First Christmas dinner of the season

Complete with crackers, plastic toys, glasses of wine and snow.

I love Christmas.

Last night's menu was very French:

Charcuterie platter
Guinea fowl in creamy pepper sauce
Celeriac mash
Chocolate Creme Brulee.

Creme Brulee is not that hard to make, the biggest disaster is if you cook the egg yolks too quickly, they will curdle if the cream is too hot.

500ml double cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
75g caster sugar
25g vanilla sugar (I just have a glass jar of caster sugar with a vanilla pod in it)
6 egg yolks
4 chunks of rich patissier chocolate

Preheat the oven to 150°c

Break the chunks up and place on a plate in the oven while it preheats to soften.

Bring the cream and vanilla to the boil in a saucepan then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Beat the sugar and egg yolks together in a large heat proof bowl until light and fluffy.

Heat the cream back up to just short of boiling, then pour over the sugar and egg mixture, whisking continuously until it starts to thicken.  For a super smooth creme brulee, you can seive the mixture now.

Pour the mixture into 4 ramekins and place in a bain marie (an oven tray with hot water upto about half way on the ramekins), drop a chunk of chocolate into each ramekin, stir with a skewer to swirl the chocolate through the mixture.

Bake in the centre of the oven for about 40 to 45 minutes until the custard is set but slightly wobbly.  Leave to cool or refridgerate until about to serve.

To finish, sprinkle with caster sugar - and this is where my recipe fell apart last night.  I don't have a chef's blowtorch (Brendan offered me his plumbing one but I declined).  I tried to do the grill version of caramelising the sugar, but it just left the set custard runny.  So looks like a blowtorch is on my wish list now.

Recycled material bag - crochet pattern

I did say when I finished this bag that I would write up the pattern - so here it is.

No gauge or needle size instructions as this is for a recycled material bag, so these are dependent on what material you use. I used an old frogged jumper, two strands at a time because I wanted a thick pattern and a sturdy bag, and needle size 8mm.

Chain 22.

The bag is worked round and round to create a seamless pattern.

hdc = half double crochet

Stitches used: half double crochet, single chain, slip stitch

row 1: hdc in 2nd chain from hook, then in each chain stitch to end. 2 hdc in the corner end stitch, turn.

row 2; hdc in each stitch to last 2, work 2 hdc in the two end stitches, turn.

row 3: hdc in each stitch to last 2 stitches, work 2 hdc in each of the two end stitches, turn.

row 4: hdc in each stitch to last 3 stitches, work 2 hdc in each of the three end stitches, turn.

row 5: hdc in each stitch to last 3 stitches work 2 hdc in each of the three end stitches, turn.

This is the base of your bag. If you want it bigger because of your plans for the bag or because you have enough material, just continue rows 4 and 5 until you have the base size you want.

To start working the body of the bag, work the following row in the front loops only.

row 6: hdc in each stitch, work 2 hdc in the end stitch, then hdc back to the other end, work 2 hdc in the end stitch.

Work again in both loops.

row 7, 8, 9: hdc in each stitch down to end, work 2 hdc in the end stitch, work 1 hdc in each stitch back to the other end, work 2 hdc in end stitich.

Repeat the above until you get the height you want for your bag, I worked these rows three times to get a taller basket type bag.

Switch to your contrast fabric or ribbon at the side of the bag. (Unfortunately this did not work so well as I only had enough ribbon for one round, so I finished my embellishment round in the main bag fabric).

row 10: work hdc in each stitch around

row 11: work hdc in each stitch around

OR - ALTERNATIVE ROW 11 - using the main fabric of the body or your contrast fabric - ignoring the last coloured row, single chain in one loop of each stitch of the main body fabric as it joins to the embellishment fabric. (This creates the row that stands slightly proud of the main bag body as per my bag in the photo).

Switch back to your main bag fabric and work through both loops of each stitch again.

row 12, 13, 14, 15: hdc in each stitch around for these 4 rounds and end at the side of the bag.

Optional variation if you have enough contrast fabric. Switch to contrast fabric for this one row, starting on the same bag side as the previous contrast rounds.

row 16: hdc in each stitch of this round.

Switch back to main material.

row 17: hdc in each stitch of this round.

row 18: starting at the side of the bag, hdc in each of the next 7 stitches, chain 20 for the handles (you can chain slightly longer if your bag is small and light, but this is not designed to be an over the shoulder style of bag).
Join the handle chain back into the bag with a single chain, leaving approximately 14 stitches unworked in the centre of the bag - this is an approximate number, fold your bag opening in half at the sides and simply ensure that you have your handle centrally positioned.
Work hdc into the remaining 7 stitches of that side of the bag.

row 19: hdc around the other side of the bag for 7 stitches, chain 20 and join with a single stitch into bag, leaving approx 14 stitches unworked under the handle. hdc for the remaining 6 stitches. Fold your bag opening and check that handles are aligned with each other and centrally positioned for the bag.

row 20: hdc in each stitch of the bag around to the handle, then work 2 hdc in the stitch at the base of the handle, and hdc in each stitch around the handle until you reach the end stitch to work 2 hdc again, hdc in each stitch round to the second handle, work 2 hdc into the stitch at the base, hdc in each stitch of the handle, then work 2 hdc into the base stitch, work 1 hdc into each stitch back to the side of the bag.

For an alternative finish - using contrast fabric or leather strips.

row 21: single chain, slip stitch in each stitch of the round to create a smooth bound edge. I would really have liked to do this even with the main material of the bag body, but I just did not have enough frogged jumper left.

Fasten off and weave ends under on the inside of the bag.

This is another easy but rewarding project, quite quick to do and one that can be done on the sofa watching TV, as there is not much counting or pattern following required. Plus you can use pretty much any fabric or yarn you have so it would be a good catch all project for tidying up your left over scrap fabrics. I am saving my left over hat and shawl yarns ready to make the next bag - which is going to end up a mish mash of colours and textures.

With a helping hand from Ferguson

Today it is lovely and sunny, and rather warm for an autumnal day, which goes some way to making up for the fact that it has dropped below freezing for the last three nights, in fact last night it got down to -5°c.

Meaning of course that things are dying off in the garden, first to go were all the pumpkin plants, all those thick stalks full of water have no chance when it  keeps freezing, consequently no champion sized pumpkins this year, but a plentiful crop nonetheless, now with their backsides drying in the sun before heading underground for winter storage.

The next thing to go were all the tomato plants outside.  Those in the greenhouse are all doing fine, although I am doubtful that they will all go red in there before the heavy frosts start.

And some things are remarkably resilient, have reseeded themselves and are going rather well already - radishes of course.

Took a third cut of my cut and come again broccoli heads today as well, and here are half of them boiled up ready to make a broccoli quiche slice for lunch.

Line a tin with some flan pastry, then add in the cooked florets of broccoli.

Make a basic quiche mix, a good way of using up surplus eggs, I use 5 or 6 eggs, 250ml of cream, 1/2 teaspoon salt, lots of black pepper, a tablespoon of dried herbs usually parsley and 1/2 teaspoon of paprika.  I know that using cream does not make for a healthy quiche, but it does taste lots better.

Add the broccoli - if I had any spare bits of sandwich ham I would have added this too, but as the fridge is bare, veggie slice only on the menu.

Top with some slices of ripe tomato, then bake in the oven for 35 minutes at 180°C.

Serve hot or cold with salad for a tasty quick lunch.

And just to prove how hard my inner nerd worked - here is my wardrobe all aired, refolded, neatened, straightened and sorted.

Standing on ladders in jammies and wellies

Early morning mist after the first real frost of the autumnal season found me clambering up a ladder precariously balanced against the ivy covered trunk of the plum tree in a last attempt to get the few fruit left right on the edges of the thinest highest branches.

Of course the neighbour drove past at that point and of course he stopped to offer his advice.

I mean honestly, clad in my Mickey Mouse jammies, half way up a ladder, in Thea's wellies - did I look like I needed advice?

Plum Cake (with some added blackberries because they were there)


90g softened butter
90g sugar
pinch of salt
teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 eggs
150g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder/levure chimique
750g soft fruit

Preheat the oven to 200°C and grease and flour a pie dish.

Cream the butter and sugar together, add the vanilla, salt and eggs, then sift in the flour and baking powder gradually, whisking continuously.

Spoon out the thick cake mixture into the dish and press your fruit of choice gently into the top, aprictos, cherries and halved peaches all work really well in this, just use whatever fruit you have to hand and in season.

Bake in the oven until golden on top for about 30 minutes.

Turn out onto a wire rack to cool, or alternatively - once again, drive like mad to the place you have been invited to with the hot cake on the back seat of the car and present to your hosts still in its dish, then hope that they will be so entranced with the flavour that they won't notice the unorthodox presentation.

When is a cheesecake not a cheesecake?

When you try to make it in France where there is a distinct lack of soft cream cheese, and those that are on the shelf have garlic or herbs added to them.

Garlic flavoured cheesecake - too avante garde for me I'm afraid.

So this is my no baking required 'how to make cheesecake without cream cheese' recipe.

And my pudding of choice yesterday since I did not get to eat the salmon I wanted for dinner.

French Creme-Patissiere Cheesecake

500ml milk
3 egg yolks
1 whole egg
75g sugar
60g plain flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
120g fromage frais
zest and juice from 1 lemon
80g of biscuit for a base - either digestives or in France 'speculoos'



Take a cup of milk from the half litre and set the rest to boiling in a large saucepan.

Into a bowl sift the flour, and add the beaten whole egg and yolks to a well in the centre, combine well, then add the cup of milk gradually, whisking continuously until you get a smooth lump free mixture.

Reduce the heat under the milk to a simmer, then add the mixture to the hot milk, while stirring constantly and simmer until the mixture thickens.

Remove from heat and add the fromage frais, zest and juice of the lemon and vanilla, stirring all the time.

Set aside to cool slightly.

Smash up your biscuits of choice - if you have them, ginger nuts go really really well in this - and layer some in the bottom of your dish.  I like to do mine in individual portions and for this I am using glass tea light holders.

Spoon out some of the mixture, add another biscuit layer and then some more of the mixture.

To finish I added some raspberry coulis.


These are my raspberries that I picked for the bakewell tart but did not have enough of to make a jam so I have made a quick coulis instead with the leftover frozen in an ice cube tray to use another time.

To make the coulis just throw the raspberries in pan, with a splash of water, add a couple of tablespoons of sugar and boil away until you get a thickish jelly.


Today (Friday) is all about the outdoors because the sun is out in force, and my project for today is to get the spare room habitable for our guests at the weekend.  That means rugs outside to air, dusting, window cleaning and fresh clean bedding.  It makes it sound as though the spare room is a real slop house, but as we don't really use it inbetween visitors I would hate for it to smell musty and fusty so it always gets a good clean before people arrive.

It is my birthday and I will eat cake for breakfast if I want to

It was just a question of which cake.

Here is an example of the kind of recipe I hate, full of shortcuts like ready made shortcrust pastry - nah can't buy that in my local supermarket, Victoria sponge mix - nada - not in France!

So you take a quick and easy looking recipe like this one and you have to go back to basics with it and it becomes very very long winded instead.

But that was what I wanted to eat for my birthday breakfast.


BLACKBERRY BAKEWELL TARTS

So I started yesterday with picking 3 kilos of blackberries! - also not in this recipe I know, but blackberries are what I've got.

This is my waste not a drop way of using blackberries, which can be quite labour intensive not to mention painful to pick.  We had to squeeze in our picking between storms yesterday afternoon, than a quick run back indoors to light the Rayburn and get on with the cake making.

Start by making sure all the stalks, leaves and bugs have been rinsed off then throw all the blackberries into a large pan, pour over enough water to cover and then a splash more and start simmering.  I left mine for 30 minutes or so while I got on with making the shortcrust pastry.

SHORTCRUST PASTRY

125g plain flour
pinch salt
55g cold cubed butter

rub with your fingers to create breadcrumbs then using a palette knife start cutting through the breadcrumbs as you add 2 or 3 tablespoons of cold water.  

Work it together into a dry dough with cold hands, don't overwork it, you want it stay dry not become greasy, roll into a ball, cover with cling film and throw into the fridge for half an hour.

By this time your blackberries should have cooked down into a thickish stodgy mess but a complete sludge.
 I love my big witch's hat colander - I am sure it has a fancy name, but we call it the witch's hat, the tiny perforations let all the juices through but keep even the smallest pips out, and because it is metal you can bash the fruit against the sides to get every last drop out, not that you need to do this for this recipe, just get the majority of the juice out.

Drain the juice off into a large jug and keep the fruit bits to one side.

While the juice is still hot, add some sugar and stir well to dissolve it, no actual measurements here, just add sugar to taste - then decant into a couple of bottles and add vodka - well, every birthday girl needs a birthday cocktail!

Now take the fruit pulp, stick it back on a low heat and add sugar - again no measurements just add enough to make a sweet mixture.  You are not making jam so no need to watch the temperatures or anything like that, just stir until the sugar has dissolved.

While that is cooking away, take the pastry back out of the fridge and roll out on a floured surface.  Prepare a pastry case with butter and some flour sprinkled in, then add the shortcrust and bake blind for 20 minutes.

A top tip I read recently or saw on the TV, use tin foil instead of baking parchment when baking blind as it makes the pastry crispier instead of soggy.

So while your pastry is baking, and your fruit pulp is cooking, time to make the sponge.

VICTORIA SPONGE


As you can not buy this is in ready made packs here in France, here is a basic and easy recipe.

250g unsalted butter
250g sugar
4 eggs beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g self raising flour

Beat the butter and sugar together first, basically this means mash the sugar into the butter with a wooden spoon against the side of the bowl repeatedly until the mixture is soft and creamy, then add the beaten eggs, vanilla and flour.

As this is a bakewell tart and not a victoria sponge, now add the 50g of ground almonds required in the original recipe at the top of the page, ignore the additional egg asked for.

The resulting mixture should be quite dry and not runny.

Take your pastry case out of the oven, remove the baking beans and tin foil and allow to cool.  Use the space in the oven then to sterilise a couple of jars.

As you can see my oven is doing double time here sterilising jars having baked the pastry, and also has a couple of trays of roast patty pan squashes on the go too.  Did not want to waste the oven space so shoved them in quickly.

Why the jars - well we started with 3 kilos of blackberries, and even with having extracted the juice you can't put 3 kilos worth of fruit pulp into a bakewell tart.

Back to the recipe (wow I'm rambling today!).

Spoon some fruit pulp into the pastry case, add your sponge mix on top, then throw on a couple of handfuls of sliced almonds on top to finish.

Bake at 200°C for 25 minutes.

Then eat!

Oh yes and the rest of the fruit pulp, stick it in your sterilised jars ready to use next time as a pie filling.

Couple of days to catch up on here...

... and they centre around the wedding yesterday.

First I had to finish making the gift - which now that it has been given can be revealed as a photo album assembled by me from some handmade paper and cardboard.

Forgot the photo but here are the instructions:

In addition having once again run out of all purpose cards had to make one at the last minute.

Then having had the fashion police dictate my outfit on the day, as we were the witnesses I though it might be appropriate to jazz up my dress with a matching hair fascinator.  Cue a last minute rummage through the boxes of assorted 'stuff' to find some feathers, then some beads then a hair clip to attach them too.

I am pleased with the result though.

Some purple quills, stuck down to a fluffy purple feather horizontally at the base, the beads strung onto a short bit of wire with a dab of glue to hold them in place, then the ends wedged into some polysterene from some packaging waste, and a snip of the purple fluffy feather added at the base to hide the white polysterence, then the quills hot glue gunned to a hair clip and the bead wires added on top.


Right - just 337 photos to sort through now to get a nice commemorative album together, in the meantime, here is a witty ditty...


I'm off to stuff tomatoes
If I wasn't stuffing 'matoes
Where would I be -
Well, I'd be stuffing marrows, see?




Or to be more accurate - patty pan squashes - no need to guess what's for dinner tonight?


I stuffed my tomatoes and the patty pan with the same mix:-

about 250g of pork mince,
a tablespoon of garlic,
couple of inches of chorizio sausage,
handful of fresh basil leaves,
ground black pepper
and the innards of  5 large tomatoes scooped out with a spoon.

Whizz everything up in a food processor or chop finely and stir well together in a bowl.

I sliced my patty pans thinly having scooped out the seeds, lay the empty tomatoes on top, fill with the mix and cover with the top of the tomatoes, then I poured in 1.5 litres of chicken stock to 2 patty pan squashes and threw it in the gas oven for 45 minutes on gas mark 6.

The stuffed patty pan was sat in 500ml of chicken stock on a bed of patty pan squash slices and cooked at 180°C for 1 hour.

Clean plates all round.

Thanks to Celebrity Masterchef (and Christine Hamilton's recipe idea) tonight's dinner was a doddle!

With all those lovely savoy cabbages now ready in the garden, I curbed my first inclination which was to chop them all up and stick them in the freezer, and decided that they would be the basis for dinner this evening, well earned after a very busy day gardening, three wheelbarrows of weeds pulled up and the grass mowed.


First off the chicken legs went into the oven, seasoned then a sprinkle of paprika and garlic on the skins to make a tasty coating.

Then "Chestnut-y Bacon-y Cabbage-y Mess".

In a large pan (that has a lid), start by frying a couple of slices of bacon or pancetta chopped into small pieces in some herby olive oil, I used thyme flavoured oil as I thought this would best marry with the roast chicken.

Then add about 10 cooked chestnuts chopped into small pieces. I am using chestnuts from last year, that were cooked in hot water just long enough to be able to remove their skins then frozen whole.

Finally add a head of savoy cabbage cut into strips, cook everything together for about 10 minutes until the cabbage is soft, at this point I added a little bit of water, seasoned, added some dried parsley then covered the pan for the cooking time.


As you can see - clean plates all round and another very simple recipe to add to my collection.

Molly gets dressed for the occasion and patty pan squashes

Yeserday Molly had her first taste of a working life and got all dressed up to help me alter the length of a friend's party frock.  Apart from posing for my own work in progress top this is the first work she has done in the studio and I have to say it went well, she seems a natural.

I know that I have posted this photo already but I don't have any additional ones, however I do now have 4 patty pan squashes so that's a 200 % inmprovement on last year.

Which of course begs the question of what to do with them, so here are a couple of recipe ideas that I am trying out today.

PATTY PAN AND CHICK PEA SALAD


I am putting my chickpeas in to soak overnight so I can make this tomorrow, but here goes the recipe anyway.

Cut the patty pan squash into its natural segments, drizzle with some olive oil and add a pinch of salt, roast for 30mins at 200°C.

Once the squash is cooked through, allow to cool and then add the soaked then boiled chickpeas, I use 2 heaped tablespoons per person as a portion guide.

For the vinigrette:

handful of fresh chopped chives
handful of fresh chopped coriander leaves
a couple of leaves of mint
4 anchovies
a pinch of cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
freshly ground black pepper
a touch of oilve oil

whizz everything up together then liberally coat the chickpeas, before adding to the cooked patty pan segments.  This can be eaten hot or cold, a starter or a side dish.


One Pan Patty Pan


(snappy title dontcha think?)

In a large suacepan with a lid, fry a large onion over a gentle heat in some olive oil with a couple of cloves of garlic until soft.

To the pan add some roughly chopped fresh ripe plum tomatoes, and your patty pan squashes, once again cut into their natural segments.

Then add about 10 cm of chorizo sausage, cut into large chunks, season and add a couple more tablespoons of olive oil.  Reduce the heat and leave to cook for one hour, I am using an enamelled pan, that once I have fried on the hob I can put into a preheated oven at 180°C for the 60 minutes required.

Stir in a couple of chopped leaves of coriander to finish.



As my family of meat eaters don't consider that to be enough meat, we are having our patty pans with a pork chop, grilled in garlic oil alongside.

Here are are the next lot of patty pans growing nicely.

Will have to start thinking of savoy cabbage recipes soon too....

....... as well as cauliflower...

 Luckily the grape vine has not managed to dislodge the solar panel for our night time hall and stairs lighting yet, but I will have to think about re-directing it soon.