Category: cinnamon

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chestnuts cinnamon orange

chestnut and brandy torte

chestnut and brandy torte

Merchant Gourmet threw down the gauntlet again: use their chestnut products in a really festive  way. I’m a fan of chestnuts at any time, not just Christmas, whether it’s fried with bacon and sprouts, stuffed into a chicken, giving body to a soup, or dressing a hearty pasta dish.

But how to give them a real Christmassy twist? I racked my brains and brought in as many festive foods as I could: that boozy treat Brandy butter, juicy sharp cranberries and just a whiff of clementine. The result is a rich, dark torte, with a fudgy centre and citrussy base. The real kicker is the cranberry, providing a sharp tang against all the sweetness.

Give it a try this Christmas. I think you’ll like it.

Chestnut and brandy torte (about 10 slices):

For the base:

200g digestive biscuits, crushed to dust

50g butter, melted

50g dried cranberries

Pinch of cinnamon

Zest and juice of 1 clementine

For the filling:

200g Merchant Gourmet whole chestnuts

50g icing sugar

200g brandy butter

For the chocolate frosting:

200g dark chocolate, chopped

100g butter, cubed

  1. Mix the crushed biscuits with the cranberries, cinnamon and clementine and stir in the butter. Pack the biscuit mix into a 15cm springform tin and pop in the fridge to firm up while you get on with the filling.
  2. Whizz the chestnuts in a food processor and gradually add the sugar. If the mixture looks a little rubbly at this point add a tablespoon of water to form a paste. Add the brandy butter and blend until smooth. Pour this on top of the biscuit and chill for another hour. (If you have some handy, you could use chestnut puree blended with sugar and brandy butter instead).
  3. For the chocolate topping, put the butter and chocolate in a bowl over a gently simmering pan of water. Allow to melt together very slowly until smooth, then add a tiny sprinkle of sea salt. Pour this on top of the torte filling and chill for another hour until the top has set hard. When ready slice with a damp, warmed bread knife to get a clean cut (unlike the one in my picture!).
    Categories
    chilli cinnamon coriander cumin food nutmeg

    garam masala

    garam masala

    Another year, another excuse to rustle up a garam masala. This year, a heavy lean on the aniseed flavours: star anise, cinnamon, chillis, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorns, bay leaves, a whole nutmeg all roasted in a low oven until aromatic. Blitz to dust.

    Categories
    cardamom cinnamon coriander food rice

    aromatic rice

    This is the rice from the chicken tikka masala recipe. I’ve broken it out to it’s own page otherwise I have trouble finding it!

    Aromatic rice:

    1 onion, diced

    2 cloves garlic, peeled and bashed

    1 cinnamon stick

    3 cloves

    4 cardamom pods

    1 cupful rice per person

    1. Fry the onion gently until softened, then add the garlic.
    2. Add the spices and stir, allowing them to warm.
    3. Add the rice and a generous sprinkle of salt, stir will to coat the rice in the spiced oil. Top up the pan with three times the amount of water to rice. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.
    4. Cover the pan and allow to simmer for ten minutes – do not lift the lid.
    5. Turn off the heat and leave for a further ten minutes, leaving the lid on.
    6. Stir through with a fork and grind over plenty of black pepper. If you have any left over from the curry, throw in some parsley too.
    Categories
    chocolate cinnamon food sugar

    churros with hot chocolate

    This was another foray into Jamie’s America. Sticking with the Navajo theme, the idea of little balls of fried batter with hot chocolate for dipping was too much to resist. Churro comes from the breed of lamb that the Navajo farm, and the dumplings are supposed to be shaped like sheep’s horns!

    It starts with butter and water boiled together and then flour added with baking powder and salt, with an egg beaten in to bind. That’s your batter made. This was then deep fried for 3 minutes until puffy and brown, then tossed in cinnamon and caster sugar for sweet-spicy flavour. The chocolate was made with boiling full-fat milk and cinnamon, mixed with a little cornflour and sugar until thickened. When it was the right consistency I added chopped dark chocolate and whisked like billy-o until I had a gloopy sweet sauce.

    My gripes were three-fold: the chocolate while tasty was too thick and unctuous. It was more like chocolate custard. Next time I might forgo some of the cornflour. Also, the churros were a little doughy in the centre – I tried making smaller ones but the problem was still the same. I’d probably aim for something more like a doughnut recipe next time to get a lighter filling. Thirdly I used nearly every pan in the house! There’s so many things happening concurrently I needed pots and pans galore. (And therefore washing-up galore – ugh).

    That said, it was very tasty and pushed lots of sweet / rich buttons, and I can really imagine this being a hit on bonfire night when everyone’s wrapped up warm, or possibly Christmas time as a fun snack. I’ll bring this one out again – with a few modifications.

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