15/06/2010 · 8:22 pm

Foodie adventures in the wild west (of Ireland)

It’s been at least a week since I’ve posted any baking photo’s or recipes but I’ve just returned from an amazing trip visiting a good friend in the Wild West of Ireland. So for the time being I hope a healthy dose of Irish food porn will suffice…

My mate Brig lives in a gorgeous little village called Kinvara in an area of West Ireland called the Burren in Co. Galway and runs The Burrenbeo Trust, a landscape charity dedicated to protecting the future sustainable management of the Burren region. As part of the charity they run Cafebeo, where I worked for two days and which I completely fell in love with. 

Cafebeo is Ireland’s only conservation cafe, it serves only Burren produce and 100% of its proceeds go back into the work of the Burrenbeo Trust. They serve delicious homemade soups, Burren organic smoked salmon with local goats cream cheese on homemade brown bread and fresh salad and cakes and the most amazing scones baked by a local lady.

I didn’t realise how popular scones are in Ireland. They’re a whole different ball game to English scones…apparently the main difference is the addition of buttermilk. I’m intrigued by them so I’m going to source a recipe and attempt to make my own.

Brig is well aware, as are most people, of my passion for cafe’s, cakes and food in general and did a sterling job of taking me on a tour of all the culinary hot spots in the area. First stop was the Gallery Cafe in Gort…

where, amongst other things, we ate a yummy goats cheese and beetroot pizza. I forgot to take any photos as I was overcome by hunger after a long day working in the cafe 🙂

Every Friday Kinvara hosts a farmers market, my own little slice of heaven…

It had everything….live music…

cheese…

and the most amazing cake stall serving chocolate fudge cake…

carrot cake…

even the gluten free lemon cake looked amazing…

and a chocolate and guiness cake…not a traditional Irish recipe as you may imagine…apparently it’s one of Nigella’s – another to add to my ‘to bake’ list.

After much deliberation and drooling I decided to buy a slice of mango, banana and coconut cake…it was quite similar to a hummingbird cake that I made a while ago from the Hummingbird Cookery book but substituting pineapple for mango. It was one of the most moist, fruity cakes I have ever eaten…

That evening we popped into Galway and paid a visit to Bar No.8 on the docks. It didn’t look much from the outside but the food turned out to be a real hidden gem. The menu sounded so amazingly good that we decided to share a couple of things…

Parsnip, wild garlic and red cabbage fritters with beetroot yoghurt…

Potted crab with Jess’s Brown Bread. The crab was rich and creamy, mixed with celery and spring onion and was accompanied by a scrummy dressed salad. Simply perfect!

We couldn’t resist the chocolate brownie with wild berry biscuit ice cream for desert. It arrived looking like a true work of art, decorated with edible flowers (well at least we hoped they were edible because well…we ate them). They even cut the brownie in half for us so that we didn’t get into a fight about who had eaten most 🙂

We spent my last day on a mini road trip taking in the beautiful scenery of the west coast and despite not being in the least bit hungry, managed to fit in one last cafe trip to the Burren Perfumery…

for carrot cake…

and a chocolate cupcake…

After such a wonderful trip it was a real struggle making myself leave Kinvara and get on the plane back to London…I have no doubt that I’ll be back.

 

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14/06/2010 · 12:58 pm

Popping my Iron Cupcake cherry

Since starting my blog, I have spent a lot of time following other bloggers and seeing what they have to say for themselves. During one of my blog trawls I found out about Iron Cupcake, which is a competiton started in the USA, entered by both amateur and professional bakers. The idea is that ‘Each month, a theme or key ingredient is announced and entrants have to bake a cupcake that meets the theme or uses the key ingredient. You can be as weird and wonderful as you like, as long as you meet the brief.’

I love the idea of entering myself but wanted to suss out the format and see how strong the competition is before I take that plunge. Hence my recce visit last Monday.

Me and my friend were a little too keen and turned up a bit early to the Cuban in Moorgate, which actually worked out for the best as it meant we could watch the steady stream of bakers pass us clutching exciting looking tupperware cupcake holders. Registration for bakers takes place between 6 and 6.45pm but more importantly, eating commences at 7pm. When my excitement got too much we paid our £5 entry fee, were presented with an ‘eater’ badge and directed to the free tea and coffee.

It turns out we had chosen a most auspicious date to attend our first Iron Cupcake event as it was their first birthday…and the theme was ‘Celebration’. The array of cupcakes lined up along the bar were very impressive…

I don’t think we had quite prepared ourselves for the ‘harrods sale’ style scrum that took place once we were given the go ahead to start eating! It was insane! However much I may love cupcakes, I refuse to fight for them and instead took the more civilised approach of asking people at the front of the crush to pass the ones I had my eye on back to me, which they very kindly did.

We tried to make sure not to go too over the top and take more than we felt we would could realistically eat, unlike others who piled their plates high, took a tiny taste of each and then discarded the rest…that made me a mad!

We compiled a shortlist of about 6…

The ‘Happy Birthday’ cupcakes were very impressive and ended up winning the ‘Best decorated cupcake’ prize.

I loved this bakers idea of cupcakes baking her cupcakes in ice cream cones in a brilliant twist on the classic 99 flake. Unfortunately the reality was that it made the cones a bit soggy…I still managed to eat every last bite though 🙂 and they were awarded the best amateur runners up prize.

I completely fell in love with these pretty pink champagne cupcakes. The sponge was actually a delicate shade of pastel pink had was strawberry flavoured, they were filled with a white chocolate ganache and topped with pink champagne and strawberry buttercream. They looked so professional and classy and very rightly won her the winning prize in the Amateur category!

These 4th of July cupcakes were marbled peanut butter and chocolate sponge yummmm…they won the runner up prize in the professional category.

These popcorn cupcakes looked amazing….unfortunately they suffered from a case of style over substance as the sponge was disappointingly dry with a sickeningly sweet blob of marshmallow fluff inside that nearly tipped me over the edge of my sugar overload. However, I found myself nearly forgiving the negative aspects as the little pots of popcorn looked so darned good!

We also tried a dark chocolate sponge infused with creme de menthe and topped with minty butter icing. They were pretty powerful but extremely tasty. I’ve found out since that they were also vegan…for some reason I have always (wrongly) assumed that vegan cakes wouldn’t be as tasty but I was very impressed as it was really squidgy.

By 9pm we were suffering from sugar coma’s and I was feeling incredibly sick but it was most definitely worth it. A full run down on the event can be found on The Caked Crusader blog. I have been completely won over by Iron Cupcake and am already plotting an entry for July’s theme of nuts and seeds… watch this space…




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06/06/2010 · 12:56 pm

Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in.

I love perusing food magazines and am amassing a substantial collection, which I flick through every now and again for inspiration. Two of my housemates share the same birthday, which gave me the the challenge of producing a cake amazing enough to be able to get away with only making one for them to share without them feeling slighted.

I found what looked like the perfect solution in the April 2010 edition of Sainsbury’s Magazine….

Devil’s Food Cake with Raspberries

I am so unbelievably proud of this cake and can’t be modest about how good it looked and tasted 🙂 The texture is more fudgy than spongy and it’s supremely naughty…

225g butter

200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

6 large eggs

200g caster sugar

40g plain flour

25g ground almonds

100g white chocolate

350ml double cream

1 tbsp icing sugar

175g raspberries

For the ganache – 

250ml double cream

150g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

50g soft butter

Line 2 x 22cm cake tis with baking parchment and preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and leave to cool to room temperature.

In a separate large bowl whisk the egg yolks and 150g of the caster sugar with an electric handheld whisk until thick and pale. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and fold together with the flour and the ground almonds.

In another clean bowl, whisk the egg whites with the remaining 50g caster sugar and 1/4 tsp of salt until they form soft peaks. Gently fold into the chocolate mixture in batches making sure everything is combined. Pour the mixture into the cake tins and bake for 30 minutes until the cakes have risen and are firm the the touch. Leave them in the tins to cool – they’ll sink but that’s normal so don’t panic!

This is the first time I have ever been instructed to do this but…wrap the cold cakes, still in their tins, in clingfilm and chill for 3-4 hours or even better overnight. I made my cakes on Thursday evening and left them chilling until Saturday and they definitely didn’t suffer for it. The chilling just makes them even more fudgy and delicious!

For the ganache you need to bring the cream to the boil, pour over the chocolate and leave for 2 minutes before mixing it in thoroughly. Leave it to cool for another 5 minutes and then add the butter. Leave to cool and then chill for approx 30 mins as it needs to be the consistency of chocolate spread. The ganache was absolutely amazing…the most sinful, creamy, chocolatey, shiny gloop I have ever seen.

To make the chocolate curls you melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and then pour it onto a baking sheet of plate and leave it to set for approx 30 minutes. Then drag a sharp knife over the surface to produce the curls. I was impressed with how easy this was to do and how professional they looked.

To assemble the cake place one on a serving plate, whip the 350ml of cream with the icing sugar and smother over. Top with the raspberries and sandwich with the other cake. Pile on the ganache and sprinkle over the white chocolate curls….simple!

I was dying to tuck in but had to wait a few more hours…boy was it worth the wait…

The whole cake was consumed in a matter of minutes and the feedback was really good. Using 70% cocoa solid chocolate means that it’s not too sickly, which is also helped by the tangy-ness of the raspberries.

I have most definitely yielded to the Devil…and invited him in with open arms! 

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03/06/2010 · 8:07 pm

Hi Jo, great blog. Couldn’t remember what was in your savoury cheese muffins and have bought blue cheese instead of goats cheese, do you think they will still be nice with the rosemary. Alex

Hey Alex,

I reckon blue cheese will work perfectly! It’s a pretty flexible recipe. Let me know how you get on.

Jo

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03/06/2010 · 7:39 am

Coconut and Pineapple Cupcakes

I was supremely surprised on Monday morning to not even have a smidgen of a bloody mary hangover and was able to make the most of the bank holiday. I had evening plans to go and watch Sex and the City 2 at the flicks with my girlfriends (I know I know what a cliché) and saw it as a great excuse to do some baking for guinea pigs other than my work colleagues or housemates.

I’m gradually working my way through the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and to this date have been very impressed by every single creation. This time I chose to make coconut and pineapple cupcakes as they have been intriguing me for a while and I’ve never baked with coconut milk before. 

Coconut and Pineapple Cupcakes

120g plain flour

140g caster sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

40g unsalted butter

120ml coconut milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

9 tinned pineapple rings chopped into small pieces

dessicated coconut to decorate

and for the coconut frosting – 

250g icing sugar

80g unsalted butter

25ml coconut milk.

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a bowl and beat using a handheld mixer on a slow speed until everything is combined and a sandy texture.

Mix the coconut milk and vanilla extract in a separate bowl and add to the flour mixture. Add the egg and beat well.

Divide the chopped pineapple between the cupcake cases and spoon the mixture over the top until each case is two thirds full. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and they bounce back when touched and then leave to cool.

To make the frosting beat the icing sugar and butter using a handheld mixer until the mixture comes together (I always get impatient and add the liquid a bit early but it never seems to have a detrimental effect on the finished frosting). At this point you should add the coconut milk and beat for 5-10 minutes until light and fluffy.

When the cupcakes are cold, spread them with the frosting and sprinkle over the dessicated coconut.

I finished frosting my cupcakes and dashed out the door to meet the ladies without having a chance to check whether they were edible so I spent the first half of the film worrying that they were going to be uncooked an soggy in the middle because of the moist pineapple (sad I know). I needn’t have worried…they were delicious! I think the ladies in the seats around us wondered what all the yummy murmurings were all about and were shooting us jealous glances…or maybe that’s just what I was hoping! 

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01/06/2010 · 4:14 pm

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Every year Square Meal run a cocktail competition, challenging 10 bars to invent a twist on a classic. This year the spirit of choice was Ketel One Citroen and the cocktail was the Bloody Mary.  Over the past few years it has become a tradition for me and my friends to book a date into the diaries, start early and visit as many of the participating bars as possible. The ‘Bloody Mary Crawl’ took place on Sunday as we had set aside the bank holiday Monday to recover. We had very cleverly pre-empted that some of the places may be closed on a Sunday and did 4 of them the previous week (The Bathhouse, Great Eastern Dining Room, Hawksmoor and Pinchito Tapas).

A motley crew of 8 of us met at 2pm at Smiths of Smithfield. I’ve always wanted to sample a lazy Smiths brunch but unfortunately that’ll have to wait for another day as on this occasion there was no leisurely brunching on the agenda only the quaffing of copious amounts of vodka and tomato based drinks. The Smiths bloody mary didn’t have much of a twist but was still a pretty good classic – it’s all in the spice mix!


We then moved onto The Luxe. Their mix contained red wine, coriander and chilli and a good splash of lemon juice, which served to break down the gloopy thickness of the tomato juice. For a salt fiend like me, the margarita-esque dipping of the glass in celery salt scored them extra points plus they served queen olives, chorizo and manchego as a little complimentary accompaniment.

The next stop was The Big Chill Bar, which was rammed as always. We were all quite disappointed with their entry as it was just their standard bloody mary – no extra effort at all.


After which we forced our way down a very busy Brick Lane to The Redchurch. It was my first visit and I was very impressed. It’s a great little bar and the staff were lovely, making us feel very welcome. They had done a lot of preparation and instead of just adding a spice mix had infused their vodka with chilli, horseradish and lemon thyme. They even asked us how spicy we would like them and made them to our individual tastes – now that’s what I call service.


Our penultimate visit was to Rivington Grill. Bythis point we were a bit over the whole tomato thing but fortunately Rivington had devised a very fresh, uncloying cocktail with a good horseradish kick. They served it with some sublime welsh rarebit.


And finally, experiencing severe tomato overdosage we stumbled (quite literally) into The Hoxton Grill. It was a pretty unsatisfactory experience – the staff had real attitude and didn’t enter into the spirit of the competition at all. They wouldn’t explain their twist or tell us which ingredients they had used as, apparently, it was their ‘secret recipe’.


I didn’t know, until that night, that it was possible to experience tomato dreams….and on Monday morning U2’s ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ lyrics suddenly felt extremely apt…”oh wipe your blood shot eyes”. It may be a while before I’m ready for my next bloody mary.

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Gallery

I made a mean brunch for me and my housemate this morning…rye bagel from The (legendary) Happening Bagel Bakery, perfectly ripe avocado with a squeeze of lemon juice, field mushrooms cooked in butter and garlic all topped off with a couple of poached eggs mmmmmm.

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29/05/2010 · 2:45 pm
29/05/2010 · 2:30 pm

In pursuit of chocolate…

I attended another Clerkenwell Design Week event on Thursday night; a collaboration between Desso and Sketchmob. It was a really fun evening that consisted of being plied with free alcohol and a plethora of drawing materials and being unleashed into the surrounding area of Clerkenwell for a couple of hours to be creative! We were told that prizes had been donated byRococo Chocolates, which basically was enough to get my competitive steak going with a vengeance…I needed/wanted to win! When we returned we displayed our works of art, which were then judged by the crowd in 5 categories – best colour drawing, storyboard, townscape, drawing of people and object. There were about 120 people in attendance and the atmosphere was buzzing. My artistic skills have been well and truly placed on the back burner of late and I realised that I haven’t done ANY drawing for at least 4 years. I was surprised that it didn’t take long for me to get back into it but was unbelievably shocked when my drawing was being plucked out of the amazing array of sketches and placed on the shortlist for best colour drawing….and even more surprised when I got the largest show of hands and cheers from the crowd of strangers and won!!!

I was shaking like a leaf and was chuffed beyond measure when I was handed my very own bar of cardomom white Rococo chocolate!! It’s amazing the lengths I’ll go to get my hands on yummy stuff! 🙂

And here’s my winning picture…

I haven’t opened the chocolate bar yet – I’m waiting for the perfect time when I can savour it and give it the attention it deserves!

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28/05/2010 · 1:08 pm

Gaggen(au) for a Lemon Tart

On Tuesday I spent a very enjoyable lunch break watching a cookery demonstration at the Bulthaup showroom on Clerkenwell Road as part of Clerkenwell Design Week. They were showing off the Gaggenau Steam Oven and I have to confess…it was love at first sight! I left the showroom having tasted some gorgeous morsels all cooked in the aforementioned wonder oven including steamed asparagus with hollandaise, steamed haddock with a chilli and soy dressing on chinese vegetables, almond and raspberry cake and to top it off a lemon and ricotta tart, all of which the home economist whipped up in an hour!

Since my return from Paris I have been dying to try my hand at baking a tarte au citron and this alternative version really spurred me into action. It’s by no means an official french lemon tart and is more italian in style due to the inclusion of ricotta but it’s a good starting point and a very yummy one at that.

The demo lady cheated and used shop bought pastry but with a pastry aficionado for a mother I felt duty bound to attempt to make it from scratch. So I followed my mum’s favourite recipe from the be-ro book and used the filling recipe given to us at the demonstration.

Lemon and Ricotta Tart

(makes a 9 inch tart)

Sweet shortcrust pastry –

175g plain flour

pinch of salt

40g butter

40g margerine (you can use lard but I didn’t have any hanging around)

cold water (approx 2 tbsp)

20g caster sugar

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl and rub in the fat with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. It’s good if the fat is cold but not too cold as it’ll just take you a lot longer to rub in. Now add the sugar and stir. Use a knife to cut/stir in the water a bit at a time (remember less is more) until it comes together into a stiff dough. Turn onto a floured surface and knead lightly before rolling out. It should be about 30mm(ish) thick. Line your pie dish and chill in the fridge for a little while.

If you are lucky enough to own a steam oven then you won’t need to blind bake the pastry or in my case if you don’t have any baking beads or enough time then omitting the blind baking process isn’t the end of the world! Blind baking just adds a bit more crispness to the base of the tart. Instead I decided instead to follow the demo ladies advice and put a baking sheet at the top of the oven to block some of the heat from above and to put the tart near the bottom of the oven. Apparently this reduces the need for blind baking.

Filling –

250g ricotta cheese

25g icing sugar

2 large egg yolks

1 x 320g jar lemon curd

rind and juice of 1 lemon

icing sugar to dust

Preaheat you oven to 190 degrees.

Beat all of the filling ingredients together in a bowl and pour into the pastry case – it really is as easy as pie (excuse the pun)!

I have an admission to make…I realised as I was putting the pie in the oven that I had forgotten to add the icing sugar to the filling. BUT I was actually very happy with the outcome and I’d go so far as to say that I would omit the sugar again in future. The lemon curd adds just the right amount of sweetness to counteract the tartness (now that wasn’t even meant to be a pun) of the lemon.

Bake for 10 minutes and then reduce the heat to 180 degrees for a further 25-30 minutes or until golden and set.

Allow to cool before dusting with icing sugar and serving.

The tart was delicious! A slightly crisper base wouldn’t have hurt so I’m going to invest in some baking beads for the next time…

One of my favourite childhood memories of baking with my mum was making little jam tarts with the leftover pastry once the pie dish has been lined. So to finish off I made some little treats for my housemates…

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18/05/2010 · 9:25 pm

Parisian Food Porn

Well, what can I say? I have well and truly left my heart in Paris. I completely and utterly fell in love with the city of light, but more to the point I fell in love with the Parisian cafe culture and the amazing food. I don’t want to bore you so I’ll just touch on the highlights of my trip…

Me and my friend Hannah arrived at lunchtime on Friday and both had a hankering for cheese and charcuterie or as Hannah would say…suspicious sausage, for which we both have a bit of a penchant. We were heading for the main drag in Le Marais when a small chalkboard at the entrance of an alleyway caught my eye. It led us down to a market called ‘Des Enfants Rouges’ where we sat down in a little courtyard belonging to a cafe called ‘L’Estaminet’. The waiter came and started telling us about their brunch special but only managed to get as far as the words cheese and charcuterie before we cut him off and told him we’d take two. He was a bit taken aback by our eagerness but we knew we’d made the right decision when this was placed in front of us – 

Charcuterie, large wedges of 2 types of cheese, creamy scrambled eggs, dressed salad leaves, pate, terrine, fruit salad, fromage blanc (kind of like fromage frais/quark), a basket of fresh bread, jam, a warm buttered scone, coffee and cloudy apply juice. I was truly in brunch heaven.

The next day we met my friend Camilla at a small cafe near Place d’Italie called ‘L’Oisive The’, which was a cafe crossed with a knitting yarn shop

It was very cute and did a great tea and carrot cake…

and cookie platter…

and had some very cute tableware…

Cam gave us an insiders tip off to a Bistro on the corner of her street called ‘Au Petit Panisse’ and for this I will be eternally grateful as I think I had one of the best meals I have had in a very long time…

Pate de Campagne ‘maison’ fois de volaille et raisins blonde (chicken liver country pate with grapes although we thought they were apricots) served with rye bread and an earthenware jar of cornichons…

Pave du Boucher, sauce poivree a la roquette (steak with pepper sauce served on amazing sauteed new potatoes)…

We spotted a desert on the menu that made us chuckle… Creme tendre du moment, cake tiede, which translated on babelfish comes out as ‘tender cream of the tepid moment cake’ we decided to bypass this and finished off with the ‘Tarte fine aux pommes, caramel au beurre sale (apple tart with a caramel salt butter). This was another tip off from Cam and definitely the piece de resistance of the meal for me. Even Hannah, who proclaimed she was too full, managed to help me polish it off. The salt in the caramel sauce wasn’t a prominent flavour but it worked perfectly to take the sickly edge off and add an extra yummy dimension…

I also loved the fact that the bill was served to us in an old sardine tin…

We did the prerequisite touristy meander down down the Champs Elysees and had a gawk in Laduree…

I’d read that you weren’t allowed to take photos but I managed to snap a sly one before I got caught and we had to make a quick exit…

On our last day we treated ourselves to a trip to Angelina, a tea room founded in 1903. 

The interior was designed by the famous Belle-Epoque designer Edouard-Jean Niermans and are still elegant and glamorous but with a shabby chic quality…

We shared the assortment of cheeses – Saint Maure, Reblochon and Cantal with copious amounts of bread and beurre…

and then Hannah had the coffee eclair that she had been lusting after all weekend and I just HAD to try their infamous ‘Mont Blanc’ whose recipe is still a closely guarded secret after 100 years…

It consists of meringue and whipped cream topped with a sweet chestnut paste….

yum yum.

I hope you managed to get through this artery clogging, food coma inducing post in one piece and that I’ve managed to convey via the medium of food porn the amazing-ness of my Parisian food experiences. Since returning to the real world I’ve been attempting a total detox in an attempt to try and lose the 3 bellies that they helped me to develop 🙂 

au revoir, et a la prochaine.

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