#8 Chocolate Pie

The first Grigson for a bit. Although it’s no excuse I’ve been rather busy doing a PhD. I did the pie for dessert at Greg’s auntie’s. It was great to be baking again. My mum used to be a baker and me and my brother spent many an afternoon when we were little ‘helping’ mum make crumbles, turnovers and all sorts of stuff. As a grown-up, I find it extremely relaxing and therapeutic doing some baking as it takes me right back to those times. Anyway, enough of this schmaltz…

#7 Chocolate pie – a crust make from ground almonds, sugar and egg white blind-baked in the oven; an eighteenth century recipe apparently. Fill it with a ganache – nineteenth century recipe – top with sweetened whipped cream laced with rum. If I wasn’t following the recipes exactly, I would have missed out the rum – I’m not a fan of spirits in sweets. I’m glad I did though – I used dark rum (she didn’t say which type to use) and it was absolutely gorgeous! It was the richest dessert I think I’ve ever had. I’m writing this 4 days after making and eating it and I still feel pleasantly nauseous. My tastes are obviously changing; think I’ll put alcohol in everything. Gin and apple crumble or sambuca trifle anyone!?

Here’s what Greg says:
Chocolate pie chocolate pie! This is the best thing he’s made so far hands down. Dark chocolate, cream, booze, icing sugar sugar, almonds, it’s all your favourite things in one giant ganache of nauseating lurve. Despite what the book says about eat within one hour, we had some the next day and it had settled into a firmer lush cheesecake-like texture and was divine so don’t feel duty-bound to wolf the whole thing at once, not hat you could, it’s VERY rich. Sounds fairly easy to make but looks so impressive. Pics to follow. Yummmm. 5/5.

#8 Chocolate Pie: 4.5/5 – it’s got all the essential ingredients: crispy, nutty crust, loads of chocolate and a pint of cream. The best chocolate dessert I’ve had for ages – and that includes restaurants!

Ratatouille

Obviously this is not English Cookery at all! But it is one of the things I do off the top of head these days as I’ve cooked so many times. I’d like to point out that whenever I’ve had a ratatouille made for me it’s always been rather insipid, watery and tasteless, but yet I’ve understood this because I love all the ingredients. It turns out that a ratatouille shouldn’t be all watery; like you get in those nasty tins, but silky and unctuous and oily where the sauce is made up of condensed tomato flavour, broken-down aubergines and olive oil- at least in the Nicoise style. Hopefully, if you cook this I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s the best ratatouille you’ve ever had! Now that is a grand claim!!

You will need:
1 large aubergine, sliced into 1/2 centimetre slices
1 large courgette (or 2 small), sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 green pepper, chopped
1 tin of tomatoes, opened
1 big tbs of tomato puree
6 tbs good olive oil (not extra virgin)
1/2 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
salt, pepper

Method

In a large pan, heat the oil until under a high heat and fry the aubergine slices on both sides until golden brown (you may have to do this in batches, unless you’re pan is huge!)
Reserve the aubergine slices. Turn the heat down and fry the onion and pepper, add more oil if the aubergine absorbed it all. Add the herbs. When the onions are slightly softened, stir the aubergine slices back in along with the garlic. Fry gently – but don’t colour the onion- for 5 minutes.
Add the tinned tomatoes and puree and simmer slowly for at least 10 minutes, but 15 or 20 is best, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the aubergine’s break-down. Season well with salt and pepper.
If it was me, I’d serve it with either sliced corned beef or scrambled eggs along with some crusty bread and butter.
Enjoy!

October – Lest We Forget

Well wasn’t October a total let-down re: Grigson. I can only apologise. However, November is going to be a totally different story. I intend to fill my freezer with Grigson goodies, so expect lots of soups and casseroles. Yum! Also I intend to do to the wonderful Bury Market and stock-up on some game. PLus the plan for Christmas needs to get underway. I will be doing a recipe on Sunday as I’m off round to Greg’s auntie and uncle’s – Dee and John – along with his sis. I shall be doing the pud, #7 Chocolate Pie! Yum!!

However – I do have some of my own recipes to share with you, if you,re in any way interested…!

#7 – Cauliflower and Fennel Soup

Sorry, but it’s another vegetarian one. FYI once I get a floor put in my dining room I can invite people round and eat actual meat – there doesn’t seem much point if there’s only me eating it! Anyway, (#7) Cauliflower and Fennel Soup. Very simple; very fattening! Just cauliflower, the same weight in fennel (I used three) and an onion sweated in butter, add water, simmer, blitz in blender, add double cream, salt and lemon juice, finally a loving sprinkle of chopped fennel leaves over the top once you’ve dished it out. The end product is a beautiful creamy-white velvety soup; and although it’s full of wintry veg and heavy cream and butter, it was surprisingly light and zingy – obviously due to the addition of the lemon juice. However, the flavour of the fennel (an underused favourite of mine) did not shine through. This is not the fault of The Grigson – or, at least I don’t think it is – it is the fault of the quite sad-looking specimens that I bought from the grocers in Levenshulme. Brilliant that shop is, I think in a dish that contains so few ingredients needs careful acquisition from an organic grocers shop.

So overall i reckon:
#7 Cauliflower and Fennel Soup – 3/5. I was a lovely soup but lacked the expected flavours. Will maybe re-do it with better ingredients and try and bump it up to a 4!

My recipe for Yorkshire Puddings

In my humble opinion there’s nothing better in the world than having your Sunday lunch in a giant Yorkshire pudding. Here’s my recipe that makes two giant Yorkshires or 6 normal-sized ones. Fill them with your favorite roast meat and Sunday veg. Pour over loads of onion gravy. The gravy must be thick – this is not a time for watery gravies – proper Yorkshire food sticks to the ribs. These are easy-peasy and they always come out massive; you don’t even need to weigh anything – you just need a ramekin to fill up. I reckon an average ramekin is about 1/2 an American cup in volume.

Ingredients:
1 ramekin plain flour
1 ramekin half milk, half water mixture
2 eggs
pinch of salt
a flavourless oil or lard

Whisk together the flour, milk, water eggs and salt until it is a smooth batter. Let it rest as long as possible – at least an hour. The longer the rest, the bigger the rise!
Heat your oven to 200 degrees C. It must be at temperature when you want to cook the puddings.
Add around 2 tablespoons of oil to 2 sandwich tins – enough to cover the bottom in a thin layer of oil. Put the tins in the oven for a good 10 minutes so that they are really hot.
Quickly take out the tins and pour divide the mixture between them. There should be a satisfying sizzle.
Put back in oven for 20-25 minutes until they are well-risen and golden brown.

I’d like say, I haven’t been away…

I’ve been so busy with my new house and it’s such a state that I’ve not been able to invite people round for Grigson treats. I’ve been eating the worst food since I was a student of late – it’s terrible! I’ve gone from enthused cook to ping cuisine pig-dog in the space of two weeks! However, when I have cooked it’s been stuff I already know how to do without even loking in a cookbook; and since it can’t reproduce The Grigson’s recipes I shall put MY recipes in instead! A genius idea methinks.

Recipe #6 – Wyau Ynys Mon

Last night I was craving stodge – it had to be veggie stodge too as Greg was staying over. What did I find? (#6) Wyau Ynys Mon, or Anglesea Eggs. It consisted of 3 main parts: a ring of potato that’s been through a vegetable mill mixed with mashed stewed leek; nestled in the ring eight quartered hard-boiled eggs, no less; and finally a topping of cheesy sauce made with flour, butter, milk and a good mature cheddar. Add an extra sprinkling of cheese for good measure and bake until golden brown on top.

All pretty straight-forward to do – except the veg strainer on the Kitchen Aid does not mill spuds very well as some website said it would…I think I will invest in a proper vegetable mill.

The dish was actually pretty bland, but was strangely satisfying. Greg and I ate a massive portion and continued to get fuller and fuller for a while after we’d eaten it. In fact I was still full this morning! I made so much I’ve got to have it for tea again tonight!

Here’s what Greg said:
“Anglesey Eggs. Is all British food entrails and stodge? If you live on a windy peninsula I guess you need food that keeps you warm 10 hours after you’ve eaten it, and this is perfect for that. Buttery leeks (haha) and eggs together are a sensation but you’d need an iron constitution, or at least to eat smaller portions than we did, to indulge more than once a year. It’s more filling than anti-matter but so delicious. I’d put mashed-up ready salted crisps in the cheese topping to jazz it up but that’s just me, I aint no purist. 4/5 again I think. Marks are still high but veggie options running low. Check out the vid of Neil making potato worms with ye olde Kitchene Aide to whet your appetites.”

My score:
#6 Wyau Ynys Mon: 2/5 – homely stodge, great on wet winter days but lacked excitement

Recipe #5 – Pan Haggarty

Our mate Joff came round for tea last night so we had a very nice Pan Haggarty. The meal had to be veggie so the only change I made was to use groundnut oil with a dot of butter instead of lard to fry it in. Pan Haggarty is a North-Eastern dish (from Newcastle, I think) and is simply finely-sliced potato and onion layered up in a frying pan with grated cheddar, adding plenty of seasoning on the way, then frying it slowly until it cooks through and then popping it under the grill. The only difficult part would be the slicing-up of the veg, but luckily I’ve got a slicing attachment for my Kitchen Aid so it was all done in 5 minutes!

In Yorkshire, this dish is called a Pan Aggie – my uncle used to cook it. His way was to layer up potato, onion, garlic, butter and bacon, and bake it in the oven. This way is just as tasty and quite different, but it does take rather a lot longer to bake in the oven than it does to fry on the hob.

#5 Pan Haggarty: 4/5 – a great supper dish – particularly if you need to keep to a tight budget

Here’s what Joff said:
“I was very excited at the prospect of this dish and I wasn’t disappointed. I’m told it was simple to make but I couldn’t have done it! The spuds were particularly perfect. Its the sort of dish one should eat after a brisk walk on a cold, windy day. I shall give it a 4.5/5. Only reason the 0.5 is ‘missing’ is because there wasn’t any left over for a doggy bag!”

And Greg:
“My ruthless critique of Pan Haggarty is . . . yum! Basically it’s ‘I’m getting a divorce and I’ve lost my job’ style food. Comforting in the extreme. The stronger the cheddar the better I’d say and fanzy pickles/relishes are de rigour. I could a whole one to myself. I’d be sensational and go with garlic too though I reckon. Easy peasy too, esp with a Kitchen Aid slicing machine. 4/5. Well done chef.”

Recipes 2-4 – Glamorgan Sausages, Olde Worlde Mushrooms and Peas

I’ve been away from a computer for a few days – I still don’t have the internet at home and I had to go back to Leeds at the weekend because my brother Ady and his good lady wife Nads had a little boy called Harry. He’s the cutest and I’m NOT biased! Now I’ve got some catching up to do. The hat trick meal went quite well although I did get a little flustered and rushed through the making of the Glamorgan sausages – they were far too big and didn’t cook through properly. They were also a bit well done – au creole I should say – because I lost concentration when dishing up. However, they can be done well in advance, so next time I’ll be better prepared. They’re a definite veggie alternative. Doing them in the food processor makes light work of it too – although be careful, I’ve sustained my first injury on one of the blades! The fricassey of mushrooms was brilliant; the taste and aroma of the mace and nutmeg were warming and so very Medieval! The Grigson talks about the English way to cook (#4) green peas – i.e. with mint and sugar in with the water – as the only way to do them yet I had never actually eaten them this way. Well, I certainly agree and it will now be the only way I shall cook peas in the future!
For the Glamorgan sausages:

Start by mixing together 5 ounces of grated Caerphilly or Cheddar cheese, 4ounces of fresh white breadcrumbs, 2 tablespoons of finely –chopped leek or spring onion and a generous tablespoon of chopped parsley. You can quicken the whole process by simply reducing those ingredients into breadcrumbs in food processor. Now mix in 3 egg yolks, half a teaspoon of thyme, a level teaspoon each of salt and mustard powder and some pepper. Bring the mixture together and form into around 12 small sausages. Dip each one in egg white and then coat in some dried breadcrumbs. Fry gently in oil or lard until golden.

The recipe for ‘A White Fricassey of Mushrooms’ comes from Hannah Glasse and I shall simply quote it as Griggers has done:

“Take a Quart of Fresh Mushrooms, make them clean, put them into a Sauce-pan, with three spoonfuls [tablespoons] of Water and three of Milk, and a very little Salt, set them on a quick Fire and let them boil up three Times; then take them off, grate in a little Nutmeg, put in a little beaten Mace, half a Pint of thick Cream, a Piece of butter rolled well in Flour, put it all together into the Sauce-pan, and Mushrooms all together, shake the Sauce-pan well all the Time. When it is fine and thick, dish them up; be careful they don’t curdle [ don’t let them boil]. You may stir the Sauce-pan carefully with a Spoon all the time.”

The peas were simply a cop out: make sure you boil them with plenty of salt, sugar and mint!

Here’s what Greg reckons:
“13th Sept: Glamorgan sausages, mushroom fricasee, minty peas, new potatoes. As a combo it works really well. The mushrooms are creamy, reminded me of the really nice chicken supreme we used to get at school, the peas are sweet n fresh, the sausages are comforting stodge, sits together a treat. The mace was most exciting , looks like pork scratchings, smells like sarsaparilla, gives the mushrooms an exotic little edge. I’d put more in than she says, it could take it. The peas were lovely, could eat a huge bowl by themselves, it’s not quite the same as just having peas with mint sauce either, you get all the sweetness first and a rush of mintiness last, totally moreish. Sausages were grand but recipe said make 12, which the monkey reduced to 4, bit of an error as they were not quite done through so still a bit leeky. The cheese will never fully melt anyway as it’s not fatty. Potatoes perfect complement. Sausages: 3. Mushrooms: 4 (my fave). Peas: 4. (I’m saving 5 for something amazing!)”

My personal ratings are:
#2 Glamorgan sausages: 3/5 – next time I’ll do them better and hopefully they’ll graduate up to 4/5!
#3 A Fricassey of Mushrooms: 4.5/5 – a brilliant way to serve mushrooms as a veg with a Sunday roast.
#4 Green Peas: 4.5/5 – quintessential English delight

Easy Peasy

Hang on..!

#4 – Green Peas. Mint, butter and sugar are all that’s required! Brill. She doesn’t mention the frozen pea, b ut she doesn’t assume fresh either. We all know that the ONLY veg worth freezing is the garden pea. A hat trick it is! Doing a puds as well will be far too cocky. I’ll definitely leave it at three.