Currently, my new favourite TV show. It’s also very addictive (not unlike the sandwich below).

I noticed that the Reuben sandwich makes an appearance in at least 2 episodes (three, actually, I’ve just watched the one in which House powders some Vicodin into his Reuben sandwich, now, how’s that for a seasoning?) in the first 2 seasons (which are the ones I’ve watched so far). I was surprised to learn that Hugh Laurie (a.k.a. Dr Gregory House) is, in fact, a very British fella, his American accent is so convincing…

I love the fact that House is, in fact, the anti-hero, the one who doesn’t conform to the rules, doesn’t take orders from anybody and, most of all, he avoids work like the plague! I can see how easily he can become totally bored to tears by uninteresting cases, doing only the ones that pick his interest. I also love his dark personality and the fact that he is so complex… aren’t we all?

Reuben sandwich

Ingredients

• 3 big 1cm slices of rye bread
• mayonnaise
• 4 heaped tablespoons sauerkraut
• 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
• 4–5 slices of pastrami
a few gherkins, sliced
• 100g Swiss cheese
• a handful of watercress leaves, to serve

Grill the slices of bread on a griddle pan until lightly toasted on both sides then spread one side of each with mayonnaise. Put some of the sauerkraut and some of the chilli on 2 of the slices, and top with a couple of slices of pastrami. Top with the remaining sauerkraut and chilli and the sliced gherkins, then grate the Swiss cheese over the top.

Preheat a hot grill. Place the slices with toppings under the grill until the cheese is melted and dribbling.

Stack the sandwich together, adding a few watercress leaves and finishing with the final slice of toast. Press down lightly and use wooden skewers to hold together. Tuck in!

P.S.: For those of you who want to nit-pick at the medical mistakes in the series, you may want to have a look at this excellent site, which features in-depth reviews from a professional physician’s POV. Personally, I am learning A LOT about medicine these days!

So, once again it’s Christmastime. And, once again, the tradition of the edible gifts has begun. There is nothing about Christmas I love the more than giving gifts of food. In fact, the tradition of giving gifts around this time is very ancient and has its roots on Pagan festivals where the farmers gathered to celebrate the ending of the Winter (with the Winter solstice being the shortest day of the year, the days began, once more, to get longer) and they would swap the food they had preserved to use during the winter months.

Then, there is the cookie swap tradition which also has its roots on ancient Pagan festivals. In Scandinavia, the people who were too poor to offer animal sacrifices to the gods, would offer them animal-shaped biscuits instead.

This year, one of the stars of my edible gifts hamper were these delicious chocolate cupcakes by, who else? Nigella…

Nigella’s Christmas chocolate cupcakes

Ingredients

1. 125g soft unsalted butter
2. 125g caster sugar
3. 2 large free-range eggs
4. 100g plain flour
5. 25g cocoa
6. ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
7. 2 tsp baking powderfood
8. 2 tsp vanilla extract
9. 2-3 tbsp full-fat milk

For the decoration

1. ½ x 500g packet of instant royal icing
2. Christmassy sprinkles
3. Red and green ready-made roll-out fondant icing or sugarpaste (optional)
4. Seasonal sugar decorations (optional)

Have all the ingredients at room temperature.

With an electric mixer, mix the eggs and the sugar to ribbon stage. Add the dry ingredients, sifted, and then the melted butter.

Bake at 180ºC for around 10 or 15 minutes.

You can freeze them, without the decoration as soon as you’ve made them.

For the icing:

Mix some icing sugar into some boiling water and add some lemon juice.

It has to be pretty thick for it to run smoothly yet stay on the cupcakes.

I had initially decided on a starter of figs wrapped in prosciutto with a blue cheese filling as I thought that was easy enough and, most importantly, could be done in advance. All very nice in theory… except it isn’t the season for figs here in Argentina. So, I went for plan B. The hostess had suggested Cantaloupe melon wrapped in prosciutto but I thought that would be baby stuff to do and not really challenging so I suggested a scallop starter. Boy! Was that a wonder! And it looked just beautiful (and very elegant) on the plate. Unfortunately, due to the speed I was cooking with (and the hungry guests that were waiting) I couldn´t immortalise it for posterity… which means I may have to do this dish again… Oh, well…

For the main dish, I adapted a wonderful Nigella recipe for Teriyaki salmon I found here, mainly in that I used my well-tested Teriyaki sauce for marinating the salmon and I also marinated the salmon for longer. Let me tell you, if you leave it overnight, like an ordinary marinade, it will turn into this glossy, thick, caramel you won´t believe you´re eating. They were four children having dinner that night and they all ended up licking their fingers. It is also a breeze to cook for an event if you have the sushi rice prepared (and covered with tinfoil) beforehand.  I had a few unexpected situations, such as being presented with this wonderful (whole) salmon which I had to manually pin-bone with a pair of stolen tweezers but if you ask your fishmonger to do it for you before you take it home, it should be easy peasy, reallly.

For dessert, I chose a classic,  crème brûlée, for two reasons: it is both very elegant to serve and it is very easy to make AND have it prepared beforehand in the fridge. You can even do it the night before. This is the dish I was the least concerned about and the first one I made. Once dessert was out of the way, I could concentrate on my fish. When I suggested this dessert, the hostess said that although she didn´t have a torch, she did have an iron burner which she was confident could be used for caramelising the surface… All I can say is, whatever you do, do NOT attempt this dish if you don´t have a blow torch. Failing that, forget the sugar and serve it in individual pots. I did neither which resulted in a technical fault in the middle of service, but the hostess was very gracious about it. Now I know.

So, if you are tempted to do some professional catering, the moral of the story is… make things easy for yourself, choose dishes that could be done in advance, at least in part (especially if you are feeding a large number of people), dishes that can be finished off quickly, and, most important of all, expect the unexpected, be a problem-solver and be prepared to improvise because more often than not, some things will just not turn out the way you thought.

Scallops and endives with orange sauce – adapted from a recipe by Narda Lepes

Ingredients

Bacon, cut into a very small brunoise,  100  g
Scallops  200  g
Endives,  4
Butter, as needed
Sea salt, as needed
Orange, as needed
Lemon, as needed
Coriander flowers, to garnish (I used edible Monks cress flowers, fresh from

the garden)

How to make:

Fry the bacon in its own fat. Set aside and in the same pan seal the scallops. Do NOT touch them too much. For best results, turn them over with a pair of small tongues. Failing that, tumble them over with your index finger. They cook extremely fast, just a couple of minutes each side. If you overcook them, they become rubbery so you really need to watch what you´re doing.

At the same time, in a big, flat pan sautee the endives, previously cut into long strips (into quarters really) in butter. Add the sea salt and the orange juice (if you use freshly-squeezed orange juice it will taste divine). Let it reduce a bit.

To serve: Put some endives on the plate, scatter some bacon cubes and place about 5 scallops on top. Garnish with the edible flowers and drizzle with some of the orange sauce. You can also add a lemon wedge and some orange peel cut into strips.

Mirin-glazed salmon  (adapted from Nigella Express)

Ingredients

• 60ml mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
• 50g light brown sugar
• 60ml soy sauce
• 4 x 125g pieces salmon, cut from the thick part of the fillet so that they are narrow but tall rather than wide and flat
• 2 x 15ml tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1-2 spring onions, halved and shredded into fine strips

Method

Serves: 4

1.      Mix the mirin, brown sugar and soy sauce in a shallow dish that will take all 4 pieces of salmon, and marinate the salmon in it for 3 minutes on the first side and 2 minutes on the second. Meanwhile heat a large non-stick frying pan on the hob.

2.      Cook the salmon in the hot, dry pan for 2 minutes and then turn the salmon over, add the marinade and cook for another 2 minutes.

3.      Remove the salmon to whatever plate you’re serving it on, add the rice vinegar to the hot pan, and warm through.

4.      Pour the dark, sweet, salty glaze over the salmon and top with the spring onion strips.

5.      Serve with rice or noodles as you wish, and consider putting some sushi ginger on the table, too.

For the sushi rice

Gohan – © Gabriela R.

Wash 1 kg of sushi rice 3 or 4 times, then rinse for approximately 30 more minutes. Place the rice in a big pan and cover with 1000 cc water. Cook until it boils, WITHOUT stirring, lower the heat to its lowest setting, cover the pan and leave it like that until the rice has absorbed all the water (about 20 minutes). Do NOT lift the lid of the pan during cooking. Turn the heat off and leave to rest, covered, 10 more minutes.

For the sushi vinegar :

Heat 150cc sushi vinegar, 1 tsp. salt and 150g sugar in a pan. Stir until everything is combined and the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool.

Place the warm sushi rice in a plastic or wooden bowl. Add the sushi vinegar and stir it in, making sure all the rice has some vinegar. Keep warm.

Note : If you are using this rice for sushi, leave it to cool completely. Spread it out on a flat surface if you are in a hurry. That way, it will cool down quicker.

Crème brûlée

• 600ml double cream
• 1 vanilla pod
• 8 egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• Approx.6 tablespoons demerara sugar

Method

Serves: 6-8

1.      Put a pie dish of about 20cm diameter in the freezer for at least 20 minutes. Half-fill the sink with cold water. This is just a precaution in case the custard looks as if it’s about to split, in which case you should plunge the pan into the water and whisk the custard. I’m not saying it will – with so many egg yolks in the rich cream, it thickens quickly and easily enough – but I always feel better if I’ve done this.

2.      Put the cream and vanilla pod into a saucepan and bring to boiling point, but do not let boil. Beat the eggs and caster sugar together in a bowl, and, still beating, pour the flavoured cream over it, pod and all. Rinse and dry the pan and pour the custard mix back in. Cook over medium heat (or low, if you’re scared) until the custard thickens: about 10 minutes should do it. You do want this to be a good, voluptuous crème, so don’t err on the side of runny caution. Remember, you’ve got your sinkful of cold water to plunge the pan into should it really look as if it’s about to split.

3.      When the cream’s thick enough, take out the vanilla pod, retrieve the pie dish and pour this crème into the severely chilled container. Leave to cool, then put in the fridge till truly cold. Sprinkle with demerara sugar, spoonful by spoonful, and burn with a blowtorch till you have a blistered tortoiseshell covering on top.

4.      Put back in the fridge if you want, but remember to take it out a good 20 minutes before serving. At which stage, put the bowl on the table and, with a large spoon and unchecked greed, crack through the sugary carapace and delve into the satin-velvet, vanilla-speckled cream beneath. No more talking: just eat.

There was a big hoopla recently following Narda’s departure from El Gourmet to Utilísima. There she is cooking recipes from Doña Petrona´s book Julie-Julia style. Every Argentinian household worth its salt has a copy, mine is no exception. It was my referent when I was too little to think about buying cookery books but not too little to discover the joys of baking.

My battered copy is still at home (in Argentina) but I still use it a lot whenever I’m there.

This cake is a bit unusual in that the liquid element is boiling water: not milk, not anything else but good old boiling water. It does remind me a bit of the English chocolate pudding in this respect. The pudding though, has a much softer consistency than this. It’s a veritable cake. And delicious.

This is my adapted version of the cake.

 Doña Petrona´s chocolate cake

Ingredients:

320g plain flour

4 tsp. baking powder

200g sugar

100g cocoa

1 tsp. vanilla essence

120g butter

2 eggs

250cc boiling water

Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa in a bowl. Add the sugar and the butter, cubed. Crumble the butter into the rest of the ingredients until you get a sandy texture.

In a separate jug, lightly beat the eggs with the vanilla essence. Add this to the dry ingredients and combine using a wooden spoon. Add the hot water and pour the mixture into a buttered and floured cake-tin. Bake at a moderate temperature until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

You can cut it in half and fill it with dulce de leche but, as you can see, I didn´t bother and it was delicious all the same!

I finally (FINALLY) went to Stockholm!

I have been wanting to go for years and years and I’m as pleased as punch that I did.

You know, living in London I guess I’m not that far away (not as far as if I  was living in Argentina in any case) but somehow I never got round to going there.

I suppose I can tick that off my ‘to do’ list now.

I only stayed for a few days but I managed to get a nice look around the city. And it tried as many Swedish specialities as I possibly could too!

One of the things they have was Toast Skagen or Skagen mix sandwich (you can see it in all its glory in the photo). The Swedes certainly love their fish! As they should because Stockholm is a city built on 14 islands so it’s surrounded by sea everywhere. I just fell in love with the city and I wouldn’t mind it in the least if life ever got me there and I had to live there for a while…

Skagen Mix is a classic Swedish recipe: a mayo-based sauce with shrimp and dill, “invented” by Tore Wretman who is one of the most famous Swedish chefs. He served it with toast, as in a Toast Skagen. This is found on menus all over Sweden (including as a baguette filling in many cafes), it’s an eternal classic appetizer.

His original recipe only had cooked shrimp, home-made mayonnaise and dill.

The name is something of a mystery. Skagen is the northern coast of Denmark’s largest island – and has nothing to do with Sweden.

This recipe comes via Anne’s blog, a Swedish girl through whom I learnt a lot about Sweden and Swedish food.

Skagen Mix
Two generous portions

3 tbsp mayonnaise
3 tbsp creme fraiche (low-fat is fine)
1 tbsp finely chopped dill
50 g bleak roe
500 g shrimp, unpeeled but cooked
½ red onion, finely diced
freshly ground white pepper

Peel the shrimp, and roughly chop them if you want to. (This is not the time to use jumbo shrimp, small ones will be better here.) Stir together the mayo and the creme fraiche or sour cream. Add the dill, roe, onion and white pepper. Add the shrimp. Mix well. Voila – you’re done! Serve with anything you’d like – it goes very well on toast, perfect in a ciabatta or in a baguette, excellent with baked potatoes or avocado.

The sandwich of the photo is a somewhat deconstructed version of it. Simply mayonnaise with boiled egg sliced and topped with a generous amount of cooked shrimp, red pepper rings, gherkins and some greens.

I mentioned before that my introduction to biscotti was via Denmark, when I learnt to make kammerjunker.

These are basically the Danish version of biscotti for the procedure is the same. The only variation is that they are made with melted butter instead of oil and also that they are significantly smaller in size. But that’s it.

They are not only dead easy to make, you can also make them when you haven’t got anything in the fridge.

Kammerjunker

4 eggs

300g sugar

100g melted butter (cold)

600g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

Whisk eggs and sugar. Add melted, cooled down butter. Sift dry ingredients and add, folding. Shape (almost like pate sablée, clingfilm and rest in the fridge for 25 minutes. Then divide into 6 equal parts and shape in long cylinders (small round cookies). Bake like this first, then cut into little rounds and bake again.

Bake at 150 C.

If they go too hard, warm up again so that you can cut them. These kammerjunker are traditionally served with koldskål in Denmark. The biscuits provide a much needed contrast to the soupy, creamy dessert. Even without the koldskål they are dangerously addictive!

Books for Cooks

Portobello Road

http://www.booksforcooks.com/

4 Blenheim Crescent, Notting Hill, London W11 1NN

Tel/ Fax:    020-7221-1517

A good recipe is one that can stand the test of time. I find the same to be true for TV sitcoms. Friends is such a show. It is one you can watch over and over and laugh out loud as if you’ve never heard the jokes before.

These poor cookies don’t get baked very often because it wouldn’t be fair to, you know… the other cookies.

Phoebe: Ok, um, (clears throat) we haven’t known each other for that long a time, and, um, there are three things that you should know about me. One, my friends are the most important thing in my life, two, I never lie, and three, I make the best oatmeal raisin cookies in the world. (Phoebe opens a tin and offers Rachel a cookie)

Rachel: (taking cookie) Ok, thanks Pheebs (takes bite of cookie, overwhelmed) Oh my God, why have I never tasted these before?!

Phoebe: Oh, I don’t make them a lot because I don’t think it’s fair to the other cookies.

Rachel: All right, well, you’re right, these are the best oatmeal cookies I’ve ever had.

Phoebe: Which proves that I never lie.

Rachel: I guess you don’t.

Phoebe’s fabulous oatmeal raisin cookies adapted  from “Cooking with Friends”

Makes 24

12 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup finely packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 ¼ cup flour

¾ tsp. baking powder

¾ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

1 ½ cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cream the butter and sugars with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 1’. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until smooth.

Stir together the oat, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Stir the dry ingredients into the batter until just combined. Stir in the raisins.

Drop dough by heaping tbsp. onto 2 large baking sheets (no need to grease them) leaving 2 inches between each ball dough. Bake until the cookies are golden brown, 12-15’. Cool the cookies on sheets for several minutes then transfer to a rack to cool further.

Note: you can also freeze the dough in rolls and bake them from frozen as needed. Another idea is to add chocolate chip cookies to the dough.

There is something old-fashioned almost mythical about the fruit known as the golden apple.

Quinces were sacred to Aphrodite. The goddess of love, the most seductive and beautiful of all the Greek goddesses, was always holding a quince.

The Greek law-maker Solon decreed that quinces should be the food served to every newly married couple on their wedding night. Chaucer included them in his tales of courtly love. Slices of quince were even on the menu at the wedding breakfast of the Owl and the Pussycat. The quince was important enough that Gaia, Earth herself, made a gift of a quince tree to Hera upon her marriage to Zeus.

But Aphrodite was always a mischief-maker, and the quince tree too has a double-edged reputation. The tree of golden apples so zealously guarded by the Hesperides, the Daughters of Evening, goddesses of sunsets, may well have been a quince. It was fruit from this tree, thrown under her feet, that caused Atalanta – who had sworn never to marry anybody who could not out-run her – to lose her race against Hippomenes. So distracted was Atalanta with magical allure of the golden quince that she stooped to pick them up and lost the race to her suitor. And it was probably a quince, not an apple, that Paris awarded to Aphrodite, starting the chain of events that led to the Trojan War.

It all started with Eris, the goddess of strife, discord and hatred who was excluded from the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. Without an invitation, she was refused. She was so angry that she inscribed a golden quince with the words to the fairest and threw it into the gathering. Three goddesses claimed it and Paris, a Trojan prince, was asked to award the quince to its rightful recipient. Aphrodite was his choice. They say this act is what began the Trojan War.

Even the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil with which Satan tempted Eve is thought now to have been a quince. Without quinces, we might all still be in Paradise.

You can understand the appeal.

The sweet red paste known to us as dulce de membrillo is known as quince paste. You buy it in blocks and for us in Argentina, it is the stuff of dreams too. Most remarkably in that Italian crostata which we wrongly call pastafrola (pastafrola is, technically, just the sweet pastry without the filling) but for us it is the whole combo. We wouldn’t conceive a pastafrola without membrillo. Unless it has, perhaps, a sweet potato filling. (I’m not kidding).

But today I thought I would share a much humbler dessert, what we call queso y dulce. It couldn’t be simpler but the combination is genius, especially if you pair membrillo with a much stronger cheese than the one in the photo, like, for example a mature Cheddar or a Manchego cheese. The saltiness of the cheese combined with the sweetness of the quince is superb. Pair it on crostini, drizzle with olive oil and you’ve got a nice little hors d’oeuvre.

You’d be forgiven to think this is a typo. Despite the saying that goes “as quintessentially American as apple pie” this humble dessert is actually… well, British.

The first documented recipe goes back as early as 1381 and I personally believe the Pilgrims took it with them to the New World some 300 odd years later and it was so good that the Americans adopted it as their own.

Dutch people also have adopted it as their own although there are some subtle differences: Dutch apple pie (or appeltaart) can also include raisins.

You might be surprised to realize that the original pastry dough is not sweet like a pate sucrée (sweetcrust pastry) but it is a brisée (shortcrust pastry) so it can double both for savoury and sweet fillings.

It does seem to work though. I personally prefer it wafer thin to leave room for the cinnamon-apple mixture to come out in all its glory. Plus it’s dead cheap to make so there’s no excuse not to try it!

Enjoy!

Apple pie

For the pastry:

Plain flour, 200g

Cold butter, cubed, 100g

Pinch of salt

Very cold water, as needed (about 4 or 5 tbsp.)

For the filling:

Apples, peeled, deseeded and cut into paper-thin slices, ½ kg

Sugar, 120g

Zest of ½ a lemon

Pinch of cinnamon

Melted butter, 30g

1.      Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2.      Sift the flour and salt on the worktop or into a big bowl.

3.      Add the cubed butter.

4.      With very cold hands (dip them in cold water if you must), rub the butter and flour until you get a grainy consistency. The butter should not melt with the flour. If you notice it’s melting, place the bowl in the freezer while you make the filling.

5.      Mix the sugar, lemon zest and cinnamon and pour this over the apple slices. Mix thoroughly to make sure everything is evenly coated. It does not matter if the apple slices break, they will melt to a soft purée anyway. Set aside.

6.      Take the bowl from the fridge and add enough cold water to form a dough. You can do this with a fork to avoid touching the dough too much.

7.      Form the dough (it should be soft and even, without lumps) and divide it into thirds.

8.      Use 2/3 of the dough to line a pastry case (buttered and floured). I really like to roll mine out very thinly. The dough is, after all, just holding the filling together, you don’t really want to be eating more crust than filling, or do you?

9.      Place a layer of the apple mixture and dot with some melted butter. Carry on repeating this apple mixture-melted butter layers until you have used it all up.

10.  Roll out the remaining 1/3 of dough. Cover the pie, seal the edges together and cut off any excess pastry.

11.  Make four (or more) concentric lines on the pie surface (this is to let the steam out and keep the dough from rising too much).

12.  Bake in a moderate oven until the dough is golden and crunchy.

13.  Serve warm with some chantilly or, even better, vanilla ice-cream.