Parmesan Polenta Fries

Why are chips always bad?  Have you tried Heston’s triple cooked fries?  All fluffy potato inside and golden crunchy outsides.  These aren’t mere chips, but something to be savoured, served with a dip.  A Hero not a side.

Fabulous as they are, they take a lot of preparation and cooking.  I wanted to create that Hero without the deep fat fryer.  Parmesan Polenta chips is the way to go. Oven cooked with a hint of salty cheese flavour, crispy on the outside, soft textured on the inside.  Serve with hummus, tarragon pesto or cayenne sprinkled mayonnaise.

If you want really fast polenta fries, buy ready made polenta.  Cut into chip lengths and brush with butter or olive oil.  Cook as for the recipe and then sprinkle with parmesan whilst still warm.  Tasty as they are, there’s nothing to beat the dairy packed, made from scratch version.

Parmesan Polenta Fries With Cayenne Mayonnaise

Polenta Parmesan Fries

Makes 18

• 450mls Milk
• 450mls water
• 235g polenta
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 55g parmesan
• 55g melted butter
• Optional additional grated parmesan for serving

Method

• Grease a square or rectangular pan
• Put the water and the milk in a pan over a medium heat and bring to just under a boil, add the salt
• Gradually pour in the polenta whisking as it streams into the pan.  Whilst still whisking, add the parmesan
• Reduce heat if necessary to stop the polenta catching on the bottom of the pan
• Using a wooden spoon stir continually until the polenta thickens and begins to pull away from the edge of the pan. (This can take a few minutes or 15 – 20 minutes as mine did)
• Pour into the greased pan and spread to form an even layer
• Place in the fridge for at least one hour or overnight
• Remove from the fridge and cut into fat chips
• Brush with the melted butter and oven cook on a baking tray for 35 minutes at 210 until crisp and golden – turn half way through cooking
• Remove from the oven and sprinkle with parmesan if using

Parmesan Polenta Fries Great For Dipping

1957 Evening Citizen cutting

One of the charms of buying secondhand cook books is the scribbled notations in the margins or if you’re very lucky, actual handwritten family recipes on the back pages or inside the hard cover.

I’ve recently discovered a wonderful vintage bookshop in a very small Buckinghamshire village.  Sixty thousand titles stuff the shelves of  The Cottage Bookshop in Penn, with every inch of the eighteenth century store piled with books, turning the tiny rooms into a warren of intersecting spaces, each more stacked than the one before. it’s little surprise to find that it has been used for sets in Midsomer Murders and is said to be the Origin of Terry Pratchet’s L-Space.

It has a perfect first floor windowed area of cookery books.  Delving into the three deep shelves, I’ve come across many gems and in the back of a 1955 edition of Margueritte Patten’s Learning To Cook, I found the press cutting above.  It’s both an insight into a time when women cooked and men waited for their supper and a set of tips for a period when few people in the Uk had a fridge.  Have you found any gems in your secondhand books?

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Sorrel Goats Cheese, Sorrel Rolled Goats Cheese and Smoked Maldon Salt Topped Cheese

I remember gazing with wonder as the jam jar was passed from hand to tiny hand around the room, whilst we sat cross legged waiting for our turn.  My tartan trousers itchy as they strained against my knees, but I wasn’t fidgeting.  The magic taking place in the jar required us all to sit still and quiet, but shake the jar when it was handed on.  This was going to be butter. Butter made by us.  It seemed unlikely, as we’d all seen the liquid cream go in; butter’s solid.  As the last jiggle of the jar was done, we watched the blond butter plop out onto the teachers desk.  We’d done it.  Butter.

Little slices of French bread were passed around our still seated, mesmerised group and I remember that first bite of creamy melting butter that I’d helped to make.  No shop bought pat has ever lived up to the recollection, nor has the magic quite vanished.  Whilst I’d love to make butter, which unfortunately doesn’t keep long, but I’m the only butter eater in the Glam household, it would be a greed fest of mammoth proportions.  So in order to relive that magic moment, I’m making cheese.  Soft goats cheese rolled in sorrel from my now burgeoning herb garden.

French bread With Sorrel Goats Cheese

Plain And Sorrel Soft Goats Cheese

• 1 litre full fat goats milk
• 3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 7 leaves of sorrel stalks and ribs removed, finely chopped

Method

• Place the milk in a pan over a moderate heat and bring to just under a boil
• Add the salt at this point if you’re using it
• Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice, gently stir to just combine
• Leave the pan to cool, almost immediately the curds (cheese solids) and whey (liquid part) start to separate
• Once cool, gently scoop out the solids and put into a muslin or clean tea towel lined colander
• If you want to add the sorrel gently combine at this point
• Leave the solids to drain for several hours, the longer you leave it the firmer the cheese will be
• Once the curds have drained, you can roll the cheese into a log and (if you haven’t already used the chopped sorrel) roll the log in 1/2 the chopped sorrel, then wrap in cling film and refrigerate for one hour

I used two vintage cheese moulds which I lined in the same way as the colander and put about one third of the curds into each of the cone shaped moulds.  I mixed 1/2 the sorrel into the curds in one of the cones and left them to drain

Vintage French Cheese Moulds And Plain Goats Cheese

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Wild Garlic Leaves In Water

There’s something about Foraging that seems very exciting.  Setting out into the October mist and gathering all sorts of wonderful mushrooms, with their heady fragrance of soft earth and rain.  I’ve done this often, bringing home almost more than I know what to do with.  But the foraging I hanker after, is finding the obscure, that moment of revelation when the ordinary looking piece of grass gives up tiny aromatic herb leaves or the bluebell woods waft with a soft familiar, but yet unidentified smell, announcing the gem of Wild garlic, hidden amongst the fronds of bluebell leaves.  So far I’ve not found my foraging Guru to guide me through the edible and poisonous of the spring greenery and had to buy my wild garlic from Daylesford Organics.  But what fun I’ve had turning it into a a series of delicious delights, using the softer garlic flavour but still keeping a peppery bite.

Wild Garlic Pesto

Wild Garlic Pesto

Makes 3 125 ml Jars 

• 100g Walnuts
• 200g wild garlic
• 100g grated hard goats cheese
• 180 ml extra virgin olive oil

Method

• Place the washed wild garlic, pine nuts and parmesan in a blender
• With the blender running drizzle the olive oil into the blender until the ingredients form a loose paste
• Season with salt and pepper
• This will keep in the fridge in a sterilised jar for up to three weeks

Stir through pasta, add to mayonnaise, stir into hummus it tastes great

Wild Garlic Focaccia Bread

Wild Garlic Focaccia Bread With Olive Oil And Balsamic Vinegar

• 500g strong white flour
• 7g dried yeast (1 packet)
• 2 teaspoons fine salt
• 280ml  luke warm water
• 60ml extra virgin olive oil
• 15 leaves of wild garlic finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Wild Garlic Focaccia Bread

Method

• Line a roasting tin (23 x 33cm) with baking parchment or grease with olive oil
• Place the flour, salt and dried yeast in a large mixing bowl stir to combine
• Put the water and olive oil into a jug
• Make a well in the centre of the flour mix and pour in the oil and water
• Using your fingers, gradually mix the dry ingredients into the liquid in the bowl
• Continue mixing until all the dry ingredients are combined and the mixture comes into a loose ball.  It will be a little wet but will improve with kneading
• Very lightly sprinkle flour on the work top
• Knead the mixture on the work top for about 7 minutes until the texture is smooth and elastic
• Oil the mixing bowl and put the dough back into the bowl
• Leave the bowl in a draught free place, covered with a damp tea towel or cling film, to rise for about 1 and 1/2 hours until doubled in size
• Preheat oven to 220c (If you have a baking stone put this in the oven now)
• Once risen knock back the dough, and make it into a rough rectangle, sprinkle with the chopped wild garlic and fold and knead the dough until the wild garlic is well mixed through the dough, reform into a rectangle
• Place in the tin and cover again with the tea towel and leave for about 1 hour until risen
• Poke your finger tips into the dough (not all the way through) and fill these holes with the 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• Place in the pre-heated oven ontop of the baking stone if needed, for about 45 minutes or until the bread is golden brown
• Remove from the oven and leave for 5 minutes, then remove from the tin and baking parchment if using and cool on a rack
• This bread has no preservatives and only lasts for a couple of days. keep in an air tight bag or cling film.  However The focaccia is great toasted when it’s a little stale

Wild garlic leaves

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Stack of Orange madeleines

Orange cakes always remind me of childhood holidays in france.  Visits to the village boulangerie / patisserie often ended with my taking an orange, glossy topped Madeleine from a jar offered by the friendly owner.   I slowly ate the sticky morsel as we continued our shopping in the local market, savouring every tangy bite.

Rough, wooden bench tables with white or striped canvas awnings ran the length of the main street, each stacked with wonderful fragrant smelling food.  Ripe apricots, just blushed with pink, sold by the crate.  Salty fragrant clams, a choice of pale or dark shelled, piled high beside rubber banded crabs, waving their fettered and useless claws, just waiting for the opportunity to nip.  It was a revelation to me, my aunt who lived in the village, seemed to know all the stall holders and being completely fluent in French, able to chat to them – rapid fire.  Laughing and joking, far too fast for me to understand and anyway, a vocabulary alien to a six year old.  We’d return home laden with produce, and as she and my mother planned the meals to come, I just dreamt of having a jar of those precious Madeleines all to myself.

Orange Madeleines On Cooling Rack

Orange Madeleines

Makes 22

• 150g unsalted butter
• 3 large eggs
• 150g caster sugar
• 150g self raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 25g butter to finish madeleines
• zest of two oranges
• optional – 22 squares of milk chocolate
• 100g caster sugar
• Juice of 2 oranges

Method

• Grease the Madeleine tin and sprinkle with flour, set the oven to 220c / 200c fan
• Melt the butter in a small pan and set aside to cool a little
• Meanwhile put the eggs and sugar into a bowl and whip until pale in colour, thick and doubled in size
• Add half the flour to the egg and sugar mixture and carefully fold it in
• Then add half the butter mixture, pouring it around the edge of the bowl and folding it in
• Add the orange zest and the remainder of the flour fold in and then fold in the remainder of the butter
• Spoon into the madeleine tin, filling the scallop shapes almost full
• Top with a square of milk chocolate, if using
• Add 1/4 teaspoon of butter to the centre of each madeleine
• Place in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown and slightly darker at the edges.  The centre should spring back when you touch it
• Remove from the oven allow to cool slightly and then remove from the tin and leave to cool on a cooling rack and repeat the process with any remaining batter
• Whilst the Madeleines cool put the orange and sugar into a pan and heat until the sugar dissolves, then boil for 5 minutes until it slightly thickens
• Using a wooden skewer or tooth pick make three holes in each Madeleine, spoon the orange syrup over the madeleines and leave to soak in

Jar Of Orange Madeleines

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Two Greedy Italians Series Two DVD

I sat entranced watching the second series of Two Greedy Italians on BBC.  Whilst the great friends  Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo entertained me with their wit, friendship and of course food, I felt as if I had the back seat in their tiny Fiat 500 careering round Italy from region to region, reliving and recreating as we went.  The great thing is it’s available on DVD from April 22nd.

This is so much more than a cookery programme, it’s a look at modern Italy, comparing and contrasting it to the Italy remembered from childhood, the good and the bad.  The fact that there is a genuine worry about obesity in children, that there’s more to life than those things that money can buy and that tradition can be a solid foundation for life.

The food is wonderful, of course and the scenes where they cook, not in a spanking new state of the art kitchen, but a local home or outside, made me want to reach for my pans and join in.  This is not a plethora of pasta, but good hearty Italian food at its regional best

If you’re looking for an absorbing and good hearted look at Italian life, in the company of two wonderful friends, Two Greedy Italians – Series Two is for you.

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The Bright Red Luigis Delicatessen, as seen on Nigellisima

Have you ever wondered where TV chefs shop?  Nigella Lawson pops into a fabulous bright red Italian Deli in Nigellissima and Lorraine Pascal peruses the produce under the extended awnings of La Pascalou, very nearly next door.  This is the Fulham Road in London on the boarders of Chelsea and Fulham.  This has always been a an enclave of interesting shops, bars and restaurants, with a lively nightlife, just a stones throw from the kings road.

The Friendly Staff At Luigis Delicatessen

Luigis, the ‘bright red deli’ has a Narnia feel about it.  The minute you step through the door, you’re in Italy.  The warm hearted banter between the staff in the store is solely in Italian and non stop.  Discussions about the football are interspersed with requests to pass this or get that from the back.  The shop is quite narrow but every inch is resplendent with the bright packaging of Carnorolli rice, tiny bottles of truffle oil, aged balsamic and an array of olive oils.

Rows Of Truffle Oil, Aged Balsamic And Olive Oil At Luigis Delicatessen

Below the laden shelves are cold meats waiting to be sliced, Parma Ham, Mortadella and Salami di Milano, nestle up with olives in herb oil or with chilli or garlic, shiny and fat and green to tiny, wrinkled and black.  On a central table is a take away dream.  The dishes of Italy just waiting to be sliced, boxed and packed.  Chicken with olives and chilli,  lasagne, rich and creamy, Cooked fennel sausages and for dessert – sicilian cannoli.  This is a fabulous place to soak up the feel of Italy and be charmed by the service, right in the centre of London.

Italian Sausages, Chicken With Tomatoes And Garlic. Italian Food To Take Away

Almost next door is La Pascalou, a rather more sedate French-style delicatessen and mini market.  It’s extensive outdoor awnings cover the fresh fish counter brimming with crab, snails, and clams as well as the day’s catch. Beside this, market stall like is the fruit and veg.  Large purple green heads of globe artichokes, tiny tomatoes and fat, furry pods of broad beans share space with brightly coloured fruit and for this time of year the luxury of strawberries and raspberries.

La Pescalou, A French Style Grocer And Mini Market

The atmosphere is quieter, but all the French staples are available here including your morning croissant.

A little further up the road, on the other side is Tray Gourmet – Traiteur Francais.  This is the stop for cassoulet, haricot and pate de canard, stout jars of traditional French goodies, a perfect addition to a stew, or a whole meal at the twist of a lid.

Fat Jars Of Haricot Beans And Cassoulet At Tray Gourmet

If a quick coffee is what you’re after, then pop in to Carluccios.  It is a chain but the coffee’s good and those meringues in the window, like overblown blooms, would tempt even the hardest hearted to just take a look.

Raspberry Meringues In The Window Of Carluccios

In addition to all this food, there are gems of interiors stores here.  In amongst which is the eclectic and innovative Solid ID.

Updates Vintage Style Apothecary Glass

This is a mix of renovated vintage – re-painted wooden stools, smooth resin topped battered tables, wooden moulding converted to peg holders and new fabulous rugs, stoneware crockery and quirky   tableware and accessories.

Vintage Style Wooden Letters At Solid ID

The painted wooden letters and re-labeled apothacary jars make great statement pieces.

Beautiful Blooms From Chelsea Wild

If you’re not too laden, buy a bunch of flowers to remind yourself that spring really is on its way.  I love a vintage vase of blooms on the kitchen table to inspire me to both cook and write.

Where’s your favourite street for a stroll?

Swirly Decorated Chocolate Eggs By Lish Concepts

Despite having been brought up in London and lived there for a long time, BC (before children) it now feels a bit of a treat to take a trip to the ‘Smoke’.  To be honest I don’t need much of an excuse, but an invitation from Achica to an easter egg decorating morning at my favourite chocolatier, Rococo, was a must.

I first discovered Rococo when I was still at St Martins; working part time for a designer, who sent me out to Chantal Coady’s first shop in the Kings Road to buy gifts for his friends.  Beautifully packaged in clever constructed boxes, printed with vintage chocolate moulds, all carefully thought out by textile designer Chantal.

Rococo Vintage Chocolate Mould Logo

The chocolates are no less clever, using best quality cocoa beans and irresistibly  original flavour combinations, these are luxury chocolates with a warm, silky, sensuous character.  Julie, from Rococo, guided us through a chocolate tasting (life’s hard chez Glam) and then took us downstairs to the Chocolate School.  Where, despite being surrounded by glossy half easter eggs, I was drawn to the constantly gushing tap of melted chocolate, coming from the machine in the corner.

Continually Gushing Chocolate Tap At Rococo Chocolates

Seated at a marble topped table, each of us was given four half eggs, a bowl of melted chocolate, a chocolate filled piping bag and more dragees, flakes, pearls and metallic dust than any girl needs to satisfy a chocolate fantasy.  Like a team of toddlers at nursery we stuck, styled, drizzled and  draped our eggs in all the wonderful confections. After which we were shown how to glue the eggs together (with yet more melted chocolate) stick them to a little gold square and cello wrap them ready and ribboned for gifts.

Like A Team Of Toddlers Sticking, Styling, Drizzling And Draping Our Eggs

This was a wonderful morning and I’m very grateful to Achica for inviting me.  Having handed over my eggs to the Glam Teens and the wonderful salted caramel filled gulls eggs to Mr Glam.  I decided to try out my new skills making chocolate disks, decorated with items I already had in the cupboard – fudge, chopped pistachios, semi dried cranberries and almonds.  I used Rococo Valrhona cooking chocolate – available on line.

Hand Decorated Chocolate Discs

Decorated Chocolate Discs

• 300g good quality milk or dark chocolate
• 300g good quality white chocolate
• A selection of nuts, dried fruit and fudge
• Edible iridescent glitter

Method

• Using a cookie cutter or jar lid as a guide, draw 10 – 15 circles on a piece of baking parchment
• The chocolate will make about 15 discs in each colour depending on how thick you make the chocolate when you form the shapes.
• Melt the milk chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.  Be very careful to keep any splashes of water away from the chocolate. ( If the chocolate gets either too hot or wet it will seize and turn grainy and impossible to shape.)
• Once the chocolate has melted turn over the parchment so that you can see your drawn circle outlines through the paper.  You don’t want to get pencil on the chocolate, particularly the white chocolate.  Believe me it does show!
• Using a teaspoon, spoon some of the chocolate onto the first circle and coax it into shape on the paper with the back of the spoon.  Add more chocolate a bit at a time if necessary.
• Using your decorations – nuts, dried fruit, fudge etc, decorate the shape and repeat –  One disc at a time.
• Set aside some of the chocolate to use as decoration on the white chocolate circles.
• Repeat the entire process with the white chocolate.
• Once the circles are decorated you can add to the decoration by piping chocolate over the nuts or fruit. Use a disposable piping bag and snip off the end to give a very small hole.
• If you are feathering use a cocktail stick to drag the chocolate colours across each other.

Pistachio And Fudge Topped Chocolate Disks, Drizzled With Dark Chocolate

Vintage Tea – Three Ways With One Sponge Mix

Nazneen very kindly asked me to guest blog for her, of course as a fellow Brit, although she is now living in the US, I jumped at the opportunity.  Nazneen was one of the first people to comment on my blog when I started and has been a loyal supporter ever since.  Her blog, Coffee And Crumpets, is a fabulous mix of her British Asian roots and her American home.  Wonderful recipes and lifestyle posts, full of asian spice and American charm.  Take a look, you’ll love it!

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Boulangere Potatoes Ready For The Oven

I arrived a little early for the cookery class I’d been invited to.  I’ve been to quite a few classes, including a wonderful day at Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons.  It’s always a little unnerving being one of the first to arrive. I wonder what the other people will be like and since this is the fourth in a series of six lessons, they all already know each other.

I needn’t have worried, the door to a substantial new house was opened by a smiling  Donna Thacker who took me downstairs to an enormous, modern, but above all, domestic kitchen.  The group gradually trickled in, several in pairs but one or two on their own and greeted each other friendlily, everyone chatting happily, catching up on the previous week.

Slow Cooked Pheasant ready For The Table

It’s a disperate group, mums who want food that the children will eat and is still interesting for the adults, the older man stuck in a rut of a couple of dishes and the professional woman who wants to just cook easy, interesting food.  Everyone settles on high stools around the central Island and Donna begins.  It then occurs to me that this is a variation on a demonstration.  Anyone can help with chopping, stirring even jointing the brace of pheasant, but essentially this is watching the dishes being made.  As each utensil comes out there’s chat and banter – how to sharpen knives, easiest way to crush garlic – blade of a knife versus crusher and the merits of a slow cooker.

Layers Of Boulangere Potatoes

Donna, with years of background in catering for large parties and weddings, eight of which was spent in France, encourages the discussions.  it’s a very open and relaxed environment.  The chat moves on to last weeks lemon chicken, which to my surprise, everyone had cooked at some point for their families the previous week.  Surprised because it meant that there was genuine commitment about the classes.  Putting what they’d learnt into practice and that the dishes were interesting enough for both the committed and new cook to want to try again.

Stirring Stock Into Risotto

This is no easy run through of a couple of dishes and despite the chat, Donna asks for attention from time to time, pointing out that there’s a lot to get through. With four dishes to complete in three hours there’s a bombardment of information.  We were all given copies of the recipes as we arrived and can follow and ask questions as she goes.  There were also requests for dishes to be included in the next weeks, which is why mushroom risotto was on the menu for this session.

After the cooking had finished, we all moved to the large table, taking glasses of wine with us, for a taster of Braised Pheasants In Madeira, Potato Boulangere, Sausage And bean Casserole and Mushroom Risotto.  Everyone talking about the easy and hard bits of making each one and when they planned to make them again, a friendly, fabulous meal.  At £180 for six weeks (£30 a week) it felt like a bit of a bargain.

This is a great and friendly way to improve your cooking and if Donna’s classes aren’t available to you, check out some local to where you are.

Seriously Good Food School Of Cooking And Eating

Sausage And Bean Casserole

Donna’s Sausage And Bean Casserole

• 8 sausages
• 1 large onion chopped
• 2 peppers (red, orange or yellow) cut into thick slices
• 1 clove of garlic crushed
• 1 can of butterbeans
• 1 glass of red wine
• 1 jar of passata or 1 can of tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon toamto puree
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 bayleaf
• salt and pepper