Unusual Ingredient of the Week-Goat Saliva (YES, GOAT SALIVA!)

Judging from the rumblings in cyberspace over the past several months, goat meat is about to become the next big thing. I have eaten some wonderful goat dishes prepared by my Haitian friends in Central Florida. Freya, however, hasn’t had the opportunity to try this Caribbean favourite, but she was determined to make some after seeing Hugh F-W prepare curried goat on his show. Curried goat is delicious, so naturally I was excited when Freya decided to purchase some goat meat so she could weigh in on the issue.
I may have mentioned this in the past, but we live in a cultural wasteland. I can only imagine the look on my local butchers face if I were to go in and ask for a kilogram of goat, thank you very much! It would probably be akin to the time I walked into a Lakewood, Colorado liquor store and asked for a case of Guinness that hadn’t been chilled (I love very warm stout you see). The guy at the counter, obviously well versed in customer relations, said, “This is America, son. We drink our beer cold.” So the logical place to turn was, as usual, the internet.
A Google search for goat turns up a plethora of results, some very unexpected. Included among these was a health supplement website selling goat saliva. At first I thought they were kidding, but apparently not. The website makes claims about the curative properties of goat saliva which seem a bit farfetched. Among others, they claim that aloe vera and goat saliva have been considered equally useful at treating cuts and burns by tribal cultures for centuries. I had to wonder why, if this was so, had I never heard of this remedy.
The website also offers several links to scientific papers on the benefits of goat saliva. Following these links made me even more sceptical though as they all seem to relate to the relationship between plants and herbivores. If there was any proof to be found in these links as to the validity of their claims, I wasn’t going to find out as a payment was required by all of them to review the text in full. Some of the links were so incomplete that the entire study title wasn’t viewable without a cash transaction. If you’re a bit more financially well endowed than I, please feel free to read the articles and let me know what you find out.
Fortunately, another search of Google, this time with the key words Goat Saliva, was much more beneficial. Apparently I’ve been living under a rock because this is for real. Unfortunately, it’s not necessarily based on any legitimate science. If one decides to draw an inference from an article I found on Portland Food and Drink.com, the proponents of this sort of dietary supplement also recommend eating sand!
The scarier aspects of ingesting goat saliva are revealed by articles about rabies in goats. I imagine that rabid goats are a rarity, but as the supplement industry is free from FDA standards, how would you know that what you're getting isn’t going to lead to a long stay in the hospital.
If you are willing to leave your doubts and concerns at the door though, the makers are happy to expound on the virtues of their product, amusingly called Goatslick.
It’s available in two forms. The first is a salve of concentrated goat saliva extracted from goats fed on a diet rich in nettles, a natural anti-inflammatory. The second version is goat saliva au naturale to be used as a “flavorful addition for use in cooking and baking”.
The makers are so convinced of their claims that they even give away free samples. Of course, we had to take advantage of the offer of a gratis 6 oz. bottle (and 1 oz. sachet of the salve).
After two months, our samples finally arrived. The label on the bottle has a cute picture of a goat and boldly declares “Aloe Vera of the 21st Century”. In much smaller print it indicates that the bottle contains 98% goat saliva. Given the propensity of the common goat to eat just about anything and everything it sees, and given the amount of detritus that a good shake of the bottle reveals, that 2% is a very scary number. The label on the back reassures us that the 2% is a combination of a natural stabilising agent and plant matter consistent with the organic diet of free-range goats.
Freya and I don’t have the guts to try this yet. I think it will probably occupy a position on the shelf in the living room next to the King Oscars Fish Balls in a Can as part of our Food As Pop Art collection. If you are braver than we, or you have your own collection of food oddities, you can get your own FREE SAMPLES from the website.
Good Luck!

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A Tale of Two Mojos

You will recall that I have enduring and ongoing love of anything written with Elisabeth Luard. I enjoy her books because she is not promoting a lifestyle like many current celebrity cooks. Whilst we all love to daydream that we can be as glamorous and affluent as <insert celebrity cook of choice> if only we can perfect their wobbly creme brulee or learn to chop herbs with trendy ambivalence; in truth what they are selling is as far detached from the kitchen as a hammer drill.
This ongoing trend (in both the UK and the US) for producing attractive, slim, sassy cooks, putting them in front of a camera and giving them numerous designer kitchen gadgets to promote, whilst cooking painfully basic food is unnerving. On various cooking forums I have actually read people note that Tamasin Day-Lewis is “too dowdy” to watch cook despite her impeccable culinary skills and that Sophie Grigson (yes, THE Jane Grigsons daughter) is “so unattractive that I forget about the food”. Ina Garten is considered to be “too much in love with her husband that it's sickening AND loves butter too much” to be considered viewable and many people find Anthony Bourdain “a bit stringy and unkempt for my liking”.
When on earth did we forget about the food and start concentrating on the good looks of the host? Why do cookery shows have to be filmed in uber-expensive loft apartments? What happened to the Keith Floyds of the cookery world, who appeared slightly dishevelled and hungover yet still managed to produce an exquisite piece of French Cuisine, whilst being disturbingly nestled by Emus?
Forgive me if I sound a little like my beloved husband on my tirade against superficiality within the cooking industry. It seems so trite yet I am passionate about food and if I see another cookbook churned out by a super-cute nymphet or cheeky-chappy Jamie Oliver wannabe, I will probably puke. Don’t misunderstand me. If the super-cute nymphet had super-delicious food to back up her good looks, then I would jump on the bandwagon and purchase a copy, however most of these books are just exercises in great photography and vapid, regurgitated recipes.
Thankfully, on the other hand, we have Elisabeth Luard who has travelled extensively throughout Europe and lived in Spain for many years, and is more than happy to share her love and vast knowledge of the ultimate gastronomic treat, the Truffle, or write informative, bordering on obsessive, books on the ingredients of cooking of South America or the regional differences in Spanish food.
Her books are exquisitely and sensitively photographed. Like Tamasin Day-Lewis’s, there are no ‘action’ shots of the cook to distract us, the emphasis is purely on the food and the regions where the food originates.
I have been seduced by her book The Food of Spain and Portugal, have cooked a couple of recipes from it, and bookmarked many more. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who has visited Spain or Portugal and fallen madly in love with the foods, or for people who are shackled to their daily lives but have wanderlust in their hearts. The dishes cooked in this book will help send you to warmer climes with dusty roads lined with orange trees and the scent of ripe figs in the air.

The dish I decided to cook for supper last night was Papas Arrugadas with two Mojos. Papas Arrugadas translates as Wrinkled Potatoes and the name is derived from the traditional method of cooking potatoes: slow, with very little water but a lot of salt, in earthenware dishes over low heat. The resulting product is potatoes with, indeed, wrinkly skin but encrusted with salt and deeply flavourful. This can be easily replicated in the home kitchen using a stockpot or large lidded saucepan. Papas Arrugadas relies on patience but requires little effort for much flavour.
Served with the two Mojos (or sauces), a green one and a red one, the potatoes are wonderful, and drink up the spicy sauces as if they were once again in the soil and drinking up sunlight.
I admit, I did not make the sauces in a pestle and mortar, I used my coffee grinder instead. It worked extremely effectively and was far quicker than my weedy crushing could muster.

Mojos, originating from the Canary Islands, are spicy chillies sauces, seasoned with Fresh Garlic, Cumin, Spanish Paprika (Pimenton), Wine Vinegars and of course chillies of varying heats. Some use fresh and some dried. My two Mojos used one of each: dried red chillies, and fresh green chillies. From a purely aesthetic point of view, they look beautiful side by side, but do not feel it is necessary to make both. And, aside from being an easy supper, these would make a perfect cocktail party nibble.

If you want to make Papas Arrugadas with two Mojos (or even just one!), here's the recipe. Oh, and by the way, these spicy little sauces last for a few days in the fridge and, as with any sauces of this kind, improve if made the day beforehand.

PAPAS ARRUGADAS WITH TWO MOJOS, from The Food of Spain and Portugal
Serves 2 (with plenty of the Mojo leftover for dipping bread in the next day!)
Ingredients:

Potatoes:
1kg Potatoes. Small salad ones are great.
1 Tablespoon Coarse Salt (I used Maldon)
Some Water

For The Mojos:

Red Mojo:
2 Red Chillis, seeds removed (I used one dried Habanero as Paul advised that my dried Birds Eye Chillies might be explosively hot)
1 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds
1 Tablespoon Spanish Paprika (Pimenton), preferably Picante
Red Wine Vinegar to Taste
1 Teaspoon Salt
3-4 Cloves Garlic (I only used two because of Pauls 'issues' and this was plenty enough garlic - remember it's not cooked)
125ml Great Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Green Mojo
1 Fresh Green Chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
3-4 Cloves Garlic (see red Mojo for my notes about garlic)
1 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds
1 Tablespoon Spanish Paprika
White Wine Vinegar to Taste
1 Teaspoon Sea Salt
125ml Best Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil

METHOD:
For the potatoes:
Rinse the potatoes under clean, running water but do not scrub.
Place in a large pan and pour over enough water to reach barely halfway up the potatoes.
Sprinkle over the salt.
Cover tightly and cook over low heat until the water has completely evaporated. Note: I had to pour some water away as I used a little too much. If the potatoes seem cooked but you still have lots of water left, pour most of it away and turn the heat up to boil away the rest, leaving the lid on.
Stir the potatoes halfway through cooking to ensure that the top ones are cooked too.
Once the water has evaporated, remove the lid and turn the heat up. Very quickly, the potatoes will start to dry out and wrinkle. They will be encrusted with the salt. They are now ready to serve. Note: You don't have to serve these with the Mojos, they would be just as good with simple mayonnaise or a salad dressing too, or just dipped in ketchup!

To make the Mojos:
Put all the dry ingredients for the red mojo, including the garlic, in a spice or coffee grinder and blend until you have a reddish paste. Pour in the olive oil and some of the vinegar and process until you have a smooth dipping sauce. Taste for seasoning, add more salt or vinegar or oil if you feel it needs it. Decant into little dipping pots.
The green Mojo is made in exactly the same manner.
Serve with the potatoes or raw vegetables or chips, whatever is good!
Enjoy!

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Unusual Ingredient of the Week - Laverbread

Anyone who has experienced the sheer joy and exhilaration of walking along the beach will be familiar with the ozone, salty smell that accompanies such visits. You will probably have pretended to have been sea monsters by putting sea weed over your hair, running around and gurning madly, or spent ages just popping the seaweed or making sand drawings with washed up seashells.
I don’t think at any point during those youthful shenanigans that I still partake in when I get the chance to visit the seaside, that I considered eating the seaweed. Gritty with sand and small aquatic life (probably), I can't say that I have would have thought a fish flavoured vegetable would pique my appetite.
Laverbread is seaweed. I used to think that seaweed was inedible and existed for the plankton only until I met my husband. He is a huge fan of sushi, and whilst we can't get good sushi without hopping on a train and riding to London, what he did make me try was a revelation.
Who would have thought that raw fish and seaweed (in the form of Nori) could form such a delicious symbiosis? Well, actually, those of us who remember that fish and seaweed cohabit the, uh, sea or ocean.
Niggling marine-life semantics aside, I still prefer the tempura selection from Sushi bars to the actual sushi. Regular readers will know that I have an enduring love affair with deep frying that I try to keep restrained to a once-a-month treat, lest my cholesterol should start kicking up a fuss and causing strokes and other unpleasantries.
However, I humour my desire for deep-fried food with the occasional consumption of shallow fried food. I know, it actually sucks up more fat than deep frying but if I use olive oil, it's a little bit better, right?
But I digress wildly. We were talking about Welsh delicacy Laverbread. Specifically, Laver is a seaweed found clinging to sand embedded rocks on the Western Coast of Britain. Because the harvesting of the Laver is time-consuming it is not a cheap delicacy , yet it does not wear that badge of sophistication that its more desirable culinary sea buddies, caviar and smoked salmon have worn for years with snooty pride.
Admittedly, when you first open the tin of Laverbread, to be faced with very, very dark gunge that probably resembles a Gila Monsters brain, it could prove to be a little off-putting. A tentative tip of the finger taste reveals a non-fishy but marine-salty flavour tinged with that ferrous iron tang that you get with spinach or curly kale or spring greens.
It is not something I would want to eat straight from the tin, in the same way that I don't particularly like any cooked vegetable served cold from the tin (with the exception of sweetcorn which I can eat with joyous abandon) but according to the labelling, it is referred to as Welsh Caviar (See! It did get its badge of sophistication!), to be served on warm blinis or Melba toast.
The recipe I was interested in replicating was Laver Cakes, the most traditional and tasty way of serving this green gungy sea veg.
Laver Cakes are very easy to make but you have to mix the Laver with some oatmeal first otherwise you'll end up with a huge sticky goo in the pan and on your hands and that would just be disastrous.
Assuming that you are unable to source fresh Laver, straight from the slippery, wind and sea thrashed rocks of Coastal Wales, all of the hard work will have already been done for you. The endless rinsing and boiling of the Laver is not yours to worry about. All you need is a can opener and a desire to try new and unusual products.
I served these crisp little rissoles, which when cooked take on an almost egg-yolky taste, with fried bacon (you fry the Laver Cakes in the bacon fat) and a fried egg, sunny side up. The cakes are incredibly rich. I made us three each, which used up the whole tin (and at £4.20 a tin, not a cheap fry-up) and I could only manage to eat two. Paul did finish his but he couldn't manage mine as well. Stop Press News!

The good news about Laverbread is that restaurants are starting to use this nutritious (it is high in iron, protein and vitamins B2, A and C) little sea green more and more. It is used in Risottos, or is simply heavily seasoned with orange and lemon juice (with which it has a natural affinity) and served as a vegetable. It could be used instead of Spinach in Lasagne or as a slightly wacky filling for Ravioli. In Wales and Devon it is just served alongside another Seaside favourite, Cockles.
The possibilities for humble Laverbread, it would appear, are endless.
p.s. This is my entry for this weeks Weekend Herb Blogging held by the brilliant mind who invented WHB, Kalyn over at Kalyns Kitchen.


LAVERCAKES - makes 6
Ingredients:
200g Tin Laverbread
70g Oatmeal
Tablespoon Lemon Juice
Salt and Pepper
Bacon Fat for frying (optional) or Olive Oil with a little Butter

METHOD:
If you are using the Bacon Fat method, fry off your rashers in a dry pan until cooked to the crispness you like them. Remove from the pan and leave in a warm place.
In a bowl, mix together the Laverbread, Oatmeal, Lemon Juice and Seasoning.
Form the mixture into small patties or rissoles and drop into the bacon fat.
Cook over medium high heat (too high and the oatmeal will burn very quickly and taste disgustingly acrid) on both sides until golden brown and crisp.
Serve with the Bacon and a fried egg and perhaps some toast.
Enjoy!

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Waiter There's Something In My....

...Easter Basket!
I eagerly await the Waiter There's Something...events each month. So far we have had Stew and Pie, both of which were great successes. It was amazing to see how creative everyone was.
Whilst Pies and Stews are fairly easy to reinterpret, Easter Basket is a little different. Hosted this month by Johanna at The Passionate Cook, it has proved to be another food event to literally AND metaphorically get our teeth into.
I got to thinking. Paul and I are not religious so, theoretically, we can use Easter celebratory food from any religious denomination that we choose. Typical British Easter foods (from the Christian denomination) include the Simnel Cake (a light fruit cake adorned with the eleven marzipan balls to signify Christs loyal disciples) and Hot Cross Buns (the 'cross' on these spiced dough buns once representative of the crucifixion, now just a supermarket staple at this time of the year). Of course, we also have the Roast Lamb which once represented the sacrificial lamb but is now just a tasty excuse to cook a delicious Sunday meal.
I can't particularly recall my own family serving specific Easter foods, so to me personally it merely means stacks of chocolate Easter eggs but, as I get older, it also heralds the onset of Spring and plants bursting into life. The clocks are put forward and we no longer have to drive home from work in the dark, eager to get home and draw the curtains, blocking out the winter from view. We can start thinking about eating outdoors and preparing salads, foods that help us to lose our post-winter blubber.
Because I feel that if one thing should bridge the barrier between different religions, it should be food, I have decided to cook a Passover Cake for this particular event. There is a two-fold reason for this:
a) I didn't want to make a Simnel Cake or Hot Cross Buns because I'll be baking them next weekend for the Easter Bank Holiday family get-together.
b) I have been blissfully lost in Claudia Roden's wonderful Book of Jewish Cookery and wanted to cook something inspired by her deeply evocative reminiscences. Her delicious selection of Passover Cakes seemed a great place to start.
Passover, of course, does not have the same connotations as Easter despite being celebrated during April. As Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, Passover commemorates the fleeing of the Jews from Egyption slavery following Moses' great plagues and how God protected them during this time, over 3000 years ago.
Passover must be particularly pertinent for the emancipation of the Jews following the holocaust of the Second World War.
The enduring thread that ties Easter-time observances together though is that of the circle of life, death and rebirth, one that follows us all, regardless of our own personal beliefs.

Unlike Christianity, Jewish Cooking involves several dietary requirements that must be fulfilled; in short, what is Kosher and what isn't. In spite of these regulations though, a brief glance through Claudia Roden's magnus opus will leave you in no doubt that this is not a boring diet. I suspect that this is in many ways due to the eclectic origins of the food, from the Middle East, Spain and Eastern Europe which lends an exotic flavour to what could potentially have been an unfulfilling diet.
During Passover, these requirements are slightly stricter: amongst other food products, no leavening is allowed (which indicates flour made from wheat, barley, rye, oats, or any food which is considered to ferment, including alcohol). This means that Passover cakes must be made using alternative ingredients. Fortunately, ground almonds and egg whites produce marvellously moist, and long-lasting cakes without a hint of leavening. Additional flavours are added by way of orange or flower waters, various types of nuts, apples, chocolate etc. The cakes are often drenched with syrups to make them very rich and decadent, and then cut into small pieces which could satisfy even the sweetest tooth.
The cake I eventually decided to make was a Walnut and Syrup Cake, a recipe influenced by Spain, with its distinctive flavours of orange and walnuts. The orange particularly holds strong symbolism for the Spanish Jewish because it was they who originally cultivated it in Spain back in the Roman Times. They were considered experts in the growing of citrus plants, and during the 18th Century, Jaffa Oranges were first grown in Israel by migrated Jews. They are considered by many to be the sweetest oranges in the world.
The cake is incredibly easy to make but benefits from resting overnight in its heady rosewater syrup bath, ensuring that the cake is well steeped. The syrup also helps to preserve the cake slightly longer than a normal cake.
The flavour is not as sweet as you might expect, despite being liberally doused in at least half a pint of sugar syrup, but instead is dense and rich with the wonderful texture of the chopped walnuts mingling with the delicate flavour ground almonds and the bold orange zest holding the flavours together.
If, like us, you don't observe Passover, you could serve this cake, cut into small diamonds, almost as a petit fours after a rich meal, when a heavy dessert is just too much. It would also be a lovely light way to finish a summery meal.
WALNUT AND SYRUP CAKE, from Claudia Roden's Book of Jewish Food
Serves up to 10 people
Ingredients:
Cake:
5 Eggs, lightly beaten
100g Ground Almonds
150g Chopped Walnuts
200g Sugar
Zest and Juice of one large Orange, Jaffas are best
Syrup:
500g Sugar
500ml Water
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 Tablespoon Rosewater

METHOD:
Make the syrup in advance as this needs to be completely cold for it to be properly absorbed.
In a large saucepan, add the sugar, lemon juice and water and boil for 10-15 minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved and the syrup is thickened.
Remove from the heat and stir in the rosewater.
Decant into a heatproof jug, leave to cool and then refrigerate until you need it. This can be made well in advance.
Making the cake:
Preheat the oven to 170c.
Line the bottom of a 9" Cake tin with baking paper and brush the sides and bottom with oil.
To make the cake, mix all the ingredients together until well combined and pour into the prepared tin. See what I mean about easy?
Place in the oven and bake for about an hour or until golden brown.
When baked, remove from the oven and invert immediately onto a deep plate, carefully removing the baking paper.
Cut into diamonds and pour over the syrup. I found that there was a huge amount of syrup made and I didn't use all of it, but just your common sense. If your cake seems a bit dryer, then use more syrup.
After half an hour, turn over the cake pieces so ensure a full and thorough bathing of the syup. You will see that the walnuts rose to what was the top of the cake and will look beautifully bronzed and glossy from the syrup.
I left mine to soak overnight and then placed the syrup drenched pieces on a cake stand for people to whisk away as they pleased.

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Introducing...The Daring Bakers!

And this month's baking challenge is....
RED VELVET CAKE!
W-wait...let's rewind that a bit. Firstly, just who are the Daring Bakers? Well, for any frequenter of food blogs (see list of blogs on left if you are in any doubt of who they/you are), you will be familiar with a baking event that has been taking place for the last few months. Last month it was the Chocolate Intensity Cake (and if a post ever put pounds and ounces on by viewing alone, it was this one) and prior to that, some amazing Croissants. Jenny, Mary, Ivonne, Peabody, Brilynn, Hester, Lisa, Tanna, Helene and Veronica have all been wowing us with their delicious write-ups and accompanying photos.
Last month, along with Jen, Elle, Valentina, Mary and Morven, I was lucky enough to be asked to join the baking circle, which has since been officially named the Daring Bakers. This is somewhat of a dubious honour, not for me but for the other members, as I am not a hugely adept or experienced baker but I am at least enthusiastic!
I was excited about this months recipe: Red Velvet Cake. It was a retro classic that I had read about in many of my old 1950s cookbooks and I have always marvelled at the use of a whole bottle of red food dye. I'm not entirely sure why they would have dyed a cake blood red in the 50s, I suppose it was a yin/yang type deal: pure white angel food cake, blood red devils food cake (because Red Velvet Cake is basically Devils Food Cake with the dye added). The flavour is unfortunately less devilish. I would have preferred something much more chocolately but the redness was novelty enough for me.
Paul and I are not 'cake' people. You will note from our blog that we don't make a huge amount of desserts, purely because there is just the two of us and whilst I am not one for keeping leftovers, I do feel slightly peeved if I have to throw something away that I spent time baking.
This was a cake of many first for me:
1) I have never made a three layer cake
2) I never iced a cake all over (can you tell???!)
3) I have never used food dye other than to paint murals on my wall when I was a kid.
I had planned on making the sponges Tuesday and icing them Wednesday (I had thought the final posting was due on Thursday - I was out by 4 days) but neither of us could wait, so in between adverts during Dawsons Creek reruns, I whisked up the delicious icing (which is completely healthy: butter, cream cheese and icing sugar) and slathered it all over my glowingly red cakes.
A note about the food dye: I used food paste which is industrial strength colouring. I estimated a heaping teaspoon which was exactly the right amount, although the batter and ensuing cakes look a bit startling at first to the untrained eye. Paul said the baked cakes resembled tins filled with tomato paste. And he wasn't wrong.
The cakes didn't rise as much as I had thought they would, and they felt very heavy and impermeable. Whilst impermeability is a good property if you are making, say for example, rubber or pottery, in a cake it is not so desirable.
Still, I persevered on and and set to making the icing. Believe me, for those three ingredients, this is some delicious icing. We ate most of it straight from the bowl. I love cream cheese at the best of times, sweet or savoury and I would definitely use this again, perhaps on a Carrot Cake.
So, I iced the cake, which as you can see was quite disastrous. Not because the icing was too runny but because my layers were all slightly askew and I didn't think to trim them. My fault entirely. I put it in the fridge to set up and carried the bowl downstairs to lick the icing out of whilst wondering whether Dawson really would get it together with Joey at last.
The next day, I extracted the cake from the fridge and set to photographing it. The icing job wasn't perfect, it looked a bit drippy but I quite liked the final effect and, whilst the daffodil was one step too far (I would have preferred red rose petals - this cake also goes under the name of American Beauty), I thought it had a rustic charm.
The real disappointment came when I cut the cake to photograph its internal gubbins. Yes, the red was still as vibrant as ever but the texture was not as light and fluffy as I felt it should have been. It was dense and like an overcooked brownie (or reddy). Paul refused to even feed it to his work colleagues so I knew it wasn't good. We crumbled the rest of it up and fed it to the wild birds, who are no doubt sharing the love by depositing bright red splats on various cars in the neighbourhood...
Click on the aforementioned links to check out everyone else's cakes, most of which should also be posted today.
Hopefully this won't guarantee me a fastrack to expulsion from the Daring Bakers as I am eagerly awaiting the challenge for April. Just so long as there is no food colouring involved this time...

P.S. Big thanks must go to Ximena over at Lobstersquad for designing the great DB logo. She has done a fantastic job! By the way, whilst you at it, go and check out her great blog!

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SUGAR HIGH FRIDAY #29 RAW CHOCOLATE

If you thought that Meeta's latest Monthly Mingle was head-scratchingly taxing, then you weren't prepared for the evil brilliance of Emily Stone over at Chocolate in Context and her Sugar High Friday Theme: Raw (that's right, RAW) Chocolate.
What this loosely means is chocolate in its most natural form: pods, nibs, cocoa butter, unprocessed cocoa.
At first I was a bit concerned that I wouldn't be able to source any of the above raw chocolate ingredients anywhere, but, as usual, good old Ebay came to my rescue. I hate being a slave to that faceless online bidding meat market, but damn, if they haven't scored me some good bargains and paid for some bills too!
So, I managed to find a supplier of Cacao Nibs (which apparently go hand in hand with current new superfood, Goji Berries) and eagerly awaited their arrival.
I admit, being a major chocolate fan, that I was incredibly excited about trying the nibs. I had read such wonderful things about their health properties but more importantly (to me anyway), their taste!
When they did turn up, I opened the packaging and deeply inhaled the rich, earthy smell, more redolent of purest cocoa powder than chocolate bars. The nibs themselves resemble tiny wood chips and their texture is not far off wood either (not that I am a secret wood nibbler though). Taste wise they are much like a very high cocoa content chocolate: the flavour doesn't come through straight away, but gets stronger as it melts and the taste lingers on your tongue. There is a slight smokiness to the nibs and they leave a not too unpleasant bitter taste in the mouth.
In this most purest of form, they are apparently a great aphrodisiac, one of the greatest sources of anti-oxidants and are supposedly good for boosting your mood. I can't vouch too much for any of these claims but what I can wholeheartedly confirm is their intensely delicious taste when cooked or mixed with a natural sweetener.
In preparation for the event, I bought a book called Naked Chocolate written by superfood junkies, David Woolfe and Shazzie (no surname), who take every opportunity to extole the virtues of cacao nibs, blue sea algae and all manner of revolting sounding 'foods'. Whilst I don't buy into their hippy ethos of pure living through the consumption of raw foods, I am, if nothing else, always up for trying new and unusual ingredients. Generally I would not use the recipes listed in their book; for one, most of the ingredients are not your usual store cupboard staples (Optimum Source Chlorella, anyone?) and therefore they are extremely limiting, but I also enjoy trying to utilise unusual ingredients into 'normal' recipes such as cookies, or even chilli. I think it's important as a cook to familiarise yourself with recherche ingredients, and to use them in everyday recipes is the best way of achieving this familiarity.
But, to strike a fair balance for this post, I thought it would be interesting to use the Cacao Nibs in a regular cookie recipe but to also make some Truffles that use pureed dates for moistness and sweetness, the nibs for the chocolate hit and sesame seeds as, I suppose, added texture. A dash of Vanilla Extract adds a delicate flavour.
The Cookies are just your common or garden sugar biscuit recipe with half a cupful of the nibs used instead of chocolate chips. Interestingly, the nibs don't melt like chocolate chips but retain their woody nature. For people who are unable to eat nuts due to allergies or intolerances, the nibs texture is redolent of chopped hazelnuts with the flavour of rich, dark chocolate.
CHOCOLATE NIB COOKIES makes 20-24 depending on size
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Softened Butter
1/2 Cup Demerara Sugar (or any brown sugar)
1/2 Cup Vanilla Sugar (or white sugar)
1 Egg, beaten
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Pinch Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Cacao Nibs
1 Cup Plain Flour, sifted
METHOD:
Preheat oven to 170c.
Line a couple of baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
Cream the softened butter with the sugars until light and fluffy.
Beat in the egg and Vanilla, if it splits, add some of the flour.
Add the sifted flour, salt and baking powder and mix thoroughly.
Fold in the Nibs.
Spoon dessertspoonfuls of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between the biscuits.
Bake for 10-13 minutes, depending on how crisp you like your biscuits.
Leave to cool on the sheets and then apply to mouth.
Be warned: these are very, very moreish which is probably in no small part to the pure caffeine in the nibs.

The truffles are an adaptation of a recipe taken from the Naked Chocolate book. In fact, an amalgamation of two recipes: their truffle recipe and their chocolate sauce recipe which forms the base of many other recipes.
I made the sauce several nights ago, being not entirely sure what I was going to do with it. I was planning on making a tart or maybe some muffins but eschewed those in favour of truffles. I love truffles but have never made my own so thought this would be a great excuse to lose my truffle virginity. Also, truffles exude an air of luxury, something we could do with during these lean times!
As I mentioned, they are made using a simple combination of nibs, vanilla, dates and sesame seeds and take no longer than five minutes from start to finish, unlike dairy truffles, which are made with fresh cream and have to chill in the fridge before you can form them. Therefore, it is feasible that you can be sitting down, bowl of truffles on your lap, watching reruns of Millennium before the craving has barely kicked in. I like this kind of cooking!
I admit that I felt a pang of dubiousness when I read the ingredients; would these taste like some mealy-mouthed, flavourless vegan substitute for rich, dairy truffles? Far from it. Whilst the texture is unlike that of creamy truffles, these have a grainy bite that is not at all unpleasant. They feel and taste substantial, and the pure caffeine in the nibs gives you a great sense of well-being. They are an instant good mood hit. The sesame seeds add a nutty flavour that is particularly tasty, and, when rolled in some deep, dark cocoa powder, they really taste sensational.
Remember though that I still had some of the chocolate sauce leftover in the fridge (we scooped some of it out with our fingers every time we visited the fridge) and because I had deep concerns about the dry texture of the truffles, I added what was left of the sauce to the final mixture. I am not certain that the final recipe required this so I am just going to give you the basic four ingredient recipe. However, if you find that the truffle mixture is a little too dry, or not sweet enough, I would suggest adding a drizzle of Agave Syrup or honey and a few drops of unflavoured vegetable oil. Remember that the nibs have no additives so may well need some lubricant.
CACAO NIB TRUFFLES - makes 12-14 depending on size
Ingredients:
Half Cup Cacao Nibs
Half Cup Sesame Seeds
Half Cup Dates
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Some Agave Syrup or Honey to taste
Few drops of Vegetable Oil
Cocoa Powder, Sesame seeds, icing sugar for rolling
METHOD:
In a coffee grinder, blend the nibs and sesame seeds until they form a dry, crumbly mixture. It will not be smooth, rather it will be quite pleasantly textured.
In a blender, whizz up the dates until finely processed. Depending on the age of the dates (mine were old and dried out that they resembled boot leather), they may take longer to process.
Add the nib/sesame seed mixture and process until combined.
Taste for sweetness and add some agave or honey. Process and taste again. If the mixture is still very dry (which it shouldn't be at this point), you can add a little of the vegetable oil.
Pour the mixture out into a dish and press down with the back of a wooden spoon to form a firm block.
You can now form the mixture into small balls, the size of walnuts, and roll them into some cocoa powder or sesame seeds, depending on your preference.
Options: You could add some rum or kirsch to mixture, omitting the Vanilla Extract, or swap the dates for dried figs or perhaps glace cherries. You could also add some chopped preserved ginger or roll the truffles in some chopped pistachios or hazelnuts.
Again, this recipe comes with a warning: these truffles are seriously delicious!

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Carter Is My Hero!

So, Freya mentioned to me earlier in the week that the Kitchen Wench is hosting a food nostalgia event. She said this sort of thing is right up my alley and to start thinking of childhood foods to cook and write about. Every evening after work I have asked if I should make the nostalgic meal and every evening I have been told I couldn’t because there was something else on the agenda. Well, you can imagine my frustration when this morning Freya said, “The post about food nostalgia has to be submitted today to be eligible.”
Fortunately I’ve had the menu planned for a while. The food was easy and quick to prepare and it satisfied the requirement for nostalgia. Just thinking about the menu reminded me of the days when kids flew box kites and a crazy new horseless carriage was all the rage. That’s right, it reminded me of watching the Waltons in the 1970’s.
There was so much more to the 70’s than anachronistic melodrama though. One mustn’t forget the significance of lick and stick tattoos in boxes of Cracker Jack, putting playing cards in bike spokes to make a motorcycle sound, really big GI Joe guys, Star Wars (obviously), and that beautiful man, President Jimmy Carter.
For me a big part of the 1970’s was directed by my interest in street gangs. This was before the days of the Disciples, Bloods, and Crips. Back then children like me formed opinions about gangs from TV shows like Happy Days, films like The Warriors, books like Run Baby Run by Nicky Cruz, or, in my case, West Side Story.
The West Side Story soundtrack was my favourite album in my dads record collection (My second favourite was a collection of Henry Mancini works, but that doesn’t relate to this post.) and I listened to it constantly! I read the gatefold sleeve over and over, studying every picture. I memorised all the lyrics. I knew I wanted to be in a gang. I didn’t think there was any stigma attached to this sort of ambition. After all, who could object to a group of guys singing and dancing?
Every May during the last half of that decade, I would hold a recruitment drive. There was very little in the way of requirements. A kid only had to live in my neighbourhood, have a cool bike, and memorise the Jets theme song. It didn’t matter that I never had a gang called “The Jets” because the disparity was somewhat irrelevant to a seven year old. My gang was called The Bobcat Brothers! The name was chosen after very publicly dropping out of Cub Scouts due to my acute awareness of that organisations social inequities (yep, I’ve always been wracked with political ire). I was left only with my Bobcat rank patch. This became the symbol of my new posse.I wish there were still kids like that around today. We must have been really funny to watch because anybody who thinks they’re cool generally comes off as comical, and man, did I think I was cool. The gang all wore 50’s style white T-shirts with candy cigarette packs rolled up in the sleeves, riding our Schwinns ¾ of a mile from home just so we could meet up behind the bobcat cage at the Myrick Park Zoo. I would find old bottles around the house, the kind that looked more like something from the 1850’s than the 1950’s and fill them with instant Liptons iced tea because I thought it looked like foamy beer. Paradoxically, when the Bobcat Brothers found a whole unopened can of beer outside a grocery store, we only thought to ride over it on our bikes until it blew up.
And that is how the summers passed by. Every day we’d imagine Officer Krupke was chasing us and every evening we would return to our homes and have our dinner before going out again to spend the remaining daylight hours staring through a chain-link fence at the high school kids wishing we were older so they would let us play baseball with them.
For some reason, I remember having every summertime evening meal outside at the picnic table. The food was by no means standard barbeque or picnic fare though. This was probably the result of my parents habit of reserving a room upstairs for international lodgers (a tradition that continues to this day (Hello Fernando!)).
If you’ve read the comments on Freyas Sologa post, you’ll recall mention of one family favourite passed down by Hashem, an Iranian lodger. This was just boiled rice with a raw egg yolk on top and as a kid I absolutely loved it! At these meals we tried every kind of hamburger going, but my personal favourite has always been my moms teriyaki burgers. Salty, sweet, and spicy all at the same time, these burgers are still a hit when I make them for people. A previous post also briefly, ahem, mentions an abundance of green beans in my childhood. I discovered quite accidentally that green beans and ketchup go great together and still remain a gastronomically guilty pleasure for me.
It’s been a long time coming, but what follows is my menu for an instantly nostalgic meal.

• BUTTERED RICE WITH EGG YOLK
• GREEN BEANS AND KETCHUP
• TERIYAKI BURGERS

A CHILDS SIZE PORTION

• The beans are self explanatory. Cook them al dente and serve with Heinz ketchup.

• The rice is simple. One cup basmati rice boiled in two cups water with a knob of butter and a teaspoon of seasalt. Serve one portion with one organic egg yolk.

• The burgers are a bit more involved. This is my version of my moms recipe:

500g/1Lb. Ground beef mince
2 Tablespoons sugar
5 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Small onion coarsely chopped
1/4 Teaspoon ground mace

Mix all ingredients together and fry in a pan or, preferably, cook on a grill. Serve naked (The burger that is!).

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Monkfish for Tea

We are just about getting to the end of our freezer supplies, which coincides, quite neatly, with payday.
The Monkfish extracted from our freezer last night was saved as an end of the month treat, and last night seemed a good night to cook it. We had received notice from the courts that our case against the bank is proceeding as it should, and slightly swifter than we dared hoped. From this point on, all we do now is wait.
So, I felt that a tentative celebratory meal seemed in order. I have been itching to make Polenta for ages but have been unable to get hold of any decent cornmeal.
I finally managed to score some extra finely milled cornmeal (used for the Duckanoo, amongst other recipes) and some coarse organic so I decided to use a combination of the two and see what transpired.
I have only made Polenta one other time, it was an Quick Mix brand and the flavour was dreadful: bland, flabby and it stuck to the griddle when I tried to fry it. I have since learned that Polenta needs a lot of seasoning and that griddling it probably isn't a great idea.
It has taken me 2 or 3 years to get back with the Polenta plan but I am not a quitter, at least, not when it comes to cooking. Sure, I gave up a course in aromatherapy (but then, I was getting all sorts of glands mixed up with muscles during the physiology elements and that can't be a good thing) and photography (yes, I was good as the photography on this site doesn't attest to, but I couldn't afford it and there are only so many times you can photograph the same cornfields before you start exhibiting signs of a Diane Arbus type mania).
Anyway, after watching Ina Garton effortlessly arrange a dinner party for several friends, with Polenta as one of the side dishes, my mind was made up: Stuffed Monkfish with Fried Polenta and Spring Greens (it was a huge bag).
The Polenta needs to boiled up first and then poured into an oiled dish to cool before it can be fried. It firms up very quickly though, and becomes the texture of soft rubber. Ina's recommendation was to make it Monday, serve it on Friday. However, I wanted Polenta TONIGHT so I would have to exercise a little less restraint than usual (which is very little anyway). This did show when it came to the frying of these gorgeous yellow disks, because they started to stick slightly. So, a word of advice: always chill Polenta for at least several hours, and not just half an hour! Impatience issues aside, this was some great tasting Polenta. I seasoned it generously with lots of sea salt, freshly ground pepper, lots of butter, Parmesan and chopped Rosemary leaves. This complimented the Rosemary and Black Pepper coating that I liberally doused my Monkfish pieces in, and their stuffing of chargrilled peppers (from a jar this time, I'm afraid) and anchovies made this dish a delicious pseudo-Italian supper. The wonderful, iron-tinged Spring Greens bridged the gap perfectly between the creamy fish and the salty, cheesy Polenta, but any greens would do, broccoli, Savoy Cabbage, even an Arugula Salad.
If you want to recreate this "simple but attractive enough for guests" dish, here are the recipes:

STUFFED MONKFISH WITH POLENTA AND SPRING GREENS serves 2
For The Polenta:
Ingredients:
1 Cup Cornmeal. I used a mixture of fine and
coarse, but whatever you have is fine
2 Cups Water
2 Cups Milk (I used skimmed, full fat would make it richer)
2 Tablespoons Butter
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Chopped Rosemary
Good Grating of Parmesan to taste
Salt and Pepper
METHOD:
Place the cornmeal, water, milk, rosemary, butter and oil in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. It will start to blip gently as it heats up and then volcanically as it gets really hot. You must keep stirring otherwise it will stick like nobodys' business to the pan and this is supposed to be a quick supper. Not one spent cleaning pans. If, like me, you have a natural aversion to things that spit hot, molten liquid at you (ahem), you may choose to wear an oven glove and long sleeves whilst carrying out this procedure.
Once it boils, turn the heat down to about medium, cover and leave for about 10 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Stir in the Parmesan.
Pour into a lightly oiled dish (I used an oval cast iron dish but anything at all will do) and leave to cool for about half an hour at room temperature then several more hours in the fridge.
When completely cold, cut into shapes using a cutter or just cut into wedges and fry in a little hot olive oil until crisp and golden on both sides. Here is where they need to be really cold. They will go mushy if not. I speak from experience.

For The Monkfish:
Ingredients:
300g Monkfish
Some Chargrilled Peppers
Anchovies to taste
A few peppercorns, some sea salt
Tablespoon fresh Rosemary, chopped
METHOD:
Preheat Oven to 200c.
Firstly, make the rub. Using a Pestle and Mortar, smash up the salt, peppercorns and rosemary until the oils from the herbs start to smell aromatic.
To stuff the monkfish, cut down the fish, lengthwise, only about halfway. Then, slice to the left of the cut to make a flap, and then to the right. You should now have two flaps of monkfish that you can fold out to each side (in theory).
In the middle of these two flaps, place some of the chargrilled pepper and as many anchovies as you like (I only put one, Paul put two). Fold the flaps over the top of this stuffing and hold in place with cocktail sticks.
Drizzle the fish with some olive oil.
Sprinkle the rub onto a chopping board and roll the fish in this peppery rubble, making sure to coat it well.
Place on a baking sheet and roast for 10-15 minutes depending on size. Take care with this, because Monkfish can overcook very quickly.
Remove the toothpicks (which, as you can see from the picture, I failed to do) and serve with the fried Polenta and some rapidly boiled (or steamed) Spring Greens (or vegetable of your choice).
Enjoy!
p.s. Whilst the picture indicates that we only had one crisp, disk of Polenta each, suffice to say this was just for photographic purposes only and we had quite a bit more to eat than this!
p.p.s. And if you're wondering what happened to the dregs of the polenta, the trimmings if you will, well...I smooshed them up into a ball, pressed them into a sandwich tin and fridged them until lunchtime today (and I have just fried it up, and am eating it as we speak..I mean, type!).

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Everyone's Cooking Purple Sprouting Broccoli...

Picture courtesy of www.thinkvegetables.co.uk

...so, I'm cooking Spring Greens! Not a deliberate act of culinary defiance you understand, it's just I had a huge bag full of Spring Greens in my fridge that have been crying out for use.

However, people do tend to overlook the humble Spring Greens, simply because they don't have the fancy purple flowers or are under the misconception that it tastes just like cabbage. This is a huge shame because, in my opinion, the Spring Greens have a richer yet Spring-like flavour than the Sprouting Broccoli. Broccoli is Broccoli after all.

This particular Brassica are very tender, and when finely chopped, require little more than 3 or 4 minutes rapid boiling to retain their vivid emerald colour and slight chewiness.

Not only this, but they are high in Vitamin C, Folic Acid and fibre, so are an excellent source of nutrition. Kids that normally balk at cabbage might also prefer this milder version.

Because Paul and I are always trying out different recipes, we like to to take the odd evening out, to allow the equilibrium of our stomachs to return to normal. So, I had already decided to make soup last night.

Soup is the great restorer, sometimes it seems that there is no problem that can't be solved at the bottom of a soup bowl. Of course, this isn't true, but for those few minutes that you spend supping nourishing broth, you can at least dream that it is.

This simple recipe, - just three ingredients - comes from Elisabeth Luard's wonderfully evocative book, The Food of Spain and Portugal and is called Caldo Verde or Green Broth. Traditionally it would use a Portuguese Brassica, Galegas, but the recipe suggested using Curly Kale or Spring Greens.

The key to the success of the dish, according to Luard, is cutting the greens "as fine as angels hair" to ensure that it is not tough, and this is the only time-consuming part of the recipe.
The final flavour, despite the minimal ingredients, is a delicately flavoured broth, which reminded me of something my mum used to feed me when I was poorly as a child. It has a peppery yet, comforting flavour, slightly starchy, from the potatoes, with the ferrous tang of the greens and a final grind of of sea salt.

The whole broth is brought together with a large slug of Olive Oil and served with nothing more than some crusty bread and perhaps a few dots of pepper sauce on the top.

N.B. I missed last weeks Weekend Herb Blogging but I am right back on track this weekend with this delicious, nutritious soup. This weekends event is being held by the lovely Katie over at Thyme for Cooking. Thanks Katie!
CALDO VERDE serves 4

Ingredients:

4 Potatoes, floury, peeled and diced

1 Large Onion, peeled and finely sliced

450g Spring Greens (or Curly Kale) cut finely

Salt and Pepper

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

METHOD:

Put 2 litres of water (the original recipe suggests Spring Water, but I used tap) in a large pan, with the diced Potatoes and sliced Onions, bring up to the boil and then add plenty of salt.
Turn down to a brisk simmer and cook until the potatoes are totally tender. Mash some of the potatoes into the broth to thicken it, add some salt and pepper and the olive oil. Bring up to the boil again and add the finely chopped Brassica. Rapidly boil for about 4 minutes. Turn off the heat and taste once more for seasoning. Serve, steaming hot, in large bowls with some bread and pepper sauce.

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It's Ok, It's Just Okra!

Okra. We don’t care what anyone else says about it, we love the stuff. Its gentle bite, the taste of green iron, the depth it lends to dishes, its beautiful shape that in cross section resembles the lotus root. Why do other people still not see its versatile, good-naturedness? Okra doesn’t want to be a fighter, he wants to be a lover and that is why he works so well with bolder flavours like tomatoes and chillies and peppers.
Fortunately, the West Indians and the Cajuns and the Middle Easterns know a thing or two about utilising this under-used and nutritious vegetable. In India, it is shredded, coated in highly seasoned gram flour and deep fried, similar to an onion bhaji or pakora.
The Cajuns have long used it as a thickener in Gumbos and Jambalaya or serve it deep fried.
Furthermore, a pickled Okra pod can be used in a Martini, thereby making an Okratini.
However, I wanted to use Okra in a slightly different way, making it the key ingredient of a dish, and not just a thickener or bolsterer to other ingredients.
I had recently seen a dish called Chicken with Okra that I just had to try: chicken thighs cooked up with tomatoes, chillies and lots of chopped Okra. The final dish is served up with boiled rice or Polenta.
It is an incredibly easy and quick supper dish to make, and with a little more tweaking, it could be a really delicious meal, instead of just a good meal. I would have omitted the chicken as I felt it was a case of overkill, and would use some chicken stock instead for a gentler flavour, more chillies wouldn’t have gone amiss and a longer simmering time to allow all the flavours to mingle.
In spite of all this, the potential is there and if you want to create something similar for dinner, or as a side dish, Okra is now readily available in UK supermarkets (albeit in the reduced bin most of the time). Here’s the recipe with my recommendations:

CHICKEN WITH OKRA AND TOMATOES serves 2
Ingredients:
Chicken (optional) 2 x Thighs, working on one thigh per person
Olive Oil
170g Okra, chopped into rings
1 Tin Tomatoes,
2 Red Chillis, finely chopped (you can use more or less depending on your sensitivity)
1 Onion, finely sliced
2 Clove Garlic, finely chopped
2 Cups Chicken or Vegetable Stock
Plenty of Seasoning
METHOD:
If you are cooking the chicken, heat the olive oil gently in a saute pan, and brown the thighs on both sides, seasoning them well.
Add the onions, turning the heat down, and cook gently for 5-10 minutes, until the onions are softened.
Add the garlic and chilli and cook for a couple more minutes.
Pour over the tomatoes and their juice, along with half the stock, breaking them up into the pan.
Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
Add the chopped Okra, taste for seasoning, add the remaining stock, cover and simmer for another 30 minutes or until the Okra is soft.
Remove the lid and turn the heat up to a rapid bubble, reducing and thickening the sauce somewhat.
Taste again for seasoning and serve with some plain boiled white rice.
Enjoy!

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Duckanoo - A Jamaican Dessert

Duckanoo. With a name like that it could have been sugar-coated tripe and I still would have made it.
Fortunately, whilst it does have sugar in it, it is a happily tripe free dish, and a traditional Jamaican sweet.
What intruiged me about Duckanoo, other than the adorable name, is the fact that it is cooked much like Tamales, which is to say, wrapped in a husk or leaf and steamed (although the Duckanoo are actually boiled to retain moistness and I used tinfoil husks due to lack of banana leaves in my local supermarket – ever).
I recently discovered an company called Malik who sell West Indian food produce, at really reasonable prices, and with exceptionally fast delivery so I have been reading up about Jamaican and Barbadian delicacies, of which there are many. I purchased some Cassava Flour from them, along with some tinned Callalloo and Salt Cod. Suffice to say, I am hugely excited about cooking with these items, although I’m not sure where to start!
But back to the Duckanoo. Duckanoo is a cross between cake and pudding, made with cornmeal, coconut, butter, raisins and spices. This heady mixture is spooned into little foil parcels (or the aforementioned banana leaves, in which case the sweet is sometimes called Blue Drawers) which are snugly sealed and then simmered for 45 minutes. These little yellow morsels are served piping hot and drizzled with fresh cream.
The cornmeal gives the sweet a delicious, crumbly texture, the coconut gives it moistness and the raisins give it a wonderfully comforting taste.
Duckanoo, which originated in Africa, is simple to make, and perfect for short notice guests or as an easy dessert. It can be made advance and the little pouches placed in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook them.
A note about the ingredients: the recipe required fresh coconut but I used dessicated which has a propensity towards dryness. What this meant is that the mixture required more liquid. Fresh coconut releases far more liquid than dessicated so add several more tablespoons of the milk and perhaps a little more butter, or use less of the cornmeal. I also think that some grated lemon, orange or lime zest would add a nice zing to the otherwise sweet pudding, perhaps some almond extract for a different flavour and I have a feeling that chocolate chips would be pretty amazing too. And mashed banana or pineapple would further enhance the tropical taste of this unusual dessert.
Note: I halved the original recipe which served 6 and still managed to produce enough portions even more 6 big eaters.
DUCKANOO - Serves 6, at least
Ingredients:
225g Fine Cornmeal
125g Fresh Coconut, chopped or dessicated Coconut
300ml Fresh Milk (more if using dessicated Coconut)
55g Raisins or Sultanas
30g Melted Butter
60g Demerara Sugar
4-5 Tablespoons Water
1/4 Teaspoon Grated Nutmeg
1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
METHOD:
Bring a large pan of water to the boil.
Place the cornmeal in a large bowl.
In a blender, process the coconut with the milk until smooth-ish and like a thick paste.
Add to the cornmeal and stir in the rest of the ingredients, mixing thoroughly.
Making 6 or so pouches with tinfoil, doubling the foil if it is thin (like all tinfoil over here!), making sure to seal 3 of the 4 sides thoroughly.
Spoon in 3 tablespoons of the mixture into the pouches and seal up the final edge tightly.
Place in the boiling water and simmer for about 45-60 minutes.
Remove carefully from the water when cooked, undress the Duckanoo of its Tinfoil clothing and serve, piping hot, with lightly whipped cream
Enjoy!

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The Pork and The Beans

Baked Beans. My favourite accompaniment to Baked Potatoes, Egg and Chips, Fish Fingers or a Fat-Saturated Fry-Up. I love the sweet, tomato-y sauce and the way that they taste just as good straight out of the can, standing next to the sink at midnight.
And of course, I particularly revelled in the Baked Bean Renaissance of 1992, when the humble saucy bean was placed on top of a pizza. I have always been advocate of baked beans with pizza anyway, so this was an affirmation of my slightly odd tastes.
However, I knew that whilst tinned beans are great, homemade beans must be greater still so I set to work on finding a recipe that could put their canned cousins to shame.
The first thing I considered was what bean to use. The traditional British Baked Bean is made with Haricot (Navy) Beans, which is a small, firm white bean with a slightly mealy texture. I didn’t have Haricot Beans in the cupboard so opted for a larger bean, the Cannellini bean which is creamier, although Butter Beans would also be particularly good (and in fact, any bean really, providing it’s dried).
The second thing to consider is what you’re going to add to the beans to add substance. Pork is traditional, and in virtually any cut: belly pork, bacon, gammon, chorizo or black pudding (we added a Spanish Morcilla as an experiment). Fatty, salted cuts give the best flavour, and the spiced sausages add a delectable smoky taste to the final dish. I decided to use a smoked Gammon joint that we recently procured from a local organic farm. I left the joint to soak in clean, cold water over the course of a few hours to soften the strong cured flavour – you want all the flavours to work together and not be overwhelmed by any one ingredient.
The final element is the sauce itself. Do you want a darkly coloured but fairly thin broth like Boston Baked Beans or a rich, full-bodied tomato sauce? Since I had already made Boston Baked Beans some weeks ago, I decided sweet and tomato-y was the way to go. I achieved this flavour by adding the cooking liquor from the beans (which also adds a starchy, thickening element), a can of tomatoes, some maple syrup and a good slug of hot pepper sauce. Long slow cooking is the only way to achieve a thick, unctuous sauce and you want it to simmer in the oven until the meat falls apart into lusciously pink, moist chunks.
Our Baked Beans had a double cooking session, 2 hours on Wednesday Night, and then another 2 hours last night. The halting of the cooking procedure had no inadvertent affects on the dish and in fact, I think this helps the flavours to meld more deeply.
We served it very simply, in large bowls with the leftover Cornbread (which reheats quite well, by the way) and brown bread rolls, thickly buttered. A delicious, non-pretentious one pot meal that could be served on a Wintery day or as a side for a Summertime barbeque.
If you want to make Pork and Beans, Freya style, here's the recipe, but remember that many of the ingredients are interchangeable, for example honey or molasses instead of maple syrup, paprika instead of pepper sauce, belly pork instead of gammon. Less sweet and more savoury. You build the beans!

FREYAS PORK AND BEANS, serves 2 with leftovers for tomorrow
Ingredients:
250g Dried Cannellini (or Haricot) Beans (soaked overnight)
1kg Piece of Cured Pork, belly pork, gammon, bacon or several links of chorizo, soaked in water for a few hours if the cure is particularly strong.
2 Bay Leaves
6 Black Peppercorns
1 Tin Chopped Tomatoes
2 Onions, one peeled but left whole, the other peeled and thinly sliced
Salt
Brown Sugar to taste (I used Demerara but any brown sugar will suffice)
Good Slug of Maple Syrup to taste (again, honey or molasses will also do, depending on preference)
Dash of Hot Pepper Sauce (you could add some whole dried chilis or Paprika instead)
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
METHOD:
Preheat Oven to 140c.
Drain the soaked beans. Place in a large saucepan with the whole onion and one of the bay leaves, cover and bring to the boil. DO NOT SALT AT THIS STAGE!
Cook, uncovered, for about 40 minutes.
In an ovenproof stockpot, gently heat some butter and cook the sliced onion until golden brown and soft.
If the Pork was soaked, drain and rinse a couple of times, then pat dry with some kitchen roll.
Place the pork in the stockpot on top of the onions. Pour over the beans AND the cooking liquor, and all the other ingredients excluding the salt.
Cover tightly and place in the oven for four hours.
After two hours, remove the lid, stir well and taste for seasoning. Add some salt if you feel it needs it. Return beans to the oven.
Half an hour before the end of cooking time, remove the lid so allow the sauce to thicken.
After this time, your pork and beans will be mingling with a thick, sweet sauce. Taste again for seasoning. Pull the pork into thick chunks and serve in large bowls with brown bread.
Enjoy!

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Cornbread - It's Just Savory Cake Really

Meeta at Whats For Lunch Honey loves to set us a challenge. Her Monthly Mingle is always great fun to take part in though; last month we had to make sweets for our sweeties and previous months have seen us Giving Thanks and using two notable ingredients.
This month she has excelled herself with her ingenuity and is making us work hard for her. This months theme? Savoury Cakes! That title certainly set my mind whirling. I couldn’t even remember having ever eaten a savoury cake. Surely cake is for pudding or Sunday Tea? Or when you’re craving the consolation of a sugary Victoria sponge cake after a hard day at work?
Well, apparently not. There have been various impressively imaginative entries already, ranging from Courgette Cake to a Tourtiere Bon Femme to a Bacon and Prune Cake.
I’m sure that this had a lot of people scratching their heads, me included, but after toying with the idea of a savoury cheesecake, I finally settled on a cake by any other name: Cornbread.
But not just any old Cornbread. Ina Gartens Cornbread from her latest book, The Barefoot Contessa at Home. I know what you’re thinking, boring! Cornbread is Cornbread! And until I made this recipe, I did think that too, although I made some delicious Cornbread Muffins last summer.
However, Ina’s recipe is superlative. The addition of chopped green Jalapenos, Spring Onions and Strong Cheddar Cheese make the Cornbread as moreish and comforting to eat as a slice of chocolate cake.

Interestingly, because this recipe uses flour in addition to the cornmeal, plus the rising agent of Baking Soda this is sometimes referred to by Southerners as Yankee Cornbread as this version originates from the North of the country and it is not considered true Cornbread. These additions make the Cornbread more 'cakey' and it loses that delicious, slightly grainy texture that true Cornbread has. Actually though, I would defy anyone not love this tasty variation, traditional or not, because it combines everything that's great about baking and cooking: cake, hot chillis and cheesy topping. It's what I dream about.

I halved the recipe because I know how large the Barefoot Contessa recipes are and, whilst I certainly could have eaten another batch, I don’t think my arteries would have appreciated a battering from another half pound of butter. My tastebuds might have appreciated it though...
I won’t replicate the recipe here as I’m sure most of you will have the book anyway but I will make note that the recipe halved perfectly, using 2 eggs instead of three (because it’s quite tricky using 1 ½ eggs) for those of you who can’t manage Ina’s catering style portions.
We had planned on serving this with the Pork and Beans I had been slow cooking last night but, because the Cornbread was cooked first (always a bad sign) and we were irrationally hungry, we just filled our aching bellies with that instead. The Pork and Beans have gone into the fridge for consumption tonight. But that's no bad thing. I sometimes enjoy dinners that involve me putting a pot in the oven. But more on that later.

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HHDD #10 Cheesecake or rather Yorkshire Curd Tart

Cheesecake. It seems to be almost everybody’s favourite dessert (or snack or breakfast treat) yet there was a time when neither myself or Paul could eat it. Mine was simple; super tasters taste things much more prominently when they are younger (before the taste buds get numbed by alcohol and other adult pursuits) and I could not bear that tangy flavour. Luckily, I grew out of that particular affliction by my late teens and I adore cheesecake now.
As for Paul, he used to get violently sick when he ate cream cheese (and that included all soft cheeses except for Ricotta). I remember once serving him Tiramisu and the ensuing sickness was not a pretty sight. Fortunately for both of us, that affliction passed too. Now, if I can just get him to overcome his garlic sickness...
In the past, I have made a number of variants on the cheesecake, using both ricotta cheese and Philadelphia (cheesecake is ALWAYS a hit at dinner parties). However, I prefer to use Philadelphia as it gives that desirable tang that so nauseated me in my youth. I have made simple New York cheesecakes, cheesecakes that don’t require baking, cheesecakes that do, cheesecakes with chocolate in them, cheesecakes with limes juice in them and fruity cheesecakes. I have also made savoury cheesecakes which are unusually delicious, using Parmesan mixed with Ricotta and Spinach or Asparagus.
However, for this months Hay Hay It’s Donna Day, hosted Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, (theme: surprisingly, Cheesecake), I thought I would eschew the typical cheese fillings in favour of an old fashioned tart that requires you to make your own cheese. Or at least cheese curds.
Yorkshire Curd Tart is a regional dish which sadly doesn’t seem to have ever migrated down to the South of the country. I first learnt about it on an episode of Rick Stein’s Food Heroes where he attempted to replicate the dish after tasting a traditionally made version. He uses sieved cottage cheese but the actual recipe he gives in the book details how to make your own curds. It is a very simple process, bring full fat milk up to blood temperature and curdle it with a couple of tablespoons of rennet (and I’ve been waiting to use that bottle of rennet that’s been sitting on my shelf for some years now for something other than a junket), then strain the curds from the whey overnight. The resulting product is something that strongly resembles shop bought Ricotta although much firmer, and with virtually no taste whatsoever. The rennet doesn’t curdle the milk in the same way that leaving it out on a radiator would, there is no sour smell to either the curds or the whey and it is just a pure, dazzlingly white product that you are left with in your muslin (or tea towel).
The Tart is made with good English ingredients from puddings past: raisins (although traditionally currants), breadcrumbs, nutmeg, allspice and a lard shortcrust. This delicate spicing of the bland curds is a joy, the smell reminds one of homemade Hot Cross Buns but the taste is redolent of Custard Tarts crossed with Mince Pies. When baked, the white curds and the bronze raisins speckle the otherwise golden tart (from a whipped up mixture of sugar, butter and eggs) and it looks as different to a normal cheesecake as a hamburger and a hot dog.
I served the cooled tart in thin slices, lightly dusted with icing sugar, as our dessert last night where it was declared unusually good. Pauls’ work colleague Eileen is also a fan. She and the office ‘enjoyed’ the leftovers today!
YORKSHIRE CURD TART – Serves 8
(Taken from Rick Steins' More Food Heroes)
Ingredients:
Pastry:
Plain Flour
Pinch Salt
25g Butter, cold and diced
25g Lard, cold and diced
2 Tablespoons very cold water

Curds:
1.2 Litres Full Fat Milk (and it must be full fat)
2 Tablespoons Rennet (and a vegetarian version is available now. You could use Cottage Cheese instead if you rinsed in thoroughly and left it to drain overnight).

Filling:
1 Tablespoon Soft White Breadcrumbs
¼ Teaspoon Allspice
Good Grind of Fresh Nutmeg
Pinch of Salt
100g Raisins
2 Eggs, beaten
100g Softened Butter
50g Caster Sugar

METHOD:

* If you are planning on making this tart, you will need to start a day in advance if you are making your own curds.

To make the curds, heat the full fat milk up to blood temperature (37c). Remove from the heat and pour into a large bowl. Stir in the rennet and leave to cool.
Once cooled, the milk will have partially solidified. Break the solids up with a wooden spoon.
Line a large sieve with muslin or, as I used, a clean tea towel and place over another bowl. Gently pour the now curds and whey into the sieve and leave to strain for 8 hours or overnight, in a cool place.
The next day, remove the curds from the sieve and place in a bowl. Keep refrigerated for a day or so (mine were fine after two days) until you are ready to make the tart.
For directions to make the pastry click here.
Once the pastry has chilled sufficiently, roll it out and line an 8” Pie Tin with it (I used my 9” one by mistake, hence the filling looks quite thin). Blind bake it for 15 minutes at 200c, and then for five more minutes without the baking beans, until crisp. I sprinkled some cornmeal on the bottom of the pie crust, which ensures a crisp bottom.
To make the filling, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, breadcrumbs, allspice, salt and nutmeg.
Break the curds up with a fork until the size of small peas and then beat this into the mixture.
Finally, fold the raisins into the mixture and pour into your pie crust. This mixture will look quite split but don’t worry. This is normal.
Bake at 200c for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and set.
Leave to cool entirely then serve in small slices, dusted with icing sugar.Enjoy!

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