February

February. The first daffodils, Valentine's Day, usually Shrove Tuesday aka Pancake Day over here, and this year Chinese New Year - the year of the Tiger - as well.

Well, we actually saw the first daffodils on the 30th of January when we were out for a walk, but they don't really count because they were in containers. The daffodils in the ground are way behind this year compared to recent years, and they aren't anywhere near flowering yet.

Valentine's Day is usually associated with flowers and chocolate, so today I am giving you a link to a recipe for a very yummy but easy to make rich chocolate desert, called Truffle Torte.

The recipe is here, at Delia Online. The recipe is also in two of Delia's books - Delia Smith's Christmas and The Delia Collection, Chocolate.

I made this for Valentine's Day last year, using a 200g block of Valrhona's Manjari couverture chocolate that I had bought in John Lewis, so I scaled the quantities of the other ingredients accordingly.

As the recipe says, the torte was well behaved and remained in one piece when I turned it out of the tin onto a plate. I dusted the surface of the torte with Green and Black's cocoa powder.

We served the torte as suggested, with some single cream poured over it, but we didn't add any flavoring or liqueur to the single cream.

I apologise for the photos - the torte does look rather just like a chocolate blob, and when we poured the cream over the slices of torte, the cream and cocoa powder didn't mix, so the cream just sort of slid off the top of the slice and formed a pool around it. But the taste didn't disappoint, and there is a much nicer picture of the torte in Delia Smith's Christmas.

Seville Oranges

Thank goodness, the last of the snow has melted, at least here in London, so at least for the time being, we are having a respite from the worst of the winter. Several people have been telling me they remember the winter of 1963, here in England. No doubt we will be remembering the winter of 2010.

One of the things I always look forward to in January is the appearance of Seville oranges in the shops. I first started looking for Seville oranges not for making marmalade, but because I had some Mexican and Spanish recipes that called for Seville orange juice. Since I didn't come from an orange-growing country, I had no idea at what time of year they might be in season. Of course, once I managed to find some Seville oranges and extract the juice, it seemed a shame not to make marmalade out of the skins. Now we regularly look forward to Seville oranges in January. We freeze the juice for use in cooking, and we make marmalade. These days, D is the marmalade maker in our house. I have recently been noticing several recipes which make use of marmalade, such as Marmalade Gingerbread, from Rachel's Favorite Food for Friend's, a chocolate marmalade cake from Rachel Allen's Bake, and an orange marmalade cake recipe from Jane Asher's Beautiful Baking.

The first marmalade recipe that I had bookmarked, however, was a recipe for Orange Marmalade Ice Cream from Sophie's Table by Sophie Grigson. At first I thought it was a bit strange. In all my years of ice cream eating in Canada when I must have tried just about every flavour of ice cream produced by Baskin-Robbins I had never come across orange marmalade ice cream. But every time I leafed through the book and saw the recipe, it grew on me a little more. I thought that the flavour combination might just work. Apart from that, the recipe was very simple, just double cream and marmalade. I also thought the texture of the marmalade might just help to prevent large ice crystals forming when the ice cream freezes, an important consideration since we don't have an ice cream maker. So I decided to give it a go, and we were delighted with the result, both taste- and texture-wise. Here is the recipe.

Marmalade Ice-Cream with Walnut Sauce.
Recipe from Sophie's Table by Sophie Grigson.

For the ice cream:
375 g Seville orange marmalade
300 ml double cream

Put the marmalade into a large bowl and beat. Whip the cream until stiff, then fold into the marmalade. Freeze.

That's it.

The ice cream doesn't need beating as it freezes, and it is soft enough to serve straight from the freezer.

The book also gives a recipe for an orange and walnut sauce to serve with the ice cream, but since, apart from the occasional banana split (it's actually many, many years since I had one), I usually eat ice cream on its own, I decided to give it a miss. The ice cream was very rich and perfectly fine without the sauce.

Warming Winter Food

Wednesday afternoon was another winter wonderland scene outside, with everything covered in snow from the night before, and more fat snowflakes coming down. I haven't seen this much snow since the first winter I was in England. Today when I ventured out it felt cold and crisp like a Canadian winter. Brrr.

This recipe for Sauerbraten is just the kind of warming food one needs on a cold winter's day. I had never had sauerbraten before, but D said the taste reminded him of a beef stew he had on a family trip to somewhere like Austria or Romania when he was a kid.

Sauerbraten
Recipe from The Time-Life Holiday Cookbook, 1976.

Serves 6 to 8.

4 lb. boneless beef roast, preferably top or bottom round or rump, trimmed of fat

For the marinade:
1/2 c. red wine
1/2 c. red wine vinegar
2 c. cold water
1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced
5 black peppercorns
4 juniper berries
2 bay leaves
1 t. salt

3 T. lard
1/2 c. finely chopped onions
1/2 c. finely chopped carrots
1/4 c. finely chopped celery
2 T. flour
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. gingersnap crumbs

To make the marinade:
Crush the peppercorns and juniper berries coarsely with a mortar and pestle.
In a 2- to 3- quart saucepan, combine the wine, wine vinegar, water, sliced onion,
peppercorns, juniper berries, bay leaves and salt. Bring the marinade to a boil over high heat, then remove it from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Place the beef in a deep crock or a stainless-steel or enameled pot just large enough to hold it comfortably, and pour the marinade over the meat. The liquid should come at least halfway up the sides of the meat. If necessary, add more wine. Turn the meat in the marinade to moisten it on all sides. Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 to 3 days, turning the meat over at least twice a day.

Remove the meat from the marinade and pat it completely dry with paper towels. Strain the marinade through a fine sieve set over a bowl and reserve the liquid. Discard the spices and onions.

In a heavy 5-quart flameproof casserole, melt the lard over high heat until it begins to splutter. Add the meat and brown it on all sides, turning it frequently and regulating the heat so that it browns deeply and evenly without burning. This should take about 15 min. Transfer the meat to a platter, and pour off and discard all but about 2 T. of fat from the casserole. Add the chopped onions, carrots and celery to the fat in the casserole and cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently, for 5 - 8 min, or until they are soft and light brown. Sprinkle 2 T. of flour over the vegetables and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 or 3 min longer, or until the flour begins to color. Pur in 2 c. of the reserved marinade and 1/2 c. of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Return the meat to the casserole. Cover tightly and simmer over low heat for 2 hours, or until the meat shows no resistance when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife. Transfer the meat to a heated platter and cover with foil to keep it warm while you make the sauce.

Pour the liquid left in the casserole into a large measuring cup and skim the fat from the surface. You will need 2 1/2 c. of liquid for the sauce. If you have more, boil it briskly over high heat until it is reduced to 2 1/2 c; if you have less, add some of the reserved marinade. Combine the liquid and the gingersnap crumbs in a small saucepan, and cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently, for 10 min. The crumbs disintegrate in the sauce and thicken it slightly. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve, pressing down hard with a wooden spoon to force as much of the vegetables and crumbs through as possible. Return the sauce to the pan, taste for seasoningand let it simmer over low heat until ready to serve.

To serve, carve the meat into 1/4-inch-thick slices, and arrange in overlapping layers on a platter. Moisten the slices with a few tablespoons of the sauce, and pass the remaining sauce separately in a sauceboat.

Serve with dumplings or boiled potatoes and red cabbage.

Sauerbraten may also be cooked in the oven. Bring the casserole to a boil over high heat, cover tightly and cook in a preheated oven at 350 F/175 C for about 2 hours.


I think that this would be even better made with some of the less tender cuts of meat, such as beef shin, that would benefit from the marinating and long cooking time.

Merry Christmas

I'm sure I don't know what took me so long - I've certainly spent enough time surfing the internet in the past - but I only discovered food blogs several months ago.

It has been amazing to discover how many people out there, all over the world, are blogging about and sharing their passion for food and cooking and baking.

I would like to wish everyone in food blogger land a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Christmas Gifts

Goodness how the time flies! It seems like just the other day it was the beginning of November and I was just beginning to think of Christmas carols and what to bake this Christmas, and suddenly Christmas is only a few days away. Office Christmas lunches and parties have come and gone, Christmas cards have been sent, even the Christmas baking is nearly all done. I have spent several relaxing evenings in the kitchen mixing up batches of cookie dough and baking cookies while listening to Christmas carols on Classic FM. Is it my imagination or have the evenings (afternoons really) already started to get longer? Yesterday and today when I looked out the window around 4 o'clock, expecting it to be dark, it was still daylight. As I write this it is snowing big fat snowflakes outside, and added to the snow that's been there since Thursday night, it looks like a magical white fairyland. I'm not sure if we've actually had any white Christmases since I've been in England. This time we may just get one. Even if the snow melts before Christmas day, I think it will still feel like we've been having a white Christmas since the snow has come while we've been in the process of making Christmas preparations.

Of course, it is a lot easier to appreciate the beauty of the snowy landscape when one is warm and cosy indoors, rather than stuck in traffic for hours because the snow has brought everything to a halt, which is what happened to my other half, D, on his way home.

Back to the Christmas baking and edible gifts. This year I have been baking Pecan Bonbons, Chocolate Balls, Cherry-Nut Cookies (see the previous post), all from Dolores Casella's book, A World of Baking, and Honigkuchen, from the The Cooking of Germany, in the Time-Life Foods of the World series. I am also planning to bake Candy Canes (cookies) from Margo Oliver's Weekend Magazine Cookbook. For those who have never heard of Margo Oliver, here is a good biographical link.

The Pecan Bonbons and Honigkuchen were first attempts, since I had never made them before. The Chocolate Balls and Candy Canes I had not made since I lived at home with my parents many years ago, but I used to like them back then. The cherry-nut cookies I have made several times in recent years, and they are always very moreish.

The Pecan Bonbons are a sort of pecan macaroon, made with sugar, eggs, finely chopped pecans and a little flour, very crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.





The cookies were baked in mini-cupcake liners in a shallow bun tin. The recipe gives the option of decorating each cookie with a pecan half, so I baked the first tray without, and the subsequent batches with a pecan on top. D decided that he prefers the pecan-topped cookies, because they have a more intense pecan taste.



I decided that I prefer the way the plain top cookies look, though. The pecan halves sank into the batter while the cookies baked, and caused the tops to cave in and crack more. The photo above shows one of the few pecan-topped cookies where the pecans didn't sink down into the batter.



Chocolate Balls are crumbly chocolate and walnut cookies topped with a walnut half. The dough contains finely chopped walnuts and cocoa powder or chocolate. The dough is shaped into balls, rolled in sugar, placed on cookie sheets, flattened sightly and a walnut half is pressed into the top. The cookies flatten out a bit as they bake, and the tops acquire a crackled appearance.








I found that I still like these cookies as much as I did when I used to make them years ago. They are rather crumbly, and tend to fall apart when you bite into them, but still taste quite buttery.

The recipe calls for 2 Tablespoons of cocoa powder or 3 ounces of unsweetened cooking chocolate (unless I made a mistake when I copied it out, which is always possible, since the usual substitution is about 3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder and 1 Tablespoon of butter for 1 ounce of unsweetened chocolate). I remember I first made them using cocoa powder, but I can't remember whether I ever made them using chocolate. So this time I decided to try using 1 ounce of unsweetened chocolate, which seems to have worked out fine.

Christmas Baking, Part 2

It hasn't been a very nice day out there today, most of the morning and early afternoon it has been wet and dark.

Just the right time of year to stay indoors and make the house warm and cosy by baking.

So here is a recipe for Cherry-Nut Cookies, another one of my Christmas baking favorites. These are lovely, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth cookies full of cherries, dates and pecans.

I copied the recipe out from a book I borrowed from the public library when I was a teenager (photocopiers in those days did not produce copies of the quality we expect today!) - Dolores Casella's A World of Baking. I first baked these about ten years ago and they became an immediate favorite. I have another recipe from A World of Baking for cookies called Hermits, which are very similar to these except that they are made with raisins, dates and walnuts. I tend to alternate the two in my Christmas baking, making Hermits one year, and Cherry-Nut Cookies the next.



Cherry-Nut Cookies
recipe from A World of Baking by Dolores Casella.

4 c. sifted plain flour
1 t. bicarbonate of soda
1/2 t. salt
300 grams softened butter
2 c. soft light brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
1 t. grated lemon zest
1 1/3 c. chopped pecans
1 1/3 c. quartered candied cherries (I prefer to use the ones with natural coloring)
1 1/3 c. chopped pitted dates

Preheat the oven to 375 F.
Sift the flour together with the baking soda and the salt.
Cream the butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time and beat in thoroughly.
Add the vanilla and lemon zest, then add the sifted dry ingredients.
Work in the chopped fruit and nuts.
Drop by teaspoonsful onto buttered baking sheets.
Bake at 375 F for 12 - 15 min until lightly browned and done.

Makes about 10 - 11 dozen cookies.
The dough will keep in the refrigerator for several days.

Christmas Baking

No chocolate today, but a recipe for Christmas cookies.

Some years ago, after a trip home when I had brought back with me a notebook of Christmas recipes that I had copied out by hand as a teenager, I started the tradition of giving home-baked Christmas cookies as gifts to my in-laws, friends and co-workers.

I tried this recipe for Zimtsterne for the first time last year. Zimtsterne means cinnamon stars, and these are supposed to be traditional Christmas cookies from Switzerland. As you will see in the photo, they didn't turn out quite as they were supposed to, but they were nevertheless delicious, and have been added to my repertoire of Christmas baking favourites. Enjoy.



Zimtsterne
recipe from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book, ca. 1970.

3 T. butter
1 1/2 c. caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg, separated
1 t. lemon juice
2 1/3 c. plain flour
2 1/2 t. baking powder
1 1/4 t.cinnamon
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/2 c. walnuts, finely chopped

Pre-heat the oven to 375 F.

Mix the butter, sugar, 2 eggs, 1 egg yolk and the lemon juice and beat until fluffy.

Sift together the flour and the dry ingredients.

Blend the flour mixture into the sugar mixture. Stir in the walnuts.

Roll out one third of the dough at a time to a thickness of 1/16" on a lightly floured board. Cut out cookies with a star cutter.

Beat the remaining egg white until frothy. Brush the tops of the cookies with the beaten egg white.

Bake on well-greased baking sheets for about 8 minutes.

Makes about 6 dozen cookies.



I found that the dough was very sticky, even after being chilled in the refrigerator, and in any case I didn't have a star-shaped cookie cutter. So I decided to make them as drop cookies. I dropped small teaspoonsful of the dough onto the greased cookie sheets and omitted the egg-white glaze.

Be careful when removing the cookies from the baking sheets, they have a tendency to tear or stick to the baking trays on the bottom.

The result was a crisp cookie, essentially a walnut macaroon, with a subtle cinnamon flavor.