Festive Scented Oils Culinary!

Hello again folks, how are we all? Good I hope! Well I am firstly apologetic for not posting on the day that I did put aside especially for blogging, Wednesday! So as you know from me already saying, I have prelims starting from the end of next week, which is going  to slow down posting to a bare minimum. But please do try to bear with me because straight after the last prelim up until new year it’s going to be non-stop Christmas posting, woop woop! Now, I know that Christmas is not far away at all now and that the shops are soon going to a buzz of thousands of angry, determined customers trying to effortlessly run around and organize presents and gifts for friends and family members. I have been in that situation and to be quite honest with you, it’s not rather pleasant and it seems to dehumanize the whole festiveness of Christmas in it’s entirety. No, I am quite frankly not up for that at all, so this year for a very festive and exciting time of year I have decided to make my own culinary gifts. The best thing of all is that you can look out at the sea of shoppers from your window with a cup of tea in hand, good slice of cake and some old jazzy Xmas tunes and a few bottles of extra virgin olive oil, for what you are about to see is something magical!

INGREDIENTS:

1l Extra virgin olive oil.

few sprigs rosemary,thyme,oregano etc.. woody herbs.

a few small red chillies.

Equipment:

2-3 long bottles for oil storage, glass preferably for presents.

METHOD:

In a very large saucepan pour in the olive oil and gently (very gently heat) for around 5 minutes. Then remove from the heat and add the 2-3 chillies along with the herbs and leave to cool until cold.

Pour into the glass bottles, add some of the herbs and a chilli to each bottle. Label and give away as presents although do keep one back for you!

Enjoy!

Merci,

Ryan!

Quick Post Update!

Hello folks, I thought instead of me just leaving the writing of my next post till Wednesday and not alerting you would not be very kind, so I thought I would let you know in advance! Just due to the immense homework and studying load at the moment!

Sincere Apologies,

Ryan!

Salted Caramel Centred Vanilla Muffins!

Hello again (again, I hear you say?) well I tell you, it certainly feels like it, I have been so super busy with school right now and it seems to be taking over my life and social doings so please bear with me when posts are not as frequent. I really do wish I could post every two days, but it isn’t going to happen anytime soon, I do thank you for accepting! So enough of education, it is driving me round the bend and to take my mind off the constant revision, I thought it to be a good idea to post to you and relieve the stress of the ongoing prelim battle.. These muffins are entirely my own spur of the moment creation and so they were made in quite a flash, so don’t feel too alarmed, when you see the method, it is a bit slap-dash but don’t panic, just go with the flow and trust me the results will be just fantastic. The complexity of the caramel contrasts with the creamy, subtle tones of the vanilla making the perfect culinary partnership. I think of these as more of an afternoon style muffin with a cup of coffee or for a seriously scrumptious weekend breakfast whilst tuning into Saturday kitchen, if you are a resident of the UK! Hah, that is my Saturday morning to a tee. Ah, as I write this post for you, I’m finding myself highlighting the prelim dates and times along with the last day of them, strongly labelled: THE DAY THAT FREEDOM CAME! Finding that quite a motivational statement to repeat and repeat over and over again….

INGREDIENTS:

I am going American measurements here for the sheer fact that I was using cups for ease the day I made them!

2 cups self raising flour.

1 cup sugar.

1/2 tsp salt.

1 egg.

3/4 cup milk (full fat please).

1/3 cup vegetable or sunflower oil.

1 tsp really good vanilla extract with seeds!

Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4.  Place muffin papers into a 12 hole tin.

Place the flour, sugar and salt into a bowl and mix.

In another bowl whisk the egg, milk, oil and vanilla together.

Combine the wet with the dry and spoon into the cases 3/4 of the way up the cases.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Salted Caramel:

100g unsalted butter, diced.

100g caster sugar, white.

Pinch of salt.

60ml of double cream.

Place the sugar and butter on a medium heat until both melted. whisk in the double cream and add the salt. Remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly.

Take a muffin and cut an V incision out of it then pipe of spoon in the salted caramel before placing the V sponge back into in the muffin. Repeat with the other 11 muffins.

The reason I never piped it into the cases when baking was that it usually just sinks to the bottom and melts the cases!

Enjoy, Dusted with a snowfall of icing sugar!

Merci,

Ryan..

Sparkling Festive Mince Pies!

Hello again folks, how are we all keeping? Good I hope! Well it has been quite a week, and well I am glad it’s finally arriving to a closure. My Saturday and Sunday rituals are not that exciting, apart from the fact that I am going to be making my sparkling mince pies adapted from Paul Hollywood’s recipe tomorrow. Yes, that is all I have to look forward to apart from a maths past paper to, how fun! Now I thought I would share with you a few pictures of the Glasgow Xmas Lights switch on event last night. Honestly, you won’t here the end of Christmas from me until about 2 weeks after the day itself aha.. Fabulous firework display, jamming along to Mariah Carey, along with a warming eggnog latte from Starbucks! That’s what I call a festive night 🙂

You know those sort of days when the sky is colourless, blank, almost tranquil in it’s serenity, those are the days I adore baking on. They just seem to enlighten my afternoon and are very helpful in terms of reflection. Well, I sure hope these mince pies breakup your afternoon and lighten up the Christmas spirit inside you!

INGREDIENTS:

375g plain flour.

250g butter, unsalted, softened.

125g caster sugar.

1 medium egg.

400g mincemeat, homemade or shop-bought.

2 clementines, zest grated and flesh chopped.

1 apple, cubed into very small dice.

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6.

Rub the flour, butter, sugar and egg together with a splash of cold water until it just comes together as a dough. Do not over work the dough. Wrap the pastry in cling film and set aside to chill in the fridge while you make the filling.

To make the filling, turn the mincemeat out into a bowl, grate the zest of the tangerines into the mincemeat, then peel and chop the fruit. Throw the tangerine and apple pieces into the bowl and blend by hand.

Roll out the pastry to a 3mm thickness. With a round pastry cutter, cut out 6 x 9cm discs of pastry. Press the pastry into the muffin cups and fill each one with a good helping of the mincemeat mixture, so that it reaches three-quarters of the way up the side of the pastry-lined mould.

With a fluted pastry cutter, cut out 6 x 8cm/3¼ in pastry circles for the lids (slightly bigger than the top of the muffin cups). Place a lid on top of each pie and gently push down. Sprinkle with caster sugar.

Bake for 20 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm with fresh cream.

Enjoy,

Many thanks,

Ryan!

Pictures tomorrow of the pies!

 

Soul Surrendering Chicken Soup!

Hello everyone again, I do firstly want to apologize for neglecting my blog these past five days. Honestly I have been devouring my way through a pile of endless notes and revision guides in order to prepare for my ‘mock assessments’ as the Scottish educational system likes to call them now. Well, that is 3 hours of intense mental and physical strain during biology there, but it paid off and I just keep reminding myself, that it is all for a good reason in the end so put in the vital effort now and the rewards will be more than satisfactory. Okay, so since the colder months are closing in around us at the moment and we are slowly noticing that many people surrounding us throughout the day are coughing and spluttering all over the place without a care in the world for others (us, for talking sake) leading to many of your friends, family, colleagues or even yourself attracting the cold and flu virus, which in it’s entirety is not really that pleasant, when this time of year is supposed to be joyous and exciting. Apart from the shopping part, although I love going shopping and trying out new things at this wonderful time of year, the shops really are bombarded by a mountainous expanse of shoppers carrying baskets filled to the absolute breaking point with toys and gifts. No! I’m not up for that sort of thing so I have become a little bit of an internet shopping junkie (which i do admit, feel free to shoot me down) but I love the comfort of being able to stay indoors, with your feet up, a cup of tea in hand and the laptop resting on a cushion. What better eh?

Now back to the comment I made about the cold and flu, nobody ever wants it, but it’s a fact of life and it’s going to lurch onto you and glue itself there until you reach out for the tube of nearest Sudafed cold and flu relief, or you could try a hand at making this absolutely wonderful chicken soup, packed with flavour. Sure to resolve any cold problems and set your mind at ease any time of the week whether that be a Monday afternoon, when you are ever increasingly loosing the power to carry on with the day or a Saturday, when you require that little pick me up or simply for mind and soul restoration. Simply why I called it soul surrendering. It somehow seems to just lift your spirits an tell you everything is going to be just fine, but not even that, the actual construction process is a delight as well, you can therapeutically relax in a melancholy fashion. Just the soup of dreams in my opinion. Please do not be alarmed by the exhaustive list of ingredients, you will find that you will have acquired most of them on your weekly shopping trip already. So slip into those cosy slippers, sling on a cosy dressing gown and get surrender your stress to the soup!

INGREDIENTS:

For the Chicken:

1.8kg chicken. (organic)

1 lemon.

Knob of butter.

1 tbsp olive oil.

Sea salt (I use maldon flakes) and fresh black pepper.

For the soup:

2 tbsp oilve oil.

2 onions peeled, roughly chopped.

2 garlic cloves peeled, just crush them for ease.

2 leeks sliced finely.

2 litres of chicken stock, or veg stock.

2 carrots, chopped.

2 celery stalks, chopped.

3 bay leaves.

Bunch of parsley.

Large splash of white wine (must be drinkable).

To Serve:

Large chunks of sourdough bread.

1 -2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper.

Fresh parsley.

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. For the chicken, stuff the cavity with the whole lemon and place in a roasting tin. Rub the skin with the butter and olive oil. Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and roast for 1½-2 hours, or until the juices run clear when a skewer is inserted into the thickest part of the thigh. Remove from the oven and set aside in the tin.
3. For the soup, heat the oil in a large saucepan, big enough to fit the whole chicken and liquid in. Gently fry the red onion and garlic for 4-5 minutes over a medium heat.
4. Add the leeks and continue to cook for a further 2-3 minutes.
5. Remove the lemon from the chicken cavity, and place the whole cooked chicken into the pan, reserving the roasting tin and juices for later.
6. Pour in the stock, making sure that the chicken is almost completely covered.
7. Add the carrots and celery to the pan, along with the bay leaves, parsley and white wine.
8. Cook the soup for 4 hours, checking that the liquid does not evaporate too much, adding a little water if necessary.
9. When the soup is cooked, tip the sourdough bread chunks into the roasting pan and drizzle over the olive oil, salt and pepper before placing back in the oven for 10-15 minutes until golden and crisp.
10. Shred the meat from the chicken and stir it through the soup.
11. Ladle up and top with the chunks of sourdough and a sprinkling of parsley.
12. Finito!!!

Thanks…

Ryan!

 

 

 

Chocolate Chantilly!

Hello again folks, how are we all tonight? Good, I’m hoping. For me, I am just glad that my past two hour physics studying session is finally over.. Tonight I thought I would keep things simple, infact very simple indeed, by sharing with you a sort of Heston Blumenthal creation. Ironic? I hear you ask, well Heston is famously known for his extravagant approach to modern alchemy in the kitchen although this recipe is stripping it back to molecular basics, with an ingredient list of only two components chocolate and water.

Now this is where all those avid bakers and cooks, will say excuse me? Water should never be added to chocolate as it will seize and form hard crystallized lumps, well what you have previously learned still applies, although in this case the water plays an entirely different role, it acts like double cream. Now you may have lost me here but, don’t panic! Basically what we are about to perform in the kitchen is a sort of chemical reaction that isn’t really defined as one as nothing is changing in the water. Okay, so when you melt chocolate normally over a bain marie, you wouldn’t dare let the water touch the bowl or let any water get into the bowl, as the resultant mixture would be a ball of chocolate play-doh (not very aesthetically pleasing). Well that is because the chocolate is getting a sudden shock of temperature increase when the hot water touches the chocolate, but in this case the water is added from the beginning to insure this doesn’t occur. Now you are wondering how chocolate and water are going to combine together to create a creme chantilly texture? An educated guess would be that the result would be that of a chocolate puddle rather than a voluptuous cream. No, in this chemical molecule exchange, the water molecules are being split open and the chocolate is attaching to the broken bonds making a stronger more resistant chemical structure i.e. the cream texture, you are wishing for. Now the great thing about this recipe is that if you do make a mistake during the whipping of the water molecule and it becomes a play-doh like ball, all you have to do is gently reheat and try again! Voila, and I must tell you that this is possibly the best chocolate mousse you will try.. No cream or vanilla to mask the pure flavour of the chocolate.A chocoholics dream!

A perfect Friday evening pick-me-up after the long, hard week! Best enjoyed on cold, rainy days….

INGREDIENTS:

200ml water.

225g 70% dark chocolate, chopped finely.

METHOD:

Place the chocolate and water into a pan and stir over a medium heat until fully melted.

Take a small bowl and a large bowl and fill the large bowl with ice and water. Pour the chocolate mix into the smaller bowl and submerge into the cold water and using an electric whisk, beat until a smooth, softly whipped texture appears, then serve! If you don make a mistake here by over whisking, just place back in the pan and repeat.

Oh I will have a photo of this recipe at different stages on Saturday!!

Enjoy,

Merci Beaucoup Mes Amis!!

Ryan!

 

Orange and Cranberry Biscotti!

Hello folks, I’m sorry for not posting in the past few days, I have just started revising and studying for prelim examinations at the Christmas period starting today, so I have been devising a study plan and timetable over the past few days which has restricted my ability to post for you all. By the way  I thought I would mention this to you, that I really love my new discovery of the band two door cinema club. Something so catchy about there repertoire and songs list, I do recommend a listen when your next in the car. Well that’s were I find myself listening to them a lot now! Anyway, I thought that I would let you know the plan for the next couple of months in terms of how my posts are going to be structured to fit into my timetable. You see I have devised this chart with all the subjects I need to revise and the homework I have to complete. So therefore I have put a slot in three times a week to post for you all, Monday, Thursday and Sunday are looking like my posting days and that makes me feel as though I am not neglecting you all and it means that all my posts will still be pretty frequent.

This post is all about the humble Italian biscotti, which is a true favourite of mine, I find that the sharp contrast between the dried sour cranberries and the fragrant oils of the orange in my combination work an absolute treat. Do be mindful though that too much orange zest can lead to a soapy taste on the palette due to the excess orange essential oils. I would say that two teaspoons of zest (only the top orange layer, not the white bitter pith below) will be subsequent enough. I do believe that biscotti is best served accompanied by a shot of strong espresso coffee (Italian of course) and if you are lucky enough to be in Nigella’s shoes where as soon as you leave the door of your house, you only have to walk 20ft until you reach the first row of Italian delis selling fabulous arrays of coffee and special produce. Oh, I do hope you excuse my rather short descriptions on here tonight, it’s Monday and yeah I’m rather tired after listening to 140 music concepts, ha as you would assume, so apologies in advance for that!

INGREDIENTS:

1 egg.

125g plain flour.

75g caster sugar.

95g dried sour cranberries.

2 tsp orange zest.

1/2 tsp baking powder.

1/2 tsp cinnamon (trust me it is a secret weapon)

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.

Place the sugar and egg into a large mixing bowl and either do some manual labour to whisk them together until the ribbon stage, or when the beater is lifted from the bowl it leaves a trail of mix on the surface of the mix. Or of course, you can do this effortlessly in the electric mixer, It’s what I do and I feel obliged to use it and don’t feel a speck of remorse at all! Anyway, who cares about bingo wings….

Carefully fold in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon, and then the zest of the orange, before carefully stirring together.

Fold in the cranberries gently and then flour a work surface lightly with flour and your hands also.

This dough is sticky! Now it is very soft, so work quickly to shape it into a flattish ciabatta (rectangle) before sliding onto the prepared sheet and baking in the oven for 25-30 minutes until a pale golden brown colour.

Leave to cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, before slicing into slices about 2.5cm thick and then turning on there side on the baking paper and return to the oven for 10 minutes. Then turn the slices over and repeat for 5 minutes on the other side this times.

Cool on a wire rack completely, before feeling ultimately Italian dipping in espresso!

Enjoy,

Chao,

Ryan!