COFFEE AND WALNUT TRAYBAKE

I had my eye on this recipe for the next time I needed to make a cake for a bit of a gathering and it didn't disappoint.  It’s from the original "Baking Bible" by Mary Berry.

It’s an all-in-one recipe and instead of butter I used the last of my pack of "spreadable" butter called Nordpak which came from Aldi in the UK.  (A number of very similar spreads and butters are available in France.)  After my experience with the lemon cake I did make sure it was very soft by giving it a few seconds of the "soften butter" function on my microwave, i.e. at a very low power.  I have to be careful with this as it’s easy to take it too far and end up with melted butter instead, but it's a useful function.

There are subtle differences between baking products available in France and those from the UK.  Some of my friends have trouble with the flour and the range of sugars on sale.  I'm getting used to using them and on this occasion I used a French brand of icing sugar (sucre glacé) for the buttercream topping.  Somehow this icing sugar seemed "claggy" or almost damp and it was taking ages to sift it.  In truth it had to be pushed through the sieve.  So I resorted to the food processor which made light work of it, giving the icing sugar a blitz on its own first.  Looking at the picture in the book the icing seemed quite soft so I added a few more spoonfuls to make it stiffer.

The cake was not the lightest sponge I have ever made but it tasted good and went down well.  It had risen beautifully and cut into 24 generous squares, ideal for a crowd, just the right size to handle and eat without getting too messy.  I trimmed the edges before icing and slicing to remove the crust from the sides.

Ingredients

For the cake

225g softened butter or spreadable butter product

225g light muscovado sugar (I used mostly soft light brown sugar as that's what I had)

 275g self raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

4 large eggs (I used 5 small eggs as they weighed about the same)

2 tblsp milk

2 tblsp Camp coffee essence

75g chopped walnuts

For the icing

75g softened butter

225g icing sugar 

2 tsp milk

2 tsp Camp coffee essence

walnut pieces to decorate

Method

Line a greased traybake tin, 30 x 23cm (mine was slightly bigger) with baking paper.  Preheat the oven to 180 C / 160 fan / gas mk 4.  

Put all the cake ingredients into a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until well combined.  

Spoon into the prepared tin and level the top.  Bake for 35-40 minutes until done.  Mine was a little over at 35 minutes probably due to the slightly larger tin, so I would check at 30 minutes next time.

Cool in the tin.

To make the buttercream put the icing sugar into a food processor and blitz for a few seconds to remove any lumps.  Add the coffee, butter and milk and process until combined and smooth.

Make sure the cake is completely cold and slice off the edges.  Spread the buttercream over the top and cut into squares of the size you prefer. 

Decorate each square with half a walnut or a few bits of chopped walnuts.

Cuts into 24 squares.

ICED LEMON SQUARES FOR AFTERNOON TEA

We have a friend whose birthday falls on St Patrick's Day so we held an afternoon tea party in his honour with a couple of nods to the Irish theme.  

A chocolate Guinness cake was the star of the show and of course Guinness was served for those brave enough to drink it so early in the day.

The cake stand had dainty sandwiches including egg and cress, always very popular, on the bottom tier.  The eggs were true free range, a gift from one of the ladies in our watercolour painting class and the yolks are an astonishingly bright orange.  She has a number of hens that lay lots of eggs and she brings everyone a box of half a dozen every week! We also used some home grown cress grown on our windowsill from a packet of seeds smuggled in from our trip back to the UK at Christmas.  (I have never found either cress or packets of seeds other than watercress in France.)

There were also ham and tomato sandwiches, smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches, all with the crusts removed!  I also made a plate of mini sausage rolls using cocktail frankfurters which were very tasty and well received.

The middle tier had home made scones (made by Nick) and some cream horns.  I wrote about them here.  The top layer had little iced and decorated squares of lemon cake.  I fancied doing French fancies but chickened out when I spotted this Irish recipe by Donal Skehan.  

However, they very nearly didn't happen.  The recipe is an all-in-one method and said to use butter "at room temperature". Well, I ended up with little flecks of butter in the mixture.  I knew that too much beating could make the cake tough not soft and had used up all my lemons so couldn't start again.  I looked for solutions on the internet.  Most said "just cook, it will be fine", a couple said beat harder and several said to sieve the mixture!  I tried that - what a palaver and I soon gave up and went with the "just cook" theory!

I baked it as a shallow tray bake, cut it into little squares and decorated with everything I had to make them look pretty. I made a thin icing using lemon juice and coloured half with yellow food colouring.  They looked perfect and tasted very lemony. The texture was slightly firm, a bit like a madeira cake and there were occasional little holes, presumably due to the tiny lumps of unblended butter.  

I would use this recipe again but make sure the butter was very well softened, not just "at room temperature" next time. I suppose that it very much depends on the temperature of the room!  The creaming method would have worked better to ensure the butter was properly blended on this occasion!

I could imagine my mum saying "you're never too old to make mistakes" and the swish of Mrs Stafford's broomstick as she swooped by!

Ingredients 

225g caster sugar

250g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 large eggs

225g butter at room temperature (well softened would be better)

3 tblsp milk

Zest of 3 lemons

For the icing:

200g icing sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

Sprinkles of your choice

Method

Preheat the oven to 160°C / 140° fan / gas mk 3.  Line a large rectangular baking tin, 30 x 23cm, with baking paper.

Put all the cake ingredients into a large bowl and beat with a hand held electric whisk until well blended.

Transfer the mixture to the tin and level the top.  Bake for 35 minutes until done.  Remove from the oven and after a few minutes carefully lift the cake in its paper out of the tin and onto a wire rack to cool.

To make the icing sift the icing sugar into a large bowl and beat in enough lemon juice to make it runny but not too thin.  

Divide your cake into half if you are using two colours or thirds if you are using three.  Cut into squares of the size you want, very small and dainty or larger.  Separate slightly on the paper or by removing onto the rack.

Coat one section of cake with white icing, allowing it to drip down the sides of the squares.

Transfer half of the remaining icing into a separate bowl if you are using three colours or colour the remainder with just one colour if you are using two colours.

Decorate with sprinkles.

Cuts into at least 20 squares depending on how dainty you want them!

COCTAIL SAUSAGE ROLLS

I have made dozens and dozens of mini sausage rolls over the years to this recipe here.  Then last year we were invited to a friend's house for a bbq party and amongst the nibbles for apéros a plate of tiny sausage rolls appeared on the table.  They were made using mini frankfurters, were very cute, dainty and tasty so I decided to have a go at making them myself.

The sausages come in tubs or shrink wrapped packs of various quantities.

If you can't get mini ones, use long frankfurters and cut them into shorter pieces.

They were easier to make than using sausage meat.  Very quick and one pack of the little sausages contains enough to create about thirty of them.  I made mine by dividing the rolled pack of puff pastry into half lengthwise but this gave each roll quite a thick blanket of pastry.  I think that next time I would try dividing the the pastry into three to get more sausage rolls with thinner pastry out of one sheet.

However, they were very tasty, very popular and I will definitely be using them again.

Follow the guidelines in my recipe for mini sausage rolls but arrange the little sausages in a line along one strip of pastry and cut it into the right length for each one before rolling up.

BROCCOLI, CAULIFLOWER AND BLUE CHEESE SOUP (soup maker recipe)

It's still very much soup weather here in France.  We seem to get one or two warm, sunny days, getting warmer week by week, followed by perishing cold grey, wet or drizzly days and very cold nights.  The 18°C sunshine  and clear blue sky the other day turned into a clear, starry night only a few degrees above freezing followed by a day of cold grey mizzle.  It's not time to put the soup maker to the back of the cupboard just yet and I regretted putting the electric blanket away already!

This soup was very much a "free soup" idea.  I always have to trim the leaves from a cauliflower to fit it into the fridge so had saved them and several stalks from some broccoli with the idea of turning them into soup.  My research told me it would produce a very delicate flavoured soup, which I interpreted as "not much flavour".  The usual way to add flavour to an otherwise bland soup is to add an extra stock pot or seasoning but I had decided on blue cheese, a popular flavour combo.

I discarded the floppy green bits from the cauliflower leaves and used mainly the thick white ribs.  I trimmed the ends and knobbly bits from the broccoli stems and removed the woody outer part.  I went a bit off piste and for once sautéed the leek.  

Into the cooked soup I stirred several dollops of whipped St Agur, a product I spotted here in France not long ago and it's delicious as a spread on toast or croutons.  I think that crumbling in any kind of blue cheese (to taste) would work just as well.  It added a lovely creaminess as well as the blue cheese flavour and the soup was divine.  Definitely a keeper!

Ingredients

cauliflower leaves

broccoli stems

1 leek

1 large potato, peeled and chopped

1 vegetable stock pot

creamed or whipped or crumbled blue cheese to taste

Method

Trim and wash the leek.  Slice into medium slices and fry gently in butter or oil until beginning to colour.

While the leek is cooking, discard any tired and floppy green parts of the cauliflower leaves.  Roughly chop the ribs and rinse well.

Trim the broccoli stems by removing the ends, the knobbly bits and the outer woody part.  Roughly chop and rinse well.

Add enough prepared veg to the soup maker machine to fill as far as the bottom line.  Add the stock pot and enough water to fill to the top line.

Cook on the smooth setting.

When cooked (or when reheating in a saucepan if serving later) stir in your blue cheese spread or other product to taste, until it melts and blends in.  A little can go a long way with some blue cheeses so go steady.  Season with salt and pepper to taste - remember that blue cheese can make it taste salty.

Serves 4 generous bowls of soup or 5-6 as a starter.

TOMATO AND RED PEPPER SOUP (soup maker recipe)

This recipe comes from an idea I spotted in a blog called "Liana's Kitchen".

I had a couple of red peppers in the fridge and roasting them with fresh tomatoes would have been a great idea.  However, I didn't have any fresh tomatoes and this was a lot quicker!  I used a tin of whole peeled tomatoes and added half a teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika which gave the soup an interesting smoky flavour.  

I had never tried using unsoaked red lentils in the soup maker before and my instincts told me it might lead to trouble (burnt bits in the machine and undercooked lentils) - but it worked!  It was a delicious soup, ready in less than thirty minutes from looking in the fridge to see what we could have for lunch today!  We ate it outdoors in the early spring/late winter sunshine - a rare treat with the very up and down weather we have had so far this year.

Ingredients

100g red lentils, well rinsed

2 red peppers, washed, seeds removed and chopped

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped 

1 tin whole peeled tomatoes including the juice

1 tsp sweet smoked paprika

1 garlic and thyme or vegetable stock pot

salt and pepper

Method

Put all the above ingredients into the soup maker.  Add enough water to fill to the top line and give it a good stir.

Cook on smooth setting.

Makes 4 generous portions (or six small bowls as a starter).

ANOTHER SUNDAY DINNER SOUP (soup maker recipe)

We are fans of leftovers in this house and there were quite a few after having friends round for Sunday lunch.  The menu was coronation chicken cocktail (a mini coronation chicken salad served as you would serve prawn cocktail), roast pork with home made sage and onion stuffing and apple sauce, cauliflower cheese, broccoli and mashed potatoes.

The table set for Sunday lunch for ten people.

You can see my earlier Sunday Dinner Soup here.  The principle is the same but this time there were enough leftover veg without adding anything else at all so no preparation of extra onion and carrot.  The quickest and easiest soup yet!

I had made the coronation chicken to an easy BBC Good Food recipe you can see here and I poached the chicken for it as per the recipe I used here.  I kept the liquid used for the poaching as stock, along with the bits of carrot and celery, with the possibility that there might be soup in mind.

Everything went into the soup maker and it was delicious, just like Sunday dinner in a bowl!  I added an extra spoonful of warmed apple sauce just before serving.  Yum!

Ingredients 

Two thin slices of roast pork, chopped

Cooked mashed potato and broccoli

A spoonful of cauliflower cheese

A small spoonful of stuffing (there was not much left)

The carrot and celery from poaching the chicken (or use a stick of celery and a carrot, chopped)

A spoonful of gravy

A blob of apple sauce

The poaching liquid from the chicken (or use a chicken stock pot or cube and water)

Method 

Add enough meat, cooked veg and stuffing to fill the machine to the bottom line.  Add the gravy, applesauce and enough of the poaching liquid (or the chicken stock pot/cube and water) to fill to the top line.  Stir well.

Cook on smooth.

Add a spoonful of warmed apple sauce before serving.

Makes 4 generous portions.

CHERRY AND COCONUT CAKE

Whilst doing my occasional purge of ancient condiments and out of date foods in the fridge I found a part used jar of bottled cherries.  These things are very sweet but delicious on ice cream or with chocolate cake.   This time my thoughts turned to "cherry cake" swiftly followed by "coconut"! 

I used one of my favourite coconut recipes from the Waitrose website which you can see here. I've previously adapted it to make a delicious coconut and lemon cake which you can see here.

I rinsed, dried and quartered the cherries, a process which I find a bit tedious which is why I've given the cake two stars for the faffing about.  It’s not hard to do, just always takes longer than you think!

The mixture turned out stiffer than I remember so I had to add a splash of milk if I was ever going to get it into the tin.  The good bit about that is that the cherries didn't all sink to the bottom of the cake!

Anyway, it turned out really well, was a lovely cake, with a good coconut flavour, a crisp crust, moist with a Madeira-like texture and little hits of the very sweet cherries.  Perfect for a "not quite Spring yet" cup of tea in the warm afternoon sunshine.  

It was very much appreciated in my watercolour class where we were painting snowdrops and everyone had a second slice!

Ingredients

175g unsalted butter, softened

175g golden caster sugar

3 eggs

1/4 tsp coconut flavouring (optional)

175g self raising flour

100g dessiccated coconut

100g bottled or glacé cherries

a splash of milk if needed

 

Method

 

Butter and line a 900g (2lb) loaf tin or use a paper liner.  Preheat the oven to 180°C /160°Fan / gas mk 4.

Rinse the cherries well and pat dry with kitchen paper.  Cut into quarters.  Put about a tablespoon of the measured flour into a small bowl and tip the cherries in.  Roll them around in the flour with a spoon so that they are well coated in flour.  This should help to avoid them all sinking to the bottom of the cake (although sometimes they do even though I have done this step!).

 

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar using a hand mixer, until light and fluffy.  

In a jug, beat the eggs with the coconut flavouring and then add a dribble at a time to the creamed mixture along with a little flour, beating well with each addition.

 

Fold in the remaining flour, then the coconut and cherries.  If the mixture seems very stiff, mix in a splash of milk to loosen it.  Spoon into the tin and level the top.

 

Bake for 50-60 minutes, covering with foil after 30 minutes, until done.  

 

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

 

Cuts into 8-10 generous slices.  

(Leftover slices are nice served warm as a pudding with custard!)

CHOCOLATE AND RASPBERRY CAKES for Valentine’s Day

With my OH back in the UK for a week I had arranged a Valentine’s Day meet up with some other ladies who are on their own and without a hot date for the evening.  Feeling at a loose end, I abandoned all the chores I had planned and decided to do something frivolous instead.  I made them all a little Valentine’s gift.

My first idea was to make some fairy cakes, or butterfly buns.  I used my basic all-in-one chocolate cake recipe which you can see here and poked a frozen raspberry into each one.  They turned out a bit craggy* which proved tricky for making the butterfly wings so having struggled with a few I gave up on that idea.  For the rest I just flattened the tops and swirled on some buttercream then sprinkled them with freeze dried raspberry chips.

I wrapped them up in food gift bags, putting a round coaster in the bottom of each one to keep them from falling over.  They looked very pretty and were much appreciated.  Luckily the bar we had chosen to meet was not full of twosomes staring lovingly into each other’s eyes so we didn’t feel too out of place!

*There are several possible reasons for the cragginess, including oven temperature, tin size (small paper cases) but it might be because I used a bag of sponge SR flour which was slightly out of date.  I added a half teaspoon of baking powder to compensate for the possibility that the raising agent might not be as effective but clearly it wasn’t needed and they rose a bit too much!

Ingredients

For the cakes

150g self raising flour

3 eggs

150g softened butter or baking spread

150g caster sugar

1 tbslp cocoa powder

1 tblsp warm water

12 fresh or frozen raspberries

For the icing

50g softened butter

100g icing sugar

1 tblsp cocoa powder

1 tblsp water

To decorate

freeze dried raspberry chips to sprinkle over or other red sprinkles

Method

Preheat the oven to 160°C / 140° fan.  Put 12 paper muffin or cupcake cases into a muffin tin.

In a small bowl, jug or cup mix the cocoa powder and water together to make a paste then put all the cake ingredients except for the raspberries into a large bowl and beat well until combined or use a hand held electric whisk.

Divide the mixture evenly between the paper cases (using an ice cream scoop will make this easier).  Push a single raspberry into the top of each cake.

Bake for 20 minutes until done.  Leave in the tin for a few minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool.

To make the icing, mix the cocoa powder and water together to make a paste.  Beat the butter until smooth, sift in the icing sugar and beat well.  Add the cocoa mix and beat in.

To make the butterfly buns, scoop out  a disc of cake from the top of each bun using a sharp knife.  Cut the disc into two halves.  Fill the hollow with a spoonful of chocolate icing and push the halved discs into the top to resemble butterfly or angel wings.  Sprinkle raspberry chips over the icing between the wings.

Alternatively, spread the top of each cake with a swirl of buttercream and sprinkle with the raspberry chips.

Makes 11-12 cakes

BEEF TAGINE WITH PRUNES

We have been rather under the weather for a couple of weeks lately, with horrible colds that we can't seem to shake off and that, combined with the grim winter weather, has had us feeling the need for comfort food even more than usual.

We haven't been up to doing much shopping either so, apart from a dash to the supermarket for some fresh milk and veg, we have been eating up what's in the freezer.  The other day I came across a small piece of stewing beef, called paleron in France, so decided to make another tagine...........we had enjoyed the lamb one so much!

This cookbook is the one I brought to France by mistake, not our favourite but has some nice recipes.  In it I spotted one for beef tagine with prunes which looked easy to do and not too taxing for my cold-fuddled brain.  I adapted the recipe and cooked it along similar lines to the lamb tagine but this time we had it with fresh carrots, broccoli and small potatoes.  We were desperate for fresh veg!  Just what the doctor ordered!  

I can remember clearly the very first time I had prunes cooked with meat.  It was in London in 1972 and I had only ever had prunes with custard or rice pudding before!  They go really well with beef and the lovely spices.

Ingredients 

1 tblsp olive oil

1 large knob butter

2 small red onions, finely chopped

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ ground black pepper

a few strands of saffron

150g stewing beef, trimmed and cubed

¾ of a tin (about 300g) of chopped tomatoes

1 tblsp honey

125g pitted prunes or just a few, as you like

2 tblsp flaked almonds (optional)

Method

Heat the oil and butter in the tagine, add the chopped onions and fry until softened.

Stir in the spices then the meat.  Stir well until the meat is well coated in the spice mixture.

Add the tomatoes and enough water to almost cover the meat and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat, put the lid on and simmer for 1½ hours, stirring occasionally.

Add the prunes, stir well, season to taste and cook for another 30 minutes.

If using the almonds, melt a little more butter and oil in a small frying pan, stir in the almonds, cook until they begin to turn golden brown and add to the tagine just before serving.

Serve with couscous (or veg and potatoes, or pasta)

Serves 2.

LAMB TAGINE WITH DATES

Many years ago, at least fifteen years, possibly more, we were given a book for Christmas entitled "Tagines and Couscous", things that were not part of our usual cooking repertoire.  Then shortly afterwards, Nick came home from work one day with a lovely Emile Henry tagine dish during the January sales, spotted in the window of a gorgeous kitchenware shop which he passed every day on his way to and from the station. (Sadly the shop closed down several years ago.)

The idea of putting a ceramic dish on the hob to cook something seemed very wrong but we crossed our fingers and tried one of the recipes from the book.  It was delicious and we embarked upon a cooking adventure of buying ingredients we had not used before - at the weekends when we had time to do it.  Tagines require long, slow cooking.  

Our opportunities were limited as my dad came round for dinner every Sunday evening and he was not a fan of "foreign food" so it had to be a Saturday or nothing.  Then, a few years later, my GI (gastrointestinal, not American soldier) problem prevented me from eating anything even faintly spicy and the tagine fell into disuse, gathering dust on the top of the fridge.  The shape of them makes them take up too much space in a cupboard!

We dusted it off and brought it back to France with us after our latest trip to the UK at Christmas - such things have to wait until we make the journey by car! Unfortunately we left the recipe book behind but at least that can be easily fetched the next time we fly!  Nick found one of our favourite recipes from it online here which we adapted to use the two lamb neck steaks, destined originally for making haggis, to make our favourite tagine.

I now manage my GI problem by simply leaving the chillies and strong spices out of recipes!  Everything is just as tasty without the searing heat!

If you don't have a tagine you can of course make the stew in a heavy based saucepan with a tight fitting lid or a cast iron casserole dish.

Ingredients 

1 tblsp olive oil

1 large knob butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 small knob of fresh ginger, peeled and grated (or ½tsp ground ginger)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 small lamb neck steaks or 250g lamb, trimmed and cubed

1 tblsp honey

125g stoned dates or just a few, as you like

2 tblsp flaked almonds (optional)

Method

Heat the oil and butter in the tagine, add the chopped onion and fry until golden brown.

Stir in the spices then the meat.  Stir well until the meat is well coated in the spice mixture.

Add enough water to almost cover the meat and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat, put the lid on and simmer for 1½ hours.

Add the dates, stir well, season with salt and pepper and cook for another 30 minutes.

If using the almonds, melt a little more butter and oil in a small frying pan, stir in the almonds, cook until they begin to turn golden brown and add to the tagine just before serving.

Serve with couscous (or potatoes, or pasta)

Serves 2.

CHICKEN BALMORAL AND HOMEMADE HAGGIS with whisky sauce

Whilst back in the UK for three weeks over Christmas we talked about holding another Burns Night Supper and I wondered whether it might be possible to buy some actual haggis to bring back to France (illegally, as it’s a meat product).

I remember eating haggis in my twenties and liking it.  At the time I lived in Leeds and would buy a real haggis, tied up with string, from the excellent food department of Lewis's on the Headrow. That’s not John Lewis, by the way, but Lewis's.  It was a fabulous shop (to me it was almost the Harrod's of the North).  The food department was in the basement with a black and white tiled floor and you could buy all manner of everyday or exotic foods.  Between Lewis's, Schofield's, the old arcades and the fantastic markets Leeds was a wonderful place to shop in the 1970's.

I found several recipes online suggesting how to use haggis, including some for something called "chicken Balmoral" or "highland chicken" where it’s used as a stuffing for chicken breasts.  I thought that sounded more interesting and possibly more tempting that just serving a dollop of it on the plate for anyone unfamiliar with haggis.  I chose one on a blog called "Caroline's cooking" then noticed that there was also a recipe for homemade haggis, a version that has the offal elements reduced to a minimum.  Real haggis contains the kind of offal that few people would enjoy nowadays, plus suet, onion, oatmeal and spices.  This recipe has enough of a hint of offal without the scary bits.

I had a tin of pinhead oatmeal in the cupboard so brought that back to France after Christmas. For the meat element I used neck of lamb steaks which were reasonably priced and the chicken was ultimately wrapped in English smoked streaky bacon, now an illegal import from the UK!  We had long since worked out that most of our friends were bringing their favourite meats and cheeses to France without any trouble so we thought we'd risk it ourselves.  Nobody at the border took the slightest interest in the contents of our car or cool box.  I imagine that after the early post Brexit flush of enthusiasm the border staff have bigger fish to fry than to search for the odd pound of bacon or sausages!

You can see the recipe for Chicken Balmoral here and for the haggis stuffing here.  I modified both recipes and have to say, I wouldn’t make it again, but decided to write about it because our guests enjoyed it!  For myself I decided that my haggis eating days are well behind me but you never know, you might like it!  I also used some of the Oxo cube stock to make a whisky sauce or gravy to go with it.  Once we got going making the haggis we only used two of the four small lamb steaks I had bought so saved the other two to make a lamb tagine.  I enjoyed that much more!

The stuffed chicken filets can be prepared well in advance which makes it an ideal dinner party dish, as long as you like haggis!  Alternatively stuff them with something else!  The whisky sauce was nice.

Ingredients

For the Haggis

a large knob of butter plus 1 tblsp of vegetable oil (more if needed)

250g lamb steaks

½ tsp each of ground cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, allspice and dried thyme

1 onion

100g chicken livers (or other liver)

50g pinhead oatmeal

½ pint / 200ml chicken or beef stock made using a stock cube or stock pot (we made 400ml from one cube and used the remainder to create a whisky sauce)

salt and pepper

For the chicken Balmoral

4 medium sized chicken breasts

12-15 rashers smoked streaky bacon or unsmoked for a lighter flavour

For the whisky sauce

200ml chicken or beef stock (the remainder from making the haggis)

2 tblsp double cream

A good splash of whisky

Method

To make the haggis, cut the lamb steaks into cubes and mince in a food processor until medium/fine.  Add the liver pieces and process again until combined.  

Chop the peeled onion finely.

Heat the butter and oil in a large saucepan, add the onion and cook until softened.

Add the meat and spices, fry until the meat is browned.  Add the stock, cover and simmer for 20 minutes until the meat is cooked.  Season with salt and pepper, stir in the oatmeal and cook for another 20-30 minutes.  You can add more pepper and spices to taste as it cooks.  Go easy at first.  Set aside to cool.

Slash each chicken breast, open out and flatten slightly by bashing with a rolling pin.  Place 1 tbslp of haggis in the middle of each one or enough to fill it adequately.  Fold over to close the fillet.

Lay enough rashers of bacon to almost cover a chicken filet on a piece of cling film, place one on top and roll up, leaving the joins in the bacon underneath.  Repeat with the other chicken filets and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes in the cling film on a tray.

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° fan.  Place the chicken filets on a baking tray and bake in the oven for around 40 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

To make the whisky sauce, put the stock into a small pan and bring to the boil.  Stir in the cream and whisky and cook gently until heated through.  Serve immediately with the chicken.

Traditionally this would be served with mashed potatoes and swede, plus a green vegetable such as beans or cabbage.

Serves 4.

ECCLEFECHAN TART

After the success of last year's Burns Night Supper we decided to do it again this year but with a different menu.  The main course and dessert were things I had never made before.  I'll save the post about home made haggis for another day but as Nick said about the dessert "it's a keeper".  I'm not sure the same could be said for the haggis!

I stumbled across the recipe for Ecclefechan tart in a blog called "Them Apples".  You can see it here where it's credited to Jamie Oliver from his book "Jamie's Great Britain".  It's almost a cross between a mince pie and a treacle tart, looks suitably dark and dramatic, and is very rich and delicious.  It also reminded me a little of the Be-Ro butter tartlets that I made a while ago - see here.

My own copy of "Jamie's Great Britain", a charity shop purchase, is currently in our UK house so I couldn't verify the recipe and several other versions of it appear online.  Look it up and take your pick!

This recipe makes quite a large tart and being very rich you only need a small slice.  It would easily serve quite a crowd.  Next time I think I would scale it down a bit (which would be another good reason to go and get a smaller tin!).

I made my own pastry from scratch for the first time in ages.  (Whisky is used to bring the dough together but I'm not quite sure I would do that again.)  I certainly seemed to be out of practice with the pastry making, even with the help of a food processor!  There was much patching of splits and cracks and it was very crumbly, which I found rather disappointing considering that until I got lazy and started using shop bought pastry, I've been doing it since I was about ten years old!  Even so, the tart was lovely and I would definitely make it again, and not just for Burns Night.  It’s a great dessert for the winter months.

As an aside, over the years several people have asked me where I find black treacle in France.  The answer is, I don’t think I ever have!  You can probably get it from the online shopping services that provide British foods to ex-pats in France although I haven't used them myself.  I have occasionally seen tins of Lyle's golden syrup on the "English shelf" in several French supermarkets but in fact I bring mine from the UK.  

Squeezy plastic bottles make it easier to weigh or measure out so I now buy both black treacle and golden syrup that way. 

Lyle's golden syrup is available in squeezy bottles in UK supermarkets but most have their own brand equivalent.  The flavour is slightly different from Lyle's but fine for baking - you might only notice the difference if you like it on your porridge or a crumpet!  I first saw a squeezy bottle of Silver Spoon black treacle in (I think) Asda but the other shop that stocks it is M&S.  I usually get some when we visit the UK by car.  It’s perfectly legal to bring it to France but as it's a liquid you can’t carry it in a cabin bag if travelling by say Ryanair.  It’s fine in your checked in bag but I'd recommend sealing it in a plastic bag or two, just in case of mishaps!

A further update/aside:

I ordered a secondhand copy of Jamie Oliver's book from Amazon.  The books never cost very much and the postage to France was only a couple of pounds more than to the UK so I thought it was worth a punt.  I have had secondhand books posted successfully before but that was before Brexit and I thought this might be a good test case in terms of whether or not I would be stung for hefty import duties.  (The reason why thousands of small UK businesses have lost their European customers.)  A friend recently had to pay 38€ to receive a parcel containing her own clothes, mostly old and well worn, which she had posted due to lack of capacity in her flight luggage.

Anyway, four weeks later the book had not arrived.  I contacted the seller and they immediately sent another copy.  Three weeks later book number two turned up and was just left in my post box with no demand for import duties.  (I am still convinced that book number one might eventually turn up!)

I looked up the recipe for Ecclefechan tart and found the only difference to mine was the addition of some chopped stem ginger, so the next time I make it I will add that and also some chopped walnuts as Karen suggested in the comments.

As a further, further aside……French post boxes are excellent.  They are a large metal box which is usually positioned on the street, so in your gate, wall, door if that's on the street, or a pole at the end of the drive.  They are quite capacious and will take a large parcel.  The outer door has a lock to which all postman have a universal master key so quite large parcels can be delivered whether you are at home or not.  The inner door has a key unique to the box so that only you can retrieve it.  Great idea!  Of course, you can still have a bit of a palaver if the parcel is sent by courier other than La Poste, as they don’t have the master key.

Ingredients

For the pastry

250g plain flour

125g cubed salted butter

50ml whisky

For the filling

1 generous tblsp black treacle

300g mixed dried fruit - I used roughly equal quantities of currants, sultanas, raisins and cranberries

150g unsalted butter, softened

150g soft light brown sugar

3 large eggs

150ml double cream

zest of 1 small orange and 1 small lemon, mixed together

Method

Make the pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour either by hand or using a food processor.  Add the whisky to bring the dough together into a ball (I also had to add a splash of water).  Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.*

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° fan / gas mk 4.  Butter a 25cm loose bottomed tart tin.  Placing the tin on a baking sheet makes it easier to get in and out of the oven.

Roll out the pastry to line the tin and prick the base all over with a fork.  Line with scrunched up baking parchment, fill with baking beans and blind bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and lift out the paper and beans.  Bake for another 5 minutes until beginning to turn golden brown and remove from the oven.

To make the filling, cream together the butter and sugar and beat in the eggs one at a time.  Stir in the double cream.

Drizzle the black treacle over the pastry base and scatter the dried fruit evenly over it.  Scatter the orange and lemon zest over the top.  Pour or spoon the filling on top of the fruit and spread it out evenly.  

Return to the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes (mine took about 40 minutes) until almost set.  There should be a slight wobble.

Allow to cool slightly before removing from the tin.  (Mine had leaked here and there and stuck to the base so I served it on the base, on a cake stand.)

Serve at room temperature.

Cuts into 10-12 generous slices.

*the next time I made the tart I made a standard sweet pastry recipe using 225g plain flour, 120g cold butter, 2 tblsp icing sugar and an egg beaten with a splash of water.

For the filling I used 260g combined weight of dried fruit plus 40g chopped walnuts.  I also added 2 balls of stem ginger, chopped.

The pastry was easier to handle and roll out, didn’t need any patching, I didn’t chill it because it was a perishing cold day, and it turned out of the tin beautifully!

SOUP OF THE DAY (soup maker recipe)

I know I have waxed lyrical before about how useful I have found my soup maker but.........

Having made the Caesar salad for lunch one day I decided to use the veg and liquid from poaching the chicken the next day in a soup.  It worked really well using a random selection of other veg.  I poured the poaching mixture through a sieve into a jug first to pick out the veg then strained the liquid again to avoid using any unwanted bits in the soup.

My soup maker is a very basic design, doesn't have a sauté function, simply cooks either smooth or chunky but can be used as a blender only.  This is handy if I have made a chunky soup, such as minestrone, then decide I want the chunks a bit smaller.  A quick zap on the blender function makes it a bit finer.

My machine is essentially a large kettle with a blender in it.  Whilst I know that there are some soups that are better made using other means, for everyday lunches and most soups it works perfectly well.  There’s no simmering, stirring, or ladling into a blender to be done.  Once the veg are chopped and you switch it on it does all the work while you do something else and a perfectly good home made soup is ready less than thirty minutes later.  You can add a little spice, a few chopped herbs and a swirl of cream when served in the bowl or, my personal favourite from a Nigella Lawson recipe, a splash of dry sherry and some freshly grated nutmeg.  

There are numerous websites and cook books available to give you ideas, although many of them use machines with extra functions.  If a recipe needs fried or roasted ingredients I do that while chopping the rest of the veg.

One of the veg I like to use now is Jerusalem artichokes as a couple of these add a unique smokiness to the flavour of any soup.  I always buy a few when I see them as they also seem to keep quite well in the fridge.

For this soup I used

The veg and parsley from poaching the chicken (celery, carrot and garlic)

1 large carrot

1 largeish potato

1 medium onion

1 large leek

2 smallish Jerusalem artichokes

3 broccoli stalks, woody outer layer removed

1 chicken stock pot

Method

Having put the poaching veg into the soup maker add enough prepared other veg to fill to the bottom line.

Add the strained poaching liquid and enough water to fill to the top line.

Add the stock pot, give it a good stir and cook on smooth.

Makes 4 generous bowls of soup.

CHICKEN CAESAR SALAD

One of the bars in our village changed hands last winter and is now a very popular bistro style restaurant called Brody's, serving excellent pizzas, lasagne, burgers and salads.  My absolute favourite salad is their chicken Caesar salad.  After a few of those I wondered why I never make it at home and thought it was time I did.  My version is similar to the one they serve.

The chicken ready for poaching.

I now make it quite often using leftover roast chicken or a poached chicken breast, although you can of course buy packs of cooked chicken breast which do the job very well.  You can also cook the chicken breast in an air fryer, adding a few spices if you like, which takes about ten minutes at 180°.  

One poached chicken breast makes plenty of salad for the two of us or would make a starter for four.  I doubt this Caesar salad would pass muster with the authentic salad police but it's a formula we enjoy.  You can obviously omit the ingredients you don't fancy or add other things you like, such as a bit of chopped cucumber.  Some recipes suggest adding bits of crispy bacon which sounds very tasty but I haven't strayed that far yet!

You can also poach the chicken from frozen which is very handy.  I frequently freeze chicken breasts individually, bagging them separately from a large pack from the supermarket, to thaw out one at a time for future use but they work perfectly well from frozen here, just taking a few more minutes to cook in the poaching liquid.

The salad ready for the dressing.

The thing that makes it a Caesar salad as opposed to just chicken salad is the dressing.  I have in the past used home made Caesar dressing based on this recipe here which contains no anchovies.  It came in very handy for a guest who was allergic to most kinds of fish.  Mostly though I use shop bought Caesar salad dressing and have found Heinz readily available in France and very good.  Some others are a bit too thin and not creamy enough.

For the croutons I break up into chunks the dried slices of baguette sold in a local supermarket.  Such things are readily available here for people to serve as apéros with patés or numerous other spreads.  You could make your own or buy packets of cubed croutons (or leave them out).

Since first writing this post I have attempted to make my own croutons by simply drying out some thin slices of yesterday's baguette on a baking tray in the oven part of our wood burner.  It seemed to work!  The temperature was about 200°C and they were in for about ten minutes, turning them over once, until a nice golden brown and crisp.

One thing that is worth the effort is making sure you have the right kind of lettuce, such as iceberg or romaine.  It needs to be crispy and somehow it doesn't work with the floppy kind!  

Ingredients

For the poached chicken

1 skinless chicken breast

1 medium carrot, peeled 

1 stick of celery, washed

1 fat clove of garlic, peeled 

a few stalks of fresh parsley or a pinch of dried parsley

For the Caesar dressing 

2 tblsp mayonnaise

a squeeze of lemon juice or  ½ tblsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp mild mustard such as Dijon

a splash of Worcestershire sauce

1 small clove of garlic, grated

1 tbslp grated parmesan (shop bought ready grated is fine)

For the salad

a chunk of crispy lettuce, washed and shredded (not too finely)

a handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

a few stoned black olives, halved

½ a red onion, peeled and finely chopped (or use a spring onion)

¼ of a red pepper, de-seeded and finely chopped 

a handful of crisp croutons 

1-2 tblsp grated parmesan

Method 

To poach the chicken breast, roughly chop the carrot and celery and put them with all the other poaching ingredients into a medium saucepan.  Add enough water to cover the meat, season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat to a simmer immediately and cook for 15 minutes until the chicken is tender and cooked through.

Lift the chicken out of the liquid and set aside to cool.  You can discard the liquid and veg or use them to make homemade soup.  When the chicken is cold cut into chunks.

For the Caesar dressing, put all the ingredients into a small bowl and mix together, adding extra ingredients to taste.

To assemble the salad put everything into a large bowl, add the chicken and enough dressing to just coat the salad - don't drown it.  Mix thoroughly.

Serve with crusty bread or, if feeling indulgent, a bowl of chips.

Serves 2 as a main course, 4 as a starter.