Not much to say about this one, but I had to snap the most perfect and symmetrical poached egg I’ve ever done!
(For those that aren’t aware, eggs benedict is a poached egg (3 minutes for me), with smoked ham, a toasted muffin and Hollandaise sauce).
Category: food
The Good Food Channel has recently whipped through Rude Boy Food starring the genial, funny and inventive Aaron Craze. It centers around street food, bursting with honesty and lively flavours. I was instantly hooked by the tongue-in-cheek approach spiked with great recipes.
In the “New York” episode he made these extremely cute hot dog rolls, essentially a sausage baked into bread dough. I dashed over to the Good Food website but this was one of the few recipes not featured. It had already been deleted from Sky+ so I had to invent a bit of a hot dog roll recipe, usually a little sweeter and softer than a regular roll. His also featured skewers of rosemary and cherry tomatoes but that wasn’t for me.
I cobbled something together I was really pleased with, and served it with ketchup and American mustard for dipping. Great party food.
Hot dog rolls (makes 16):
16 cocktail sausages
250ml milk
125ml water
50g unsalted butter, melted
500g plain flour
1 sachet yeast
1 tablespoon honey
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 egg
- Fry the sausages quickly until browned on all over. Leave aside to cool.
- Mix the dry ingredients together (flour, yeast, salt).
- Mix the wet ingredients together (butter, honey, water, milk, egg) and gradually add to the dry mix until combined.
- Knead on a floured surface until stretchy. Leave covered in a warm place for an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 180C. Divide the dough into 16 small pieces and roll the sausages up so a little sausage pokes out of either end of the dough ball.
- Brush with egg wash and bake for 30 minutes, or until lightly browned and sound hollow when tapped from underneath.
Categories
tiramisu
Yet another blog topped with an awful photo. I should do a course or something.
Which is a real shame, because I consider tiramisu one of my absolute star pieces. I’ve made dozens of them, and tweak them every time. It’s creamy, boozy, sweet, light, indulgent, chocolatey… a real treat. I’ve also done one with Bailey’s mixed into the cream, which makes it a beautiful toffee colour and lends a luxurious note.
There is an angle I’m missing which I’ve yet to get, and it’s the crisp element. Perhaps some crumbled meringue like an Eton mess, or a sugary grit topping, or even something as basic as whizzed-up chocolate / coffee biscuits? I need to try these out.
So this is my standard recipe from which I start. One word of warning: it uses at least 4 bowls, so make sure there’s a few to hand.
Tiramisu:
350ml strong coffee or espresso
5 tablespoons Marsala
Vanilla pod, seeds removed (or 1 teaspoon extract)
3 eggs, separated
50g caster sugar
250g mascarpone
250ml double cream, lightly whipped
1 packet savoiardi or sponge fingers
Chocolate for decoration
- Blend the coffee and Marsala and allow to cool.
- Mix the vanilla with the egg yolks and half the sugar, then warm over a pan of simmering water until foamy. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
- Mix together the mascarpone and whipped cream and fold in the egg yolks.
- In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites with the remaining sugar until stiff and fold into the cream mixture.
- Dunk the sponge fingers into the coffee, allowing them to abosrb, then layer into a dish. Add a layer of cream mix, fingers and repeat as desired.
- Finish with a layer of cream and top with grated dark chocolate (or if you’re in a rush, a crumbled Flake). Leave in the fridge for two hours, or overnight if you can.
I always grin when I remember this potato side-dish. When I’m a little bored of jackets, chips or mash, this heart-warming bowl of crisp and moist does it for me every time. The trick is, as with many of these dishes, awesome stock. I’ve recently seen James Martin do a cracking version of this, placing a roast chicken on a rack above the potatoes, dripping hot chicken grease over the potatoes… next time for sure!
(Allegedly, the name comes from provincial French towns, where the baker had the only oven in town. Once the morning’s bread was done, the villagers would trot up to use the leftover heat. Though why this is the only dish bearing the ‘baker’ name I don’t know…)
Potatoes boulangere:
2 baking potatoes, thinly sliced
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon dried sage or small handful chopped fresh sage
2 bay leaves
Enough chicken stock to cover
- Pre-heat an oven to 180°C. Grease a shallow baking dish and place bay leaves on the bottom. Layer potatoes on top thinly. Add a layer of onion and season generously.
- Top with sage then repeat potatoes, onion and seasoning. When full, pour over stock – just enough to cover. Put in the oven.
- After half an hour, the stock should have thickened slightly and reduced a bit. Brush the exposed potato slices with melted butter and put back in the oven for another 15 minutes or so, until the potatoes are tender.