The filling was really simple, using a bit of lemon zest, rather than buerre nuisette from last time. The whole lot went into one blind baked case and into a slow oven for half an hour.
Onward to the bit you've been waiting for.
Sunday, 31 January 2010
Treacle tart a la hairy
Yup the hairy bikers do treacle tart to. Its as lot less forbidding than Heston's recipe, taking up a mere half page of text. The pastry is a lot less rich too. As you can see.
I'm only going to use half that butter, so its a much more standard pastry making procedure, cold hands cubed butter, 15 mins rubbing in. We also get to skip the fridge hokey-cokey that the tart bases required in the perfection recipe. In fact its even suggested you make the filling first to give it time to soak into the breadcrumbs properly.
The pastry came together ok, but didn't fill the house with the wonderful scents from the perfection pastry, but then it didn't cramp my hands & lurk in the fridge either. Also when the hairies say enough for a treacle tart to serve 6, they are much closer than Heston's mass catering effort. My friends & neighbours won't be pleased though. I was planning on leaving the golden syrup unaged, till I found the tin on the back of the shelf which had aged quite nicely on its own, in fact it had aged enough to separate. That's an easy thing to take care of, just heat the syrup & stir. Heating the syrup is usually wise anyway coaxing a full tin of cold syrup out into a bowl is a real chore. Remember to loosen the lid though or you'll have to duck.
The internet solved the breadcrumb problem quite neatly. Behold the mini-chop. Whilst my kitchen is in need of the TLC only a partial rebuild can supply this is very useful, taking up very little space and being on hand for choppy jobs at a moments notice. I expect as we head toward the warmer time of the year it'll be pressed in to making curry pastes and the like.
The filling was really simple, using a bit of lemon zest, rather than buerre nuisette from last time. The whole lot went into one blind baked case and into a slow oven for half an hour.
Onward to the bit you've been waiting for.
As you can see the filling is denser & deeper than the perfection tart. The pastry is probably a little better made than the perfection pastry, but that might just be the fact its a more standard short crust. What you can't tell is that it's no where near as fragrant as the perfection tart. It tastes like treacle tart, good treacle tart. Unfortunately it can't really measure up to the gold standard that Heston sets. That said this is pretty easy to make, and not much more than 2-3 pounds worth of ingredients. The perfection tart costs more to make and requires a much larger time investment, but the results are worth while. Keep this one for quick entertaining (or cynically guests you are less fond of) and break out the perfection tart when you have prep time and really want to impress
The filling was really simple, using a bit of lemon zest, rather than buerre nuisette from last time. The whole lot went into one blind baked case and into a slow oven for half an hour.
Onward to the bit you've been waiting for.
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Smoked out
Following on from my MxMo experiments I found this post, being fond of Islays it gave me an idea. Hanging round in the globe o' booze there was the remnants of a half bottle of Caol ila. Infusing Lapsang into the whisky required a bit of tasting and tweaking. The result somehow flatten the iodine note from the ila & the astringency from the lapsang's pine smoke.
I took a sample to my favourite bar and we tried out a few ideas.
We used the whisky as a base, and then used some port to balance out the tannins, a bit of cherry syrup to balance the acidity and a splash of sweet vermouth to round out the body.
Up front was a smooth sweetness, the body was warm & round, but the entire drink was all about the finish, which was a massive blast of smoke. Smooth, sweet, fragrant smoke. Possibly this a one trick pony of a drink, but a whole bunch of ideas got discussed, and since there is more left, I think I'll try and put some of the ideas into practice.
I took a sample to my favourite bar and we tried out a few ideas.
We used the whisky as a base, and then used some port to balance out the tannins, a bit of cherry syrup to balance the acidity and a splash of sweet vermouth to round out the body.
Up front was a smooth sweetness, the body was warm & round, but the entire drink was all about the finish, which was a massive blast of smoke. Smooth, sweet, fragrant smoke. Possibly this a one trick pony of a drink, but a whole bunch of ideas got discussed, and since there is more left, I think I'll try and put some of the ideas into practice.
Friday, 29 January 2010
MXMO round up
Its here, and makes some interesting reading. Some groan worthy punning names, some unusual ideas and some very good looking drinks.
If we are going on looks alone old town alchemy's iridescent has it. I might be trying my hand at one of those quite soon. They also went with a tea rinse, that's an idea I can get along with. I've given it a kind of try already. Not wanting to go to the length of making a cup of tea and then letting it cool enough to use I grabbed my earl grey gin and stirred up a very dry Martini, Garnished with just a lemon twist, the bergamot comes through right at the end in a ghost of citrus way.
Best/worst pun has to go to Kick my Assam, and I'm intrigued by the daiquiri stylings of tea with Hemmingway.
If I've not mentioned you sorry but thanks go to everyone involved.
Tomorrow there should be something more foodie, but I'll be back on the cocktails over the weekend too as I've been inspired.
Monday, 25 January 2010
Crumpets v Pikelets take two
The last lot of Crumpets using the Hairy Biker recipe where good, they just weren't good enough. The purpose of crumpets (and pikelets) is to form a toasty matrix for holding molten butter. It turns out that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has a recipe (well more a sermon on tea-time treats). I thought I'd give it a whirl.
Thats the batter there, after the yeast has done it's work. The batter is a lot thinner this time round, more the texture of thin cream than the doughier batter of the Hairy recipe. Time to heat the skillet and find out what goes on. Hugh Suggests a test crumpet, which by tradition wil be sacrificed to Chef's privilege so I'm all in favour.
I was a touch sloppy getting all the batter into the crumpet ring, but the 2 important points are on display, 1 bubbles, and bubbles make holes, which is why we are making crumpets in the first place. 2 the batter is staying in the ring, its not oozing out of the bottom, so we've got the correct proportions. What follows is about an hour with the skillet & crumpet rings, but Hugh insists that pikelets are just flat crumpets (a position I've opposed for a long time, but since I've failed to find any evidence to back up my stance, I'm reluctantly agreeing with Hugh & others). This does though mean that I can get a nice system running where I alternate between crumpets & pikelets & get to clean the crumpet rings without wasting gas.
Well here they are pikelets, the store bought ones of my youth were actually a bit more circular & a little less rustic than these. Even so there is a good deal of promise being shown. At this point, if you've never enjoyed crumpets or pikelets you are probably asking yourself "Why is he so worked up about this ?". Well, pikelets have a different mouth feel to crumpets (in my opinion a superior one) that these experiments lead me to believe is due to their thickness. In both its possible for a hole to extend through the entire depth, of course with crumpets being several centimetres high, its unlikely, pikelets however are more in the order of millimetres thick, so it becomes highly likely, and when done right the majority of holes reaches the thin batter base. This provides for a much stickier eating experience, with pikelets trapping more molten butter. Here as inspiration is the bounteous harvest of teatime goodness
Thats the batter there, after the yeast has done it's work. The batter is a lot thinner this time round, more the texture of thin cream than the doughier batter of the Hairy recipe. Time to heat the skillet and find out what goes on. Hugh Suggests a test crumpet, which by tradition wil be sacrificed to Chef's privilege so I'm all in favour.
Saturday, 23 January 2010
The humble potato
I love potatoes, roast are the very best, but baked are pretty high up on the list.
I have 2 top tips from cooks I trust. Heston recommends you oil the skin, this prevents the potato drying out. Nigel Slater recommends you give the potato a good karate chop on removing it from the oven, this allow the steam to escape in a rush fluffing your potato up. Anyone with any sense then works a good quality of butter in to the flesh. You can remove it all, mash it with butter and put it back into the skins, or you can just mash it in place. After that you can add the fillings of your choice.
They need to be cooked in an oven or a fire, either will do, it'll take about an hour, you can do what you like in that time (Today I took part in a readathon) after all the potato isn't going anywhere. Some argue this takes to long and use a microwave, I'd disagree, it tastes better the slow way.
I have 2 top tips from cooks I trust. Heston recommends you oil the skin, this prevents the potato drying out. Nigel Slater recommends you give the potato a good karate chop on removing it from the oven, this allow the steam to escape in a rush fluffing your potato up. Anyone with any sense then works a good quality of butter in to the flesh. You can remove it all, mash it with butter and put it back into the skins, or you can just mash it in place. After that you can add the fillings of your choice.
They need to be cooked in an oven or a fire, either will do, it'll take about an hour, you can do what you like in that time (Today I took part in a readathon) after all the potato isn't going anywhere. Some argue this takes to long and use a microwave, I'd disagree, it tastes better the slow way.
A life of its own
The mixology monday tea theme has taken on a life of its own, in two seperate directions.
The obvious one is with tea infusions, I've been twiddling with the Lapsang & the smokier whiskies (mainly the islays (Its not heresy, its science)) and seem to have come up with a winning combo in the Caol ila and an hours infusion of the lapsang. It changes the colour of the malt from very pale to a deep amber, and at the same time smooths it out, you get big smoke up front and then a smooth finish with the sea notes that islays are famous for.
The less obvious one is boosting sections of the flavour profile, I'm restricting myself to florals at the moment, mainly because I really like them. This isn't going so well, here is the story of a failure.
The manhatten is a traditional whisky cocktail, and seemed right for what I was planning, a quick search of my bottles and a couple of questions to the web suggested that Glenfiddich might be a place to start. There are a few things I make at home as ingredients. Lavender syrup because I need some way of keeping it in check in the garden. Flavoured vodkas (I use boru, its 5x filtered and gives a nice clean base) usually fruits but also vanilla.Glenfiddich has vanilla & lavender notes, so this all seemed ideal.
Its not. The result whilst not undrinkable is an overpowering burn of alcohol, which when finished really doesn't leave anything you'd call flavour behind. I'll keep going though and hopefully some thing will drop out.
The obvious one is with tea infusions, I've been twiddling with the Lapsang & the smokier whiskies (mainly the islays (Its not heresy, its science)) and seem to have come up with a winning combo in the Caol ila and an hours infusion of the lapsang. It changes the colour of the malt from very pale to a deep amber, and at the same time smooths it out, you get big smoke up front and then a smooth finish with the sea notes that islays are famous for.
The less obvious one is boosting sections of the flavour profile, I'm restricting myself to florals at the moment, mainly because I really like them. This isn't going so well, here is the story of a failure.
The manhatten is a traditional whisky cocktail, and seemed right for what I was planning, a quick search of my bottles and a couple of questions to the web suggested that Glenfiddich might be a place to start. There are a few things I make at home as ingredients. Lavender syrup because I need some way of keeping it in check in the garden. Flavoured vodkas (I use boru, its 5x filtered and gives a nice clean base) usually fruits but also vanilla.Glenfiddich has vanilla & lavender notes, so this all seemed ideal.
Its not. The result whilst not undrinkable is an overpowering burn of alcohol, which when finished really doesn't leave anything you'd call flavour behind. I'll keep going though and hopefully some thing will drop out.
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Tea for two
Oban is a place I visited a few times and they make a fine malt, that sometimes gets called an island due to the saltiness of having you distillery on the sea front. The tasting notes for the Oban are smoke,honey,salt,orange in no particular order. This and a recent reading of Embury gave me an idea, could I boost the flavours & smooth out the alcohol ?
Ingredients, The Oban 14yr old, its quite easy to find as its one of "the six classic malts". I find it a gentle whisky that won't really offend or scare anyone. A medium lapsang (this is actually from a Dutch tea merchant :- Simon Levelt ,who als supplied the smoked Earl Grey for the Picard). Some local honey. Hoppe's orange bitters.Finally some good sea salt (I think this is Kosher salt for US readers).
Since I drink a fair amount of loose tea I have tea filters (DIY tea bags) around, that makes the infusion a bit easier. The colour of the Oban doesn't really change dramatically during the infusion, so keep an eye (and a taste on it, we don't want it to get bitter). The lapsang and the Oban go well together the earthy lapsang is up at the front, the whisky filling in the body behind, but still on the fierce side. How though would it be best to bring it together. My first thought was a Manhattan variation, since it's a versatile classic, but I was worried the vermouth would overpower the notes I wanted. Then it dawned on me, bitters, sugar & whisky, that is an old-fashioned.
Tea for two a modern twist on an old fashioned.
A couple of flakes of sea salt go in the bottom of your glass (I couldn't resist the glass tea cups, sorry). (as an aside, I'm quite sensitive to salt, you might want to up to maybe a half pinch) Put a half bar spoon of honey in & then add a couple of spoons of orange bitters, stir/muddle the salt & honey into the bitters, splash in some of the tea infused whisky & a couple-3 ice cubes. Stir/muddle till everything is dissolved. Add more whisky to the depth you or your drinkers enjoy, stir a bit more and then remove the ice cubes. Put a fresh ice cube into each glass, pare off a bit of orange zest and then squeeze (flame if you like or are trying to impress) to get the oils onto the surface of the drink, and drop into the glass as decoration.What you should get is a boosted Oban that is smoothed out and notched back from its usual fierceness.
Monday, 18 January 2010
Rattlesnake
Left over egg whites & lemon juice tend to focus the mind of the cocktail afficionado on the drink cabinet. A quick scan of the literature gave Harry Craddock's rattlesnake, the Savoy book gives the quantities for 6. In my glasses it came to 4.
Rattlesnake
4 parts whiskey
2 parts sweetened lemon juice
2 egg whites
1 barspoon absinthe
Ends up as a smooth dry cocktail that went suprisingly well with the treacle tart
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Treacle tart a la Blumenthal
Probably the first thing you heard about Heston Blumenthal was "snail porridge" or "bacon & egg ice cream". They are both great dishes, but to the man in the street it seems more shock & awe than cooking. So a couple of years back when the BBC commissioned "In search of perfection" I tuned in. The first thing I saw was his treacle tart program. Him & his research chefs made a vast array of syrups, from scratch and then tasted them and came to the conclusion that "The one in the familiar green tin"1 was the best. That pretty much sealed my fate, after all how many 3 star chefs after experiment say buy the ingredient from the local co-op !
So when I got the book of the series I enjoyed reading it and started to look for a recipe I could give a reasonable go to, after the burgers the tart looked like a good bet, I was aware that some step would be given in an offhand manner, which to the home cook would take hair-pulling, teeth gnashing fury. I didn't expect it quite so early though. Here are the pastry ingredients.
Yes that is a lot of butter & its about to cause me some grief & the most work of the entire recipe. The pastry is 400g of plain flour & 400g of unsalted butter (yup co-op's finest there). The recipe gliby says "you may have to add the butter in batches" The reality is you absolutely have to add the butter in batches, rubbing it in is going to take an hour or so, keep ice water to hand so you don't overwork the pastry. Once you got it down to bread crumbs you make it even richer with icing sugar, 2 yolks, 1 egg, the zest of a lemon and the seeds of a vanilla pod.
It seemed quite sticky at this stage, but prior to letting it rest in the fridge (for at least 3 hours, making my fingers thankful) I weighed it. 1.1 kg of pastry, and a vanilla & lemon scented kitchen. Good stuff. Only 2/3rds of this monstrous ball of pastry are going to be used according to the book, but that's not how it happened in my kitchen. The next issue was breadcrumbs, they are horrifically difficult to make by hand, in fact so difficult I had to go and cadge some food processor time off my neighbour. Back to the now rested pastry time to roll it out. The recipe tells you to do this between floured sheets of greaseproof paper which does make life a little easier, I'm sure I seen another TV chef credit Heston with this, but it seems a bit unlikely. Rolled out dropped into a buttered flan dish /tart plate (or in my kitchen 2 medium ones) and back to the fridge, this is some well rested laid back pastry. Half an hour later its back out the fridge, prick over the base, load up with greaseproof and baking beans (or whatever you use (HB suggests coins)) and take it back to the fridge for another rest. Time to pre-heat the oven. Once that's happened & the pastry has rested (30mins later) in go the tart cases to bake blind.
Lets have a look at the filling. Ok eggs & cream, then salt & vanilla. Quickly whip up a buerre noisette.strain & filter it and put it in a pan with your 2 tins of golden syrup (that's just under a kilo of refined sugar goodness ( A quick aside, treacle tart is even in its meanest incarnations a rich dish, if you are counting calories, don't make this)).
The heated syrup is a lot easier to work with than cold syrup.
This gets combined with the bread crumbs, some lemon zest & juice and the egg & cream mixture. This then gets transferred to a jug to fill the tart case(s). There is a puzzling instruction at this point. "Fill the case with 2/3rds of the mixture transfer to the oven & then pour in the remaining mixture" The quicker witted amongst you will know why, I found out. Its so you don't slosh treacle mix everywhere. Time to relax while a nice slow oven works its magic on the treacle mix. An hour later and viola a treacle tart, or maybe 2. Having had little luck getting dry ice, I skipped the ice-cream, made a cocktail out of the egg whites & lemon juice and sat down with the neighbours (only fair since they lent me the food processor) and dug into still warm tart.
Oops, didn't quite get the pastry flat, but its vanilla/lemon scented goodness lifts the tart beyond the mundane, before you get anywhere near the filing. As you can see there is a crust over sticky goo, this is exactly how treacle tart should be. The top is on the edge of crunchy, and not dry in the slightest. Is it perfect ? Well with the burgers its very difficult to find a good burger in these parts, treacle tart however is easier, and I've eaten my fair share. From WI tart to corner bakery varieties, from cheap no frills to taste the difference. This is the best, everything about it is right, when I make it again, I'll be using slightly more chopped lemon zest, but that's about it. Oh yes the quantities, Heston does overshoot, and I can see several reasons why. The book says 8-10 portions. I'd say its more like 12 & then you can use the spare pastry & treacle mix to make individual tarts for deserving co workers.
To see more photos go here
The cocktail recipe will appear shortly
1 For those of you unfamiliar with the BBC they have to be quite careful about brand names, the tin in question is the familiar (to most of the UK) green Tate & Lyle golden syrup tin. Yes that is a dead lion, and no those are bees not flies.
So when I got the book of the series I enjoyed reading it and started to look for a recipe I could give a reasonable go to, after the burgers the tart looked like a good bet, I was aware that some step would be given in an offhand manner, which to the home cook would take hair-pulling, teeth gnashing fury. I didn't expect it quite so early though. Here are the pastry ingredients.
Yes that is a lot of butter & its about to cause me some grief & the most work of the entire recipe. The pastry is 400g of plain flour & 400g of unsalted butter (yup co-op's finest there). The recipe gliby says "you may have to add the butter in batches" The reality is you absolutely have to add the butter in batches, rubbing it in is going to take an hour or so, keep ice water to hand so you don't overwork the pastry. Once you got it down to bread crumbs you make it even richer with icing sugar, 2 yolks, 1 egg, the zest of a lemon and the seeds of a vanilla pod.
Lets have a look at the filling. Ok eggs & cream, then salt & vanilla. Quickly whip up a buerre noisette.strain & filter it and put it in a pan with your 2 tins of golden syrup (that's just under a kilo of refined sugar goodness ( A quick aside, treacle tart is even in its meanest incarnations a rich dish, if you are counting calories, don't make this)).
The heated syrup is a lot easier to work with than cold syrup.
Oops, didn't quite get the pastry flat, but its vanilla/lemon scented goodness lifts the tart beyond the mundane, before you get anywhere near the filing. As you can see there is a crust over sticky goo, this is exactly how treacle tart should be. The top is on the edge of crunchy, and not dry in the slightest. Is it perfect ? Well with the burgers its very difficult to find a good burger in these parts, treacle tart however is easier, and I've eaten my fair share. From WI tart to corner bakery varieties, from cheap no frills to taste the difference. This is the best, everything about it is right, when I make it again, I'll be using slightly more chopped lemon zest, but that's about it. Oh yes the quantities, Heston does overshoot, and I can see several reasons why. The book says 8-10 portions. I'd say its more like 12 & then you can use the spare pastry & treacle mix to make individual tarts for deserving co workers.
To see more photos go here
The cocktail recipe will appear shortly
1 For those of you unfamiliar with the BBC they have to be quite careful about brand names, the tin in question is the familiar (to most of the UK) green Tate & Lyle golden syrup tin. Yes that is a dead lion, and no those are bees not flies.
Monday, 11 January 2010
The great pikelet conumdrum
Having successfully made crumpets I turned my thoughts to that great childhood favourite the pikelet.
My memory seemed to think that in amongst the family cookbooks was a recipe that suggested there was a fundamental difference between the two. Time to consult the internet (it's reasonably well indexed, so you can work back to accurate).
Disaster !
It seems the word pikelet covers a whole host of delicious toastery snacks. The Welsh seem to thing its a kind of drop scone, some people think its another word for crumpet and the Australians seem to think something else again. So I'm talking about a thing that's been griddled has holes in the top (like a crumpet) but is under about 5mm thick. General opinion is that they are just crumpets made without crumpet rings. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is in this camp, but interestingly he adds more flour to the pikelet batter,I think that will do for me.
So once this snow/freeze lets up and my kitchen is more amenable to yeast I'll have another stab, maybe tweaking the crumpet recipe a little and trying to pikelet some of them.
My memory seemed to think that in amongst the family cookbooks was a recipe that suggested there was a fundamental difference between the two. Time to consult the internet (it's reasonably well indexed, so you can work back to accurate).
Disaster !
It seems the word pikelet covers a whole host of delicious toastery snacks. The Welsh seem to thing its a kind of drop scone, some people think its another word for crumpet and the Australians seem to think something else again. So I'm talking about a thing that's been griddled has holes in the top (like a crumpet) but is under about 5mm thick. General opinion is that they are just crumpets made without crumpet rings. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is in this camp, but interestingly he adds more flour to the pikelet batter,I think that will do for me.
So once this snow/freeze lets up and my kitchen is more amenable to yeast I'll have another stab, maybe tweaking the crumpet recipe a little and trying to pikelet some of them.
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