clementine candy – adapted from La Cocina Divertida by Blanca Cotta

Carrots, boiled and passed through a sieve, 400g

Sugar, 400g plus extra

Orange juice, 400g

Juice and zest of 1 lemon (optional)

1. Put all ingredients in a pan and stir continuously with a wooden spoon, over high heat, until you get a shiny and thick “ball” that comes off the sides of the pan.
2. Place on the worktop.
3. Take small portions of the mixture, mould them between the palms of your hands in the shape of little balls.
4. As you shape the little balls, roll them in caster sugar, flatten them and shape them like clementine segments.  
5. Place the candy on a tray and leave to dry outside the fridge until the next day.
6. Put them in a box in individual paper cases.

A birthday cake

 

 

 

While in Argentina, I had the pleasure of making a birthday cake for a friend´s friend. Although extremely simple, I wanted to record it here. For posterity.

Irene´s Birthday Cake

Serves a lot!

chocolate cake made with brownie recipe x 2 using self-raising flour or plain flour and baking powder 

dulce de leche (shop-bought like in this case or home-made)  500g

crushed meringues, as needed

fresh strawberries, as needed

Make brownie dough as usual and bake the cake. Cover with a generous layer of dulce de leche (I used the whole jar) cover with crushed meringues and finish the top with fresh strawberries. To give it a snowy effect, pulverize some meringues and dust the top of the cake using a small sieve.

Note: This will also work extremely well using plain flour and doing little squares as when making brownies.

A very long interval

 

It´s finally time for some proper blogging again! I am currently in Buenos Aires, sorting out some stuff. That doesn´t mean I am not cooking, quite the contrary! One of my addictions here is the Gourmet channel (I am cooking a lot from the TV recently). This is just one of my most recent dishes. It was simply delicious so I am reproducing it here never to lose it again.

White fish filet - adapted from a recipe by Narda Lepes in Recetas y Secretos de Narda

cress:  1  cup
juice of  1 lemon
olive oil, as needed
salt and pepper to taste
fresh white fish (any one you like) 4  filets
chopped parsley  1 tbsp.
vermouth or white wine  1/4  cup
boiled potatoes 2 

Cut the filets in portions, season with salt and pepper on both sides.

To cook seal the fish with olive oil on both sides in a very hot pan.

Once cooked, take the fish out of the pan and gather the gravy by adding the vermouth or white wine, lemon juice, chopped parsley and cress leaves, sautee for a few minutes and take off the heat. 

Serve two fish portions with a cress garnish and one whole potato au naturel (boiled) and drizzle with olive oil.

 

Caramelized tomatoes – adapted from a recipe in Huente-co by Francis Mallmann 

1 ripe beef tomato per person

caster sugar, as needed

a little olive oil for frying 

In a small pan heat up a little olive oil. Cut the beef tomato in half and sprinkle the cut side generously with some caster sugar. Place this side down on the pan leaving the sugar to caramelize.

Note: I don’t particularly like my tomatoes to be too cooked (like the English do) so I just leave the tomato in the pan enough for the sugar to caramelize it and not more. This way the tomato stays nice and raw which is the way I like to eat it!

A linguistic digression

 

 

Cookery books are not the only books I read.

In fact, long before cooking became a job and more than a passionate hobby, I was (and still am I want to believe) a linguist.

I recently borrowed a little jewel from my local library. It tells the history of the English language from the fifth century when the Germanic tribes invaded the Islands to the present. It is by all accounts, fascinating and I am deeply engrossed in its pages.

Destined for the general public, it is an easy read. It ‘explains’ (if that’s the word to use) the irregularities of the English spelling which so baffled me as a child*.

I find it fascinating that, as the author himself explains, even though English had to cope with many invasions by foreign languages to the point of being almost wiped out some of the times, it was remarkable how resilient it proved to be and survive by assimilating many words (sometimes hundreds) from the current invading language whichever that was.

Part of the Normanisation of England under William II in the 9^th century meant that the French brought with them not only habits and culture but also their language. So, after King Harold, there would be no English-speaking king to take his oath in English for another three hundred years.

Being a linguist I couldn’t resist this paragraph: 

      While the English-speaking peasants lived in small, often one-roomed mud and wattle cottages, or huts, their French-speaking masters lived in high stone castles. Many aspects of our modern vocabulary reflect the distinction between them.

      English speakers tended the living cattle, for instance, which we still call by the Old English words ‘ox’ or, more usually today, ‘cow’. French speakers ate prepared meat which came to the table, which we call by the French word ‘beef’. In the same way, the English ‘sheep’ became the French ‘mutton’, ‘calf’ became ‘veal’ ‘deer’ became ‘venison’, ‘pig’ ‘pork’, English animal, French meat in every case.

      The English laboured, the French feasted.

 

from: The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg

*I used to go to private language lessons since I was eight. Now, I have a personality which demands to know the reason for everything. As such, I simply could not understand why I had to write the pronoun ‘I’ in capital letters even if it was in the middle of the sentence, or I would pronounce ‘tomato’ one way and ‘potato’ in another way even though the spelling at the end was the same. So, to cut a long story short, one day Nora, my wonderful teacher, had to sit me down after the lesson and explain to me that I had to take it as it came, because sometimes (most times, in fact) English phonetics just didn’t make any sense. 

It is different in cooking, where everything is a lot more logical, it’s just common sense. I would drive my French chef tutor mad with all the questions: Why is this cooked in a copper pan and not a regular one? Why is this fried and not boiled, etc? Why do you use this type of flour and not other? I would say 99.9% of the cases had a logical explanation (for the remaining 0.01% see my honey and banana bread which I made last year).

Lefties

 

Being a “leftie” has nothing to do with political ideology. Those who are lefties will, no doubt, know what I am talking about. (For those who are not, I will tell you: it’s a nickname for a left-handed person).

Today is the International Left-handers Day! Although this has been celebrated since 1992, I have been unaware of the fact until this very day when I heard it on the radio. 

In my life I have admired many a leftie: 

 

 

Kurt Cobain

 

 

 

Facundo Arana

 

Sting

 

 

 Even Ned Flanders…

 

 

 

 

 

And of course, one of my culinary heroes, Gordon.

 

This being a food blog, I am going to have to post a recipe, haven’t I? Well, these two recipes come from a rather unexpected leftie: Paul McCartney.

In all honesty, I haven’t tested the recipes yet but I promise to include photos once I do.

 

And yes, I’m a leftie too!

 

Paul’s Scrumptious Salad

by Paul McCartney
Recipe Serves: 2

Instructions:

Take two generous handfuls of baby spinach leaves and put in a salad bowl. Add to this another kind of lettuce of your own choice, perhaps rocket (arugula) or Romaine (ordinary green lettuce). Mix the lettuce gently together, then take a tomato and cut it up any way you fancy (large slices or little bits) and add to the lettuce. It’s sometimes nice to use three to four cherry tomatoes if you can find them. I like to cut these in half as an alternative to the straight forward tomato. Then add a little of what you fancy, for instance, I like to add half an avocado pear, which I cut into smallish pieces or another alternative is crumbled feta cheese or perhaps sliced Red Leicester or cheddar.

You can use your imagination as to how big the pieces or slices can be. I like to slice the cheese paper thin but the choice is yours. Once you’ve got all of this in the salad bowl take a small mixing bowl or cup and put in it a tablespoon full of olive oil, a small teaspoonful of balsamic vinegar, then squeeze the juice of half a lemon into the mixture, add a pinch of salt and give the mixture a good whisk. Sometimes for a change you can add half a teaspoon of French mustard or I like honey mustard. Or, if you can manage to get some stuff called Braggs, which is a liquid aminos seasoning “thang”, a dash of this makes for an interesting dressing. However, if you want to keep it simple that’s fine too. After you’ve whisked your dressing and just before you’re ready to eat your salad, pour the dressing into the bowl and gently give the whole salad a mix. Turn it out onto a plate and enjoy this lipsmacking treat.

P.S. There are variations of this salad. Once you get the hang of it, you can vary it to your own taste. For instance, I like to add fake meat slices, chopped into thin strips or even just ripped with your fingers. You could also try chopping up a couple of silverskin onions or a couple of pickles. The list is endless and that bit is up to you. Anyway, have fun and enjoy your salad, Paul. (McCartney)

And to watch the man himself making Mashed Potatoes, check out this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyyEc-GNDfQ

Some interesting links you might like:

 

 

Addresses:

 

Anything Left-Handed Shop  

http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/ 

http://www.lefthandersday.com/

 

Having lunch the Swedish way

 

 

 

 Yes, frozen fries and yes, shop-bought sausages (although flown in from Sweden).

What makes this lunch so special is the knäckebröd (lit. “bread that cracks”) at the back and this really, really fresh mayonnaise (just made by yours truly).

Let me tell you, after having made a bucket load of mayo with 30 yolks (which I separated myself) nothing tastes as gloriously delicious as a plate full of chips (my friend must be telepathic) with a dollop of the mayo you just made. If you don’t believe me, try it.

I know you can separate the yolks using the broken egg shells but I do it the Nigella way: using my hands I pass the yolk back and forth between the palms of my hands until all the egg white has squeezed out and only the yolk remains.

Do it in a small separate bowl, one egg white at a time just in case the yolk breaks. This way you won’t have to ruin the 30-odd egg whites should you want to use them for meringues or any other egg-white- only concoction.

Once made, you can enrich this mayonnaise with either lemon or lime juice to taste  (for my serving I added a generous squeeze of lemon juice).

Because I was making such a huge batch I played it by ear, as I do most of the time. I am giving you a few recipes with proper quantities, though.

I also used Swedish mustard to do this mayonnaise (English mustard is too strong but Dijon mustard is OK).

As for the vinegar, whatever you do, use red wine vinegar NOT white.

The sausages, by the way, are fried falukorv, not unlike German frankfurters.

 What you see, almost at the back of the plate is Swedish knäckebröd.

My Swedish dictionary gives the translation of knäck [knek:] knäcken knäckar  as “to break” so I was right in my assumption that the name meant more “crack” as in “cracking” than crisp bread as it is normally referred to in English.

When you roll it out, really thin, please consider using a pasta machine to do this if you have one; it will save you many a headache. Once it’s baked and has cooled down, just break it into big, irregular pieces and serve as canapés with some smoked salmon, sour cream and dill. 

Another great idea for serving is spreading some ricotta (not much!) and top with smoked salmon and grated lemon zest.

These traditional crispbreads were originally made with a hole in the centre so that they could be hung over the oven to keep dry. Nowadays, they keep well in an airtight container knäckebröd is also sometimes made with rolled oats, in a similar way to Scottish pancakes.

Knäckebröd  (Swedish crisp bread) – adapted from Swedish Food and Cooking by Anna Mosesson

Makes 15

 600ml/1 pint/2 ½ cups milk

50g/2oz fresh yeast (use half the quantity if using dry yeast)

565g/1 1/4 lb/5 cups rye flour plus

225g/8oz/2 cups for dusting

565g/1 1/4 lb/5 cups  strong white bread flour

10ml/2 tsp caraway or cumin seeds

5ml/1 tsp. salt

 

1. Put the milk in a pan and heat gently until warm to the touch. Remove from the heat. In a bowl, blend the yeast with a little of the warmed milk. Add the remaining milk then add the rye flour, bread flour, caraway or cumin seeds and salt and mix together to form a dough.
2. Using the rye flour for dusting, turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for about 2 minutes. Cut the dough into 15 equal pieces then roll out each piece into a thin, flat round. Place on a baking sheets and leave to rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas 2. Using the rye flour, roll out the pieces of dough again into very thin, flat rounds. Return to the baking sheets. Make a pattern on the surface using a fork or a knife.
4. Bake the breads in the oven for 8-10 minutes, turning after about 5 minutes, until hard and crispy. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool. Store the breads in an airtight container.

 

Tip: great used for canapés, just cracked and some smoked salmon and sour cream with dill on top. 

Another tip: The Swedes use a special rolling pin with a knobbly surface to create the distinctive texture of this hard bread. An ordinary rolling pin is a good substitute, with the speckled texture created with the head of a fork or a knife end.

 

Mayonnaise (all the varieties you can possibly imagine) 

Very easy and good mayonnaise adapted from the Mosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen

Yields 3 ½ cups

 

 Beat together in blender:

 ½ cup vinegar (you can use part, or all, lemon or lime juice)

1 tsp. honey

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. tamari

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

gradually drizzle in 2 ½ cups mixed olive and sunflower oil (or one, or the other) while blender is still running in a trickle and continuously.

The mayonnaise will become thick as the oil s drizzled in.

As soon as it is thick, stop beating it (or it will thin again. Strange, but  true).

Taste to adjust seasonings.

 

Another mayo – adapted from a recipe in Leith’s Cookery Bible

 

2 egg yolks

salt and freshly ground white pepper

1 tsp. dry English mustard

290ml olive oil or 150ml each olive and salad oil

squeeze of lemon juice

1 tbsp. white wine vinegar

 

1)      Place the yolks and the mustard with a pinch of salt in a bowl and beat well.

2)      Add the oil in a thick trickle. The mixture should be quite thick by the time half of the oil is added.

3)      Beat in the lemon juice.

4)      Resume pouring the oil, very slowly, alternating oil with vinegar.

5)      Season with salt and freshly ground white pepper.

 

If it curdles, whisk another yolk in a separate bowl and add it to the curdled mayonnaise drop by drop.

 

Variations:

 

Dill mayo: add chopped dill, to taste, to the mayo.

Mustard mayo: mix mustard to the mayo.

Parsley and lemon mayo: mayonnaise, chopped parley, lemon juice and/or lemon zest.

Green mayo 1: add ½ cup chopped parsley and/or ½ cup chopped chives.

Sesame mayo: use 2 ¼ cups safflower oil PLUS ¼ cup sesame oil.

Sauce Marie Rose (or as I have always known it, golf sauce): mix ketchup to the mayo.

Chilli mayo: mix Japanese chilli sauce to mayonnaise.

Avocado mayonnaise: mash avocado and mix to mayo use for grilled chicken club sandwiches.

Basil mayonnaise: smash up a small handful of fresh basil and mix it in the mayonnaise. Add a squeeze of lemon juice, and salt, freshly ground black pepper and cayenne to taste.

 

Soy mayonnaise – adapted from Yoshuku by Jane Lawson

2 tsp. white miso

½ tsp. Japanese soy sauce

1 garlic clove, crushed

125g (4 ½ oz ½ cup Japanese mayonnaise)

 

To make the soy mayonnaise :

Mix the miso, soy sauce and garlic until smooth and then whisk into the mayo and set aside.

 

 

Green mayonnaise version 2 – adapted from Leiths Cookery Bible

 

1 bunch watercress

290ml mayonnaise

salt and freshly ground pepper

 

1)      Pick over watercress to remove the stalks and yellowed leaves. Blanch and refresh. Dry thoroughly and chop very finely.

2)      Add to the mayonnaise and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Note: cooked and well-drained spinach can be used instead of watercress. *

 

How to cook spinach without boiling it 

I know boiling spinach is boring and, in addition, it takes all the nutrients away. Plus, when it comes to squeeze it, it doesn’t matter how much you do it, there is still plenty of water coming out.

* Note to the note: you can also put a packet of spinach in the freezer and forget about it. (very low temperatures also cook food as was demonstrated by the liquid nitrogen (see this post) Take it out of the freezer but DO NOT open the package. Simply rub it in your hands until it’s sort of pulverized. Presto! You have cooked, chopped spinach with a fraction of the effort!

 

Best bagels in town

 

 

 

My very good friend Amal came from Reims, France to spend a few days with me last Friday.

Even though the weather here was typically English for the summer (read several drizzles and one shower storm) we managed to go to many a place in London.

After having lived in south London for many years since I came to England some years ago, I moved to north London last year.

I now live a stone throw’s away from the Jewish quarter in Golders Green.

Living close to the Jewish quarters has many advantages, one of which is having so many incredible eateries to choose from should you feel the need to feed something other than your soul.

So, today we decided to visit one of them. I had been wanting to visit Daniel’s ever since I moved to this area and today was the day.

They had so many wonderful things that it was difficult to choose but I really wanted to try a smoked salmon bagel. After all, what best place to get it from than a Jewish deli in the Jewish quarter?

 And it was great.

 

 

Smoked salmon bagel

 

bagels, cut in half

cream cheese, as needed

smoked salmon, 2 slices per serving

cucumber, sliced, 3 or 4 slices per serving

freshly ground pepper

lemon zest (optional)

 

Spread both slices of bagel with cream cheese (be generous).

Carefully arrange the salmon slices on the bread and sprinkle with the lemon zest.

Top with the cucumber slices and season with ground pepper to taste.

 

Daniel’s

12-14 Hallswelle Parade
Finchley Road, London NW11 0DL

 

 

Wild Horses

 

 

 

 

 

 Documenting “anything” in a hectic restaurant kitchen is a feat in istself.

If you’re not ready, the moment you turn your head both the moment and the food you’re rying to photograph are gone for good. Plus, you have to take your picture in a split second because, you know, if you’re a chef you’re supposed to be doing other food-related activities. Still, sometimes I manage.

My favourite time is when I am told what to do but not how to do it. It means I can go back to the pantry and pick and choose whatever takes my fancy. Having free-rein to do something is the best thing in the world. Nothing made me happier than when I was told: “Make some muffins, two sorts, whatever way you like so long as one batch is chocolate.” Wow!

The good thing about muffins is that all you have to do is mix the dry ingredients. Then, separately, mix all the wet ingredients. Then mix them all together and that’s that.

This means you can have a batch of dry ingredients made in advance and mix the other ingredients as you are ready to bake them (much as you would do with a cake mix, only much, much better).

Nigella also suggests mixing all the wet ingredients except the butter the night before you are going to make them and keep both cling-filmed in the fridge in separate containers. Then, the next morning, all you have to do is melt the butter, preheat the oven, mix wet with dry ingredients, fold in the fruit and spoon them in the muffin cases.

I included the butter in the chocolate version as optional because Narda’s version doesn’t include it. I think it should, though. The melted butter definitely improves the batter and it makes it smooth and silky.

  

Chocolate muffins - adapted from Comer y pasarla bien by Narda Lepes

Dry ingredients: 

1 ¾ cup strong flour

pinch of salt

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tbsp. bitter chocolate powder

¾ cup sugar

125g chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

 

Wet ingredients: 

3 eggs

½ cup milk

¼ cup corn oil

75g butter, melted (optional but it improves the batter a lot)

 

These are very easy to make and very light and chocolatey.

Mix the dry ingredients and leave them aside.

Mix the wet ingredients very well.

Then mix dry and wet ingredients together. DO NOT OVERMIX.

There may be some lumps in the batter but it’s OK.

The batter should be quite liquid and lumpy.

Spoon the batter in the muffin cases and bake in a moderate oven between 10 and 12 minutes.

If you like, sprinkle some chocolate chips on top of the muffins before baking them.

 Variation: the muffins you see in the photo had both white chocolate and dark chocolate chips (by all means, add some milk chocolate chips as well if you have them, we’d ran out).

You can also substitute the milk for buttermilk, as in the recipe below.

If you add some orange zest and some Grand Marnier you will end up with the most luxurious, decadent, delicious muffins you’ll have ever tasted.

 receta en castellano:

http://www.librodenarda.com/cocinerosninos.html

 

 

 

 

 

 Almond and strawberry muffins – adapted from a recipe in How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

75g unsalted butter

200g plain flour

100g ground almonds (optional)

^½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

75g caster sugar

pinch of salt

200ml buttermilk (or 100g yoghurt and 100ml semi-skimmed milk)

1 large egg

200g strawberries, blueberries or any berry that takes your fancy

flaked almonds to decorate (optional)

12-bun muffin tray lined with 12 paper cases

 

Melt the butter, and set it aside to cool for a little. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl, and in a measuring jug beat together the buttermilk (or yoghurt and milk), egg and melted butter. Using a wooden spoon and a light hand, pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix gently to combine. Don’t worry about lumps: the important thing with muffins is that the mixture isn’t over­worked. Fold in the blueberries, again keeping mixing to a minimum. You could also add orange zest at this point if you wanted. Spoon into the muffin cases — I use an ice-cream scoop and a small rubber spatula for this — and bake for 20 minutes, by which time the muffins should be risen and golden and firm on top. Eat warm or cold as you like: I like warm, broken with fingers and smeared, mouthful by mouthful, with good unsalted butter and blueberry jam.

Makes 12.

 

Variation: these muffins were crying out for some Amaretto liqueur and some orange or lemon zest

Tips: In both cases, please omit the spirits if you are baking these muffins for children.

Update: I found Nigella’s chocolate muffins here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9h9Y1VxTbs&NR=1