Search Results

Risotto is one of my go-to recipes. Sometimes there is a specific kind that I plan ahead, sometimes it is a question of using up what's in the fridge. This one was a bit of both. I've used chestnuts in risotto before (check out my Caramel Chestnut Risotto), but I wanted to do something a little different and a little more savoury. We had a local pork sausage in the fridge, so I decided to see how well the two flavours would marry. Chestnuts always hold special emotional associations for me, reminding me of Christmas magic and family time, so anything with chestnuts to me, is the ultimate comfort food! All the more so when it is a stick-to-your-ribs risotto for a cold evening. And now that chestnuts are available frozen, my desire for such food doesn't have to be limited to November and December (although admittedly November is a cold, grey month needing all the cheer it can get!) Warning: the amount of rice is a bit of a guesstimate on this one. Add liquid slowly, so that there is not too much. If need be, add a little extra liquid. Recipe Cook time: approx 50 minutes -- Servings: 6-8 ( depending on size) -- Cooking level: Easy Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive oil 1 head garlic, minced 3 1/2 - 4 c arborio rice 4 c beef stock 2 c pork sausage, chopped 8 carrots, chopped 1 tbsp sage 1 tsp tarragon 2 tsp thyme 1 1/2 c red cooking wine 2 c water (if needed) 1 c milk 1 1/2 - 2 c roasted chestnuts, halved or quartered 1/2 c soft cheese, in pieces ( I used a tomme vaudoise, similar to a Brie, but local) Optionally, accompany with: sumac, apple sauce, cranberry sauce, walnuts 1) In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat the olive oil. Stir in the garlic and fry for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the rice and stir for another minute or two, until the grains turn translucent. Be careful not to burn them! Add the stock and bring to a simmer, stirring. 2) Meanwhile, in a saucepan, fry the sausage and the carrots (if your sausage is not rendering, then add a little olive oil here). Add the herbs. Cook until the carrots are fork-tender, then set aside. 3) Once the rice has absorbed the stock, still stirring, add the wine and continue to simmer. Once that is absorbed, stir in the veg and sausage, the chestnuts and the milk, allowing the flavours to marry as the last of the liquid is absorbed. When almost all the liquid is gone, stir in the cheese. 4) Serve hot, and accompany with toasted walnuts, cranberry sauce, apple sauce or simply a sprinkling of sumac. (we tried all four, individually or in combinations and greatly enjoyed them). We really enjoyed this. I like risottos (risotti?) anyway, but wasn't entirely sure how the different flavours would marry. I was working on a hunch and on the principle of the sniff and taste test as you go method. It worked! Everyone really enjoyed it. The leftovers, we fried up as simple arancini balls in the air fryer, some with a little cranberry or cheese centre, some with some breading on the outside. While those were nice, though, they weren't necessary. Just the simple leftover risotto fried up in balls was tasty. On a smaller scale, the arancini would work as nibbles for party food. Just a thought... I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

I started making my own apple pectin last year, and have used it a couple of times for jellies (like my Lemon and Ginger Chilli Jelly). Apple pectin is entirely naturally occurring in apples, and in the presence of sugar, it helps gel things. I wondered if it would be possible to use pectin instead of gelatine in other things, like Panna Cotta. I do like panna cotta and like playing around with flavours for it occasionally (like my lemon-topped one, or my savoury lemongrass and coconut one!). I was a little worried that the pectin would both flavour and colour the panna cotta as it is a pink colour. As for the flavour, I decided to run with it and pair it with applesauce. The idea has been bouncing around for a little while and I finally decided to try it. Recipe Cook time: 20-30 minutes + chill time 4 hours to overnight -- Portions: 4 -- Difficulty: Easy Ingredients: 2c cream 2 c apple pectin 3 tbsp brown sugar 1 c apple sauce 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp allspice 1) Pour cream and pectin into a saucepan and heat slowly. Stir in sugar. Bring to a slow simmer and cook for about 15 minutes. 2) Mix the cinnamon and allspice into the applesauce and spoon it into the bottom of 4 or 5 glasses. Gently pour the cream mixture over the top of the apple sauce and chill overnight in the fridge. This worked. Ish. Better than I had feared but not as well as I had hoped. I initially started with 1 c pectin, but while the cream did thicken, it didn't gel. I poured it all (apple sauce included as I couldn't seem to get just the cream) back into a saucepan, and added the third tablespoon of sugar and another cup of pectin. I cooked it again and chilled it again. This time it worked! The cream was the right consistency for panna cotta, and absolutely delicious, with little bits of apple and lots of spice caught in it. The only problem was that the cream was a solid layer on top of a layer of juice. I don't know if it was from the apple sauce or from the pectin, or a little of each, but as soon as we started eating the panna cotta, the juice seeped up and mixed with the cream, and it was all a liquidy mess. Next time, I think I need to reduce both the apple sauce and the pectin a bit further to prevent that. It was still tasty though! So very tasty! Science experiment successful though. Pectin works to gel things other than jellies, as a replacement for gelatine. With some caveats! The other issue with using homemade pectin, scientifically speaking, is that it is not going to be a uniform strength. What took 2 cups of pectin this time might take 1 1/2 or 3 next time, there is no real way to know... I guess I will just have to play that one by ear. Luckily, that is how most of my cooking happens, so I'm ok with that. Also, it didn't turn pink, but was a little coloured by the spices. I will have to try this one again, with reduced ingredients, to see how it goes then. Served in little glasses, I think this could work quite nicely as a party food!

So apparently I like rösti. This is my fourth rösti recipe on this blog (Courgette and Apple Rösti with Chanterelles, Non-Traditional 6 Veg Rösti, and Cabbage and Sweet Potato Rösti). I like that once you free yourself from the need to keep it traditional, it can become such a versatile dish, using almost any veg you have in the fridge that needs to be used up. I like traditional rösti too, but all too often, it is just a pile of greasy potatoes, with not much else. Maybe cheese if you're lucky, but no veg, and so filling that that is your meal. Instead, making it at home, I've enjoyed playing around with it and making it a bit more veg heavy, and a bit more... different. For this one, the veg on hand suggested a rösti to me, but I wanted to cook it in the leftover juices from honey and lime carrots (I hate wasting cooking juices! All that flavour down the drain!) Toying with it in the afternoon, I was trying to figure out how rösti, even non-traditional, went with lime. The idea of Thai curry flavours suggested itself to me, and I pushed it away. Once it had made that first appearance though, the idea kept coming back, and back again and again. Once there, I couldn't shake it, so I had to try it. And so that's what we had. Thai fusion rösti. I debated the cheese (I used leftover fondue, but regular mature cheese would work too!), and I debated a number of other elements, and this is what we wound up with. (The cooking juices I started with, despite being the spark, were minimal but are replaced with the lime and honey added a bit further down.) I would normally have included onions and garlic, but we were out of both. Recipe Cook time: approx. 50 minutes -- Portions: 6 -- Difficulty: Easy Ingredients: 2 sweet potatoes, roughly chopped 2 large potatoes, roughly chopped 4 carrots, roughly chopped 1 bacon 1/2 cabbage, chopped 1 c peas 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar 2 tsp cumin 1 tsp turmeric 1 tsp coriander 1 tsp pul biber 2 tbsp peanut oil 1/4 c dried coconut Juice 1 lime 1 tsp honey Salt and pepper to taste 1 c cheese / dead fondue 1 spring onion, chopped 1) Parboil potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes until stabable with a fork. Run under cold water and the grate on the largest grater setting. 2) In a large pan or skillet, fry the bacon. When beginning to crisp, add the grated potato, carrot and sweet potato, and the cabbage. Stir in the other ingredients except the cheese and spring onion. Cook for 10 minutes. 3) Add the cheese, stir to combine and then pop in the oven at 180°C for about 20-30 minutes until the top is crisping and golden. Top with spring onion. Serve hot. So this was an odd one, definitely interesting flavour combinations, but it worked. Surprisingly it was tasty, and hubby and I both found it at one under-cheesed and under-spiced. I can rarely be accused of being over-cautious in the kitchen but this time, that's what happened. I would up both the spicing and the cheese next time. I would also add onions and garlic, to be fried up with the bacon at the start. Beyond that though, the flavours themselves were great, and I think there will be a next time for this. I might play around with it further, but I am happy with how it worked out. It would also work as a vegetarian meal without the bacon, or even a vegan one without the cheese, although I certainly enjoyed both, As a side note, if I continue to play around with traditional favourites like rösti too much more, they may take away my Swiss passport! I must watch it!

Having decided a while back to start experimenting with using sahlep, I started playing around with different flavour combinations and potential recipes in which to try it out (like my Sahlep Pancakes, or my Sahlep Custard). A particularly good flavour to match with sahlep, in my opinion, is cinnamon, so while I do have other flavour combinations in mind to try, many of my ideas pair up sahlep and cinnamon. I am not sure where the idea of trying macarons came from, but it has been kind of present in the back of my mind for months. Sahlep is a hot drink made from ground orchid tubers in warm milk, often with cinnamon too. It has been drunk since Roman times at least, and Paracelsus even wrote about it, considering it to be a strong aphrodisiac. I have no knowledge of any such properties but have always really enjoyed it as a special treat. Today it is still drunk across Turkey and Greece. Sometimes it comes in the form of pure orchid root, and sometimes it is mixed with powdered milk. It is the latter variety that I am able to find here. I tried a first iteration of this recipe with my sister when she was visiting after Littler Bit's birth, and we were delighted with it. The recipe seemed good, but our macarons fell down on execution. It was her first-ever try at making macarons and my second, so seeing as they are notoriously difficult, I don't feel too bad about it. They were tasty but came out flat and gooey inside, and had to be scraped from the silicone baking mat. We figured we had either over-beaten the egg whites or under-baked the cookies. In that first iteration, I also trialled using a small amount of cooled sahlep cooked in milk in the buttercream filling to give the sahlep flavour, but found that the filling was too goopy and didn't come out right. For this next trial, therefore, I tried making sahlep butter ahead of time, allowing it to cool, then softening it to make the buttercream filling. This time, while my execution is still not perfect, it is getting better, and the finished product is not too far off the mark, and oh so good! Recipe Cook time: 1.5 hours -- Portions: 20 cookies -- Difficulty: Medium/hard Ingredients: For the cookie portion: 3 egg whites a pinch of salt 1 c ground almonds - blitz finer if need be. Must be very fine! 1/2 c maple or light brown sugar 2 - 2 1/2 tsp (generous!) of cinnamon For the buttercream filling: 1/3c butter 2 1/2 tsp sahlep 1/3 c maple powdered sugar (or you can use light brown sugar, but blitz it so the granules don't crunch!) 1) For the buttercream filling, melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan. Stir in the sahlep and cook for a few minutes, stirring to incorporate. Cool completely and set aside. 2) Place egg whites and salt in a very clean, dry bowl. Whisk until you achieve a thick foam - just shy of soft peaks. Add the maple or brown sugar and beat until you achieved a thick, stiff consistency. 3) In a separate bowl, sift the powdered sugar, ground almonds, and cinnamon. Fold into egg whites. 4) Pipe in circles 2.5 - 4 cm in diameter onto baking paper, and place on a double baking sheet. Bake at 160°C for 8-10 minutes, then allow to cool completely on a wire rack. 5) In the meantime, back to the buttercream. Cream sugar into sahlep butter. Spread or pipe on one-half of the macarons, and then sandwich with a second one. Enjoy! I am very pleased with these! I wasn't at all sure how the sahlep butter would go, and I am very pleased with how it worked out. I have never used sahlep raw and so wasn't sure how it would go if I just added it cold (although apparently it can be consumed raw and is used as an ingredient in things like ice cream which aren't cooked - by the by, that is an excellent idea. Sahlep ice cream!). I do think that the sahlep flavour was a little strong in the final butter ( I thought the opposite was more likely to be the case), so I would reduce it to 1 1/2 to 2 tsp of sahlep for the butter next time. I would also increase the cinnamon content a little, maybe to a full (generous) tbsp rather than sticking with tsp measures. Aside from that though, I am very happy! The larger ones collapsed a little at the end of baking, and I am not sure why. My technique still needs some practice. They still weren't flat though, or too gooey in the centre, so I am not going to quibble. They could just have been a little taller and firmer. They also had a little border... I have seen quite different cooking times in other recipes, from 7 to 25 minutes, so I'm not sure if maybe I should be leaving them in for longer. Maybe my batter wasn't firm enough? Hard to tell. I was just so wary of over-beating like last time... More experimentation and trial are still necessary in this particular domain! Little Bit and Hubby definitely didn't mind. They very happily dug in and hoovered up a bunch before supper. ("Mama, I want a macaron. I am going to steal one. Not waiting until it's cool!" on repeat from a certain someone....) The base recipe for this, before much alteration, came from Michel Roux's Eggs. It is, surprisingly for being centred on one simple ingredient, an excellent cookbook. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

After delving into making my own versions of mayo and ketchup, I figured it was time to start making my own mustard too. After reading a few different methods and about mustard making generally, I decided to give it a shot. At its root, making mustard requires mixing ground mustard seeds with water. The colder the water, the sharper the mustard will be. Allowing the mixture to chill in the fridge overnight is supposed to do away with the bitterness from the mustard seeds. That's it. Anything else is extra, and all down to personal choice and flavouring. Here's what I did. I opted for warmish water as Little Bit really likes mustard but not if it's too strong. I made two different flavours: mix spice and orange tarragon. Ingredients. 2 c yellow mustard seeds 3/4 c warmish water 1/2 c apple cider vinegar 2 tsp olive oil salt to taste For the mix spice variant: 1 tsp mix spice a pinch of brown or maple sugar For the orange tarragon variant: 1 tsp dried orange peel 1 1/2 tsp dried tarragon 1) Coaresly crack about 3/4 c mustard seeds. Set aside. More finely grind the remaining mustard seeds. How finely ground these are and how many are left coarser will affect the final texture of your mustard. Combine all the mustard in a bowl. Add salt and water. Stir. Add vinegar and olive oil, then refrigerate overnight. 2) Check the texture of the mustard and taste test. Add a little more water or vinegar as necessary. Then divide the mixture in half and add the remaining ingredients for each variant to one-half of the mustard. Allow to sit overnight again for flavours to develop. 3) Taste test and serve. To test these out, I made Clair Saffitz's brioche pigs in a blanket, along with a fresh batch of Beetroot Ketchup and some rosehip vinegar mayo. I was thoroughly pleased with these two mustards, and delighted to have finally gotten around to making my own. I can't believe how easy it was! I even got help grinding up my seeds in the mortar and pestle from Little Bit, who was very proud to have helped. The whole time I was making these, I was thinking of my grandmother who passed three years ago. Ahe loved mustard and took great delight in finding and trying new flavours and varieties. This is something we had talked about doing together but never got to. To try making your own, order mustard seeds for yourself here, and if you need a mortar and pestle for it, click here.

Out playing in the snow in severely negative temperatures the other day at sunset, we needed something quick and easy to feed everyone before heading into bath and bed routines for the Littles. Initially, we had thought of omelettes, then somehow, via savoury crêpes, we settled on sweet crêpes. I had some dried raspberries in the cupboard (they had been destined for some more chocolate flavouring experiments that I haven't gotten to yet), so in the absence of fresh raspberries (it being winter and all), I used the dried ones for a bit of a twist on our regular crêpes. Ingredients: 1 c flour 1/4 c powdered sugar 2 eggs 1 1/2 c milk 1/2 c cream 1/4 c dried raspberries, crushed 2 tbsp lemon juice oil for cooking 1) Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the eggs and beat until smooth. Gradually add other liquids, mixing well until a loose batter is achieved. Stir in raspberries and lemon juice. 2) Heat a crêpe pan over medium-low heat (I have a dedicated cast iron one) and brush with vegetable oil. When it is hot, pour 1/2 ladle of batter in and rotate the pan to spread the batter in a thin round. DO NOT pour the oil in before the pan is hot as it will not spread properly or cook evenly. 3) Once the top side is matte and little bubbles have popped on the surface, flip the crêpe and briefly cook the other side. Serve hot. This hit the spot and was enjoyed by all. It's surprising what a difference a slight twist on a recipe can make sometimes. I personally prefer our regular ones, but Hubby and Little Bit insist that these are the best ever, so I'll let you make up your mind. Where do you sit on this question? Book Pairing: I was listening to Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse when we had these. It is a book I thoroughly enjoyed. It is the tale of two men, very different with different fates, and their effect on each other. Throughout though, I had a distinct sense of an echo of the Glass Bead Game, also by Hesse, which I listened to over a year and a half ago. I've not been able to put my finger on why. The plot and characters are different... Maybe it is just a stylistic echo, or maybe it was the same reader. I am not sure. It is amazing the difference that a reader can make to a book when you are listening to it instead of reading it off a page yourself...

Switzerland has its own soft drink that I haven't encountered anywhere else. It is a whey-based drink called rivella. I am not big on soft drinks but do enjoy the occasional rivella. With my cheese-making journey, I suddenly discovered that at times I had a lot of whey on my hands. While I found other uses for it (In soups, in porridge, in lasagna, in blondies or in risotto for example. Just type Whey into the search bar to see other things I've done with it.) I thought I might try out a homemade version of Rivella. Having toyed with the idea, we were then in the grocery store and a soda stream was on sale. We picked it up on what I thought was a whim so that I could try making whey, but it turns out that Hubby has been wanting one for ages. In the end, I'm glad that's the case as he's used it way more than me, but I still get to try my experiment. Ingredients: 2 c whey 2 c water 1/2 c brown sugar 2" ginger, grated 1 lime/orange/lemon, juiced 1) In a carafe, mix all the ingredients except water together. Place in the fridge and allow the flavours to marry overnight. 2) The next day, strain out the grated ginger bits. Fizz some water and add to the whey mix. Serve chilled. This was so good! Really good in summer, but a good drink anytime. All three of the citrus variants worked, but the best were lemon and lime, orange a bit less so. I might play around with the orange flavouring in future, and maybe cut the sugar and add cloves to it. Either way, all three disappear in no time whenever I make it. The more acidic the whey, the better this works. Beware to properly strain out all the curds though! Book Pairing: When making this, I was listening to Doctor Zhivago on Audible. I had heard a lot about it over the years, mainly about how great it was, and even had a friend named after Lara in the book because of how much her mother loved it. I enjoyed it, and found it beautifully written. I did however find that it was a better piece of anti-Soviet propaganda than it was a novel. There were just too many coincidences and beyond them, the plot didn't hold together great. As a piece of propaganda though, it was fantastic. Supposedly, the CIA helped to first get it published because of that aspect of it. I would recommend it, but not necessarily for the reason I always heard it recommended, as this great love story. What are your thoughts on Zhivago? Propaganda or novel? Did you like it? As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Last night at dinner, à propos of nothing whatsoever, Little Bit declared amusingly that he wanted to make pear sorbet... with spices, maybe...and squeeze in some lemon. So today, that is what we did, although at the last minute, he decided against spices. What better occupation for a snowy day, with the thermometer at -10°C all day, than making a frozen dessert? I must add though, that having received a new ice cream maker for Christmas (the 30-year-old one from my parents finally gave up the ghost), I was not opposed to this idea. Below are two variations on the method, one with an ice cream maker, and one without. Ingredients: 2 c of pear, chopped up 3/4 c water 3/4 c light brown sugar juice of 1 lemon 1) Bring water and sugar to a boil, then reduce heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved to create a simple syrup, then set aside to cool. 2) Blend pear, lemon juice and syrup until smooth. Taste test. 3) Set aside in fridge until cool, then pour into ice cream maker as per instructions. OR: 2) Place pear chunks in freezer, spread on a tray in a single layer, until frozen. 3) Blend frozen pear, lemon juice and simple syrup. Taste test and place in freezer. I had wanted to make this with either maple sugar instead of the brown sugar or a dash of maple syrup but discovered that I was out of maple sugar, and the only maple syrup in the house was bourbon flavoured, so I gave that a miss. On the whole though, I was very happy with both the sorbet and the ice cream maker. The sorbet was nice and simple. Most importantly though, the instigator of this whole thing was happy with it. Definitely a keeper! We tried it on its own, then also as a Sundae (on Saturday) with toasted almonds, warm chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Oh the decadence! I might still try another version with some cinnamon and maybe a little of something else, or an elderflower and pear sorbet, but that is for another day. For now, there is very tasty sorbet to eat.

I like black pudding, which I know some consider to be an odd statement. (For those who don't know, black pudding is a blood sausage, frequently served as part of a full English or Scottish breakfast - also known as a fry-up. I do like them in that context, but this time when my sister exported some from Wales for me, I felt like doing something a bit different. For some reason, the idea of turning it into a pie, and of adding pumpkin to it occurred to me, and once it had come to mind, I had to put it into action or it would keep buzzing around in my brain. And what better for a cold winter evening than a warming stodge pie? So it was that we tried it out, and it hit the spot! Having tried vinegar in a pie crust a few weeks back and discovering that it works, I decided to take that route again with the crust, reducing the richness a little, and adding some flavour, without sacrificing flakiness. Starting out, I had no idea, beyond very broad brushstrokes, where I was going with this dish, and it only came together in the process of making it.I love it when that happens and things do come together well! Ingredients: For the crust: 2 1/2 c flour 1 c butter, cold 1/2 c apple cider vinegar 2 tsp thyme Nutmeg Pepper to taste For the filling: 2 - 2 1/2 c slab bacon, cubed 3ish c black pudding, cubed 2 small pumpkins, cubed 2 large onions, chopped 3 potatoes, chopped 2 tbsp lard 1 c red cooking wine 3 tbsp tomato paste 1/2 c apple cider vinegar (I used my homemade apple and rosehip vinegar actually) 1 tsp thyme 1/2 tsp rosemary 1 tsp allspice 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp sumac 1 1/2 tsp pul biber 6ish cloves 2 tsp dried orange peel Juice of 1/2 lemon 1/2 leek, in rings 1) To make the pie crust, place flour, thyme and pepper in a bowl. Grate in the fresh nutmeg and mix. Cut in the cold butter and rub into the flour with fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add vinegar and mix until just combined. Chill at least 30 minutes. 2) Spread the pumpkin out on a baking tray and roast at 180°C for about 30 minutes, until it is lovely and soft. Scoop out of the skin and set aside. 3)In a heavy skillet ( I used the cast iron one that was my grandmother and great-grandmother's, that I will be haunted for if I abuse it!), melt the lard. Add the onions, and fry until translucent, then add the bacon, potatoes and black pudding. Cook further. 4) When the contents of the pan appear to need some liquid, add the red wine, the vinegar, the lemon juice and the tomato paste. Stir in the roast pumpkin and the spices. Cook for about 10 minutes. 5) Roll out half of the pastry and line a pie plate with it. Scoop in the filling and lay the leek rounds over the top. Roll out the rest of the pastry, place on top of the pie and crimp on. Cut vents in the centre, and bake at 180°C for about 30-40 minutes, until golden brown. Serve hot with greens on the side. This was delicious and so satisfying. It didn't come out as I had imagined it, with chunks of meat, and gravy. Everything all kind of fell apart and turned into a homogenous filling, but that is ok. It was pure stodge and did need greens on the side to offset the richness a little. We had kale and broccoli done with lemon juice. The only thing I think I might tweak would be the addition of fresh zest, and the use of more bacon. One slice was plenty, but so very tasty!

Making bagels (Maple Walnut Bagels and Almond Cranberry Bagels among others), it seemed logical to make cream cheese to go with it. The first time I made cream cheese, it went very well, better than I expected, so I figured it would be a smooth, easy process. It wasn't, I followed the steps I had followed before, still working from the same cheese-making book, but nothing happened. I added more culture, heated the cream up again, and left it. And still nothing. Finally, I decided it was time to give up on getting cream cheese from that batch, but I was loathe to just toss it, so instead, I turned it into cultured butter, and I used the buttermilk from that for three different types of scones (almond and cranberry, cheese and pesto and lemon and black pepper), as well as buttermilk pancakes. The cultured butter was particularly good on the scones! I was so glad to have been able to turn a failure into a number of other edible things. I still have no idea why it failed, so I guess it is time to try a new batch!