Cookbook Challenge #6 - Jamie Oliver’s Great Britain

My most recent challenge has a bit of a twist, a Jamie Oliver “twist”, that is!

Sur La Table is a high end national cookery supply store. They offer you everything from a $5 metal spatula to a $5,500 home coffee “center”. Along with their vast array of products, they offer classes
on all types of cooking, from entertaining to honing your knife skills to the finer points of cooking a soufflé. In short, think Williams-Sonoma meets Bed, Bath & Beyond and together, they have a classy love child who is dating Michael’s Arts & Crafts store.

Every once in awhile, I look over the listings at Sur La Table and other cooking schools and venues in the area to see if anything looks interesting. With this challenge I’ve given myself, there was a class that I just couldn’t pass up - “Great Food Inspired by Jamie Oliver”.

The class highlights recipes from Jamie Oliver’s Great Britain and takes you step by step to make a full meal in just about 2 hours. Here was the menu: Apple and Watercress Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing and Crushed Walnuts – Sizzling Lamb Lollipops – Crispy Roasted Fishcakes Wrapped in Bacon – Citrus Cheesecake Possets. And the kicker?  For the cost of the class you get a copy of the cookbook too!! How perfect is that? Never one to have fun alone if I could add a friend, I asked my sister to join me and we set off last Wednesday for a night of handmade British faire and maybe a new skill or two.

With cups of black tea in our hands and every kitchen instrument you could imagine at our fingertips, we set off to make the delectables on the menu. The class was amazing (see all my pictures below), the food was off the charts and the company was great. It was totally worth it and I can’t wait to sign up for the next one! Our instructor, Joel, said I could share with you my favorite recipe of the night, the Crispy Roasted Fishcakes Wrapped in Bacon.

Crispy Roasted Fishcakes Wrapped in Bacon

Adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Great Britain for Sur La Table

Preface from Jamie to the Sur La Table students: There are a few steps to make these fishcakes, but each step is dead easy and so worth it, because the end result just seems to make people happy (note from Heidi - H*ll’s yeah! And I’m not even a fish person, really). I think you have to accept that sometimes in life even something humble, like a fishcake, requires effort. The reaction to these fishcakes has been amazing, and interestingly, whenever homemade fishcakes are on a restaurant menu, they always sell. The difference with making your own is that you get flavors and texture suited to your own particular tastes. So I’ll happily give this recipe to you, knowing that a kid could make them... mine have, with a little help.

2 Small Leeks
A knob of butter*
1 whole nutmeg for grating
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 lb Yukon Gold potatoes
3 large free-range eggs
8 ounces smoked salmon, smoked trout or (even better!) a mixture of the two, roughly chopped**
2 fresh lemons
6 sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley picked and finely chopped
A few handfuls of all-purpose flour
6 slices of white bread, crusts removed
1 dried red chile
Olive oil
6 slices (rashers) of quality bacon
Watercress to serve

Heidi’s notes:
* Knob equals 2-3 Tablespoons, usually
** We used smoked white fish and it was very yummy!

Top and tail the leeks, then peel back the tough outer green leaves. Cut them lengthways, wash under the tap and finely slice. Put them into a large pan on medium heat with a knob of butter and a few scrapings of nutmeg, and season with salt and pepper. Cook gently with the lid on for around 25 minutes, or until softened, then take the pan off the heat and leave to cook.

While your leeks are cooking, peel the potatoes, halve or quarter them depending on their size and whack them into a pan of salted boiling water for about 15 minutes, or until cooked through and mashable. Drain them, then return them to the saucepan, smash them up so the mixture is smooth but also has chunks, and put to one side to cool down a bit. Crack eggs into a wide, shallow bowl, then carefully remove one of the yolks and stir into the potato mixture, followed by the sweet leeks and smoked fish. Add the zest of 1 whole lemon and the juice of half, and two-thirds of the parsley. Leave to one side.

Whisk up the eggs remaining in the bowl and tip into a shallow dish. Put a few handfuls of flour on a plate. Pulse the bread and chile in a food processor with a tiny swig of olive oil until you have coarse breadcrumbs, then stir in the remaining parsley and tip the crumbs on to another plate. Divide your fishcake mix into 6 little balls. Dust each one in flour, shaking off the excess, then dip them into the egg until completely coated. Let the excess drip off, them move them to the tray of flavored breadcrumbs. Wash your hands, and spend a bit of time patting, shaping and hugging them into nice-looking patties around 3/4-inch thick. Cover and leave in the fridge until you’re ready to cook them.

Preheat the oven and a large baking sheet to 425-degrees, with an oven rack positioned towards the top.

Lay the bacon rashers out side by side on a board and lay a sheet of plastic wrap over them. Using a rolling pin or a wine bottle to roll and stretch the rashers out a little bit lengthways so they’re longer and thinner (sounds cheffy, but it’s dead simple). Wrap one rasher around the circumference of each fishcake and secure with a cocktail stick. Place the fishcakes on the hot baking sheet and roast in the oven for around 30 minutes, or until golden and crispy. Serve hot from the oven, with some lemony dressed watercress and a few wedges of lemon for squeezing over.

Make 6 cakes

 

 ******

Highlights from the rest of the class:

My sister, Heather, psyched to start the class.

 

 

First Course:  Apple and Watercress Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing and Crushed Walnuts

Second Course: Crispy Roasted Fishcakes Wrapped in Bacon (see above)

Third Course: Sizzling Lamb Lollipops

Our instructor, Joel, with Heather and I getting ready to lolli some lamb...

(wait, that doesn't sound right...)

Here are the ingredients for the lamb lollipops and the three "dips".

We had a nice looking workstation, didn't we?

Lamb chops marinaded and into the hot pan!

Our workstation-mates, Inhwa and Hyokon, with Heather getting instructions on how NOT to get hot oil on yourself when you put a lamb chop into a hot pan.

 

Lamb lollipops on a bed of rice seasoned with herbs de Provence with trhee dipping sauces, a homemade taziki, a spicy salsa and a nut mix of crushed pistachios and blanched almonds.

How good does that lamb lollipop look?

Pudding Course: Citrus Cheesecake Possets

It's a very decieving name, bordering on lying - as there is no cheese in this cheesecake!  The citrus thickens the cream to make a cheesecake like consistency.

Three hands make light work of juicing an orange and a lemon

Graham cracker and almond "crust" with the vanilla citrus cream on top

The best part - someone else cleans the kitchen for you!!!

If you think that a class at Sur La Table looks fun, you can see if there is a location near you and what classes they are offering by visiting http://www.surlatable.com/category/Web-Cooking-Root/Cooking-Classes

Our class was at the Hell's Kitchen location in New York City.

#52cookbooks
#surlatable

Cookbook Challenge #4 - Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Cooking

This week, there was a bit of a delay in my post…but for good reason. We are spending the weekend in a rental apartment in Syracuse, NY. Everything was covered in a picturesque layer of snow and the moment we arrived, a welcoming flurry greeted us with a cool February smile.

Being away from home, I thought this would be a great opportunity to think outside my kitchen. I decided that the semi-homemade style of Sandra Lee was perfect for cooking in a kitchen I’ve never cooked in before and wasn’t even sure what supplies were there.

 

With a kitchen full of only pots, pans and salt and pepper, Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade Cooking cookbook is perfect for when you don’t have a pantry to pull from. Semi-Homemade cooking is described as 70% store-bought ingredients and 30% fresh-food to make foods that were prepared in minutes and taste like they were made completely from scratch. I found two recipes that made a hefty dinner – Curried Bow Tie Salad and Lemon Turkey Cutlets. And better yet, the only things I’m taking back home with me are my new containers of curry powder and dried onion flakes.

 

 Curried Bow Tie Salad

Adapted from Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade Cooking

3/4 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons curry powder*

16 oz (2 small cans) pineapple chunks, drained

1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and cubed

1 medium red apple, cored and cubed

8 oz bowtie pasta/farfalle (about ½ a box)

Salt and pepper to taste

*Curry powder is not a hot curry. This made for a VERY mild curry – which is a great introduction to curry if you have not had it before, but we added extra to the leftovers and think it’s going to be much better when we have it for lunch today. If you want more curry taste – double it.

Follow instructions on box to prepare pasta to firm. Drain and rinse in cold water. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix sour cream and curry powder to blend. Fold in avocado, pineapple, apples and pasta. Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 15 minutes and up to 1 day.

After tasting, we felt this salad would be an excellent summer all-in-one salad if you add cooked and cubed chicken.

Serves 4 

 

 Lemon Turkey Cutlets

Adapted from Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade Cooking

1-1 1/2 pounds boneless and skinless turkey cutlets

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1 egg, lightly beaten

Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 Tablespoons)

1/2 cup Italian style bread crumbs**

1 teaspoon dried onion flakes***

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Salt and pepper

** The recipe called for 2 Tablespoons finely chopped onion, but I thought that onion flakes would be a more economical choice for us this trip. Add more if you like more onion flavor. My hubby isn’t a big fan.

*** The recipe called for 1 cup of breadcrumbs, but as you can see in the pictures below, there was almost ALL of it left. I cut it in half for the recipe above, but I’m sure you can use 1/3 of a cup like the flour with no problem also.

Rinse cutlets with cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Salt and pepper each cutlet and set aside.

In a shallow bowl, put the flour. In another bowl, mix the egg and the lemon juice. In a third bowl, mix breadcrumbs with onion flakes.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, dip cutlet in flour then egg mixture, then into the breadcrumbs, making sure to cover all the meat and tap off the extra of each mixture before adding the meat to the next one. Place cutlet in hot oil and cook until brown, about 3 minutes per side. When done, take out cutlets and place on clean paper towels to soak up any excess oil.

Serves 4

 

before dipping

after dipping - looks like I didn't do anything

To make this a complete dinner, I made the salad first and while it was in the fridge, I had plenty of time to do the cutlets. They are not listed as 2 recipes that need to go together in the cookbook, but we found that they complimented each other very nicely.

 

An Irish Stout and a Diet Coke make it a dinner for two

 

*****

 

Some highlights from Syracuse and the Finger Lakes

 

Day 1 - Arriving and settling in - oh, and making dinner...

 

Having a coney dog (pronounced "coo-ney") from Heid's for lunch 

 

 

Day 2 - Beer and Cheese tastings in the Finger Lakes

 

3 Brother's Winery complex in Geneva, NY

We checked out War Horse!

Thanks Andrew for the Cincinnati - 1/2 lager, 1/2 root beer - YUM!! 

 

 

Amazing cheddars and more at Miranda Cheese Company

in Waterloo, NY 

 

 

 Tasting pint of a Amber Lager at Naked Dove Brewing Company

in Canandaigua, NY 



 

 And we found this in Geneva also - Red Jacket Orchards, an

Union Square Farmers Market staple. It's closing it's outlet for a bit

so we got some great deals. 

 



#52cookbooks

52 Cookbooks Challenge #3: Little Paris Kitchen

Last weekend we found Nemo. Snowstorm Nemo made its way through New York City and up the east coast fulfilling the snowy wishes of those of us that haven’t seen much of the white stuff so far this winter. A final count of 12-24 inches of snow painted a winter wonderland for a Saturday morning and definitely sparked the need for a little kitchen warmth and hearth love. Lucky for me, Rachel Khoo, English native gone Parisian, had just released her cookbook in the U.S., The Little Paris Kitchen.

Rachel’s cooking show of the same name has been running on The Cooking Channel since the start of the New Year. I was never a French food person, honestly. Too much escargot and too many capers for my taste plus (gasp) I’m not a huge French pastry fan. But not even half-way through the first 30 minute episode I watched, I knew I was hooked. The recipes were simple and they used ingredients I had in my fridge. There was decadence to both the sweet and savory recipes and how could you go wrong with fresh, warm, crunchy bread? The recipes didn’t take a lot of special tools and were most likely faster to make than most of my current dinner repertoire. After that first episode, I was ready and willing to try French food at home.

I immediately jumped on the internet and looked for one of the recipes I’d just seen, but to my chagrin, the Cooking Channel website had not listed any of the recipes yet. After a few more episodes and more recipes I wanted to try still not appearing on the website, I knew that I just needed to bite the bullet and buy the new cookbook, Rachel Khoo’s The Little Paris Kitchen.

 

Poulet au Citron et Lavende

 (Lemon and Lavender Chicken)

Adaptation of the recipe from The Little Paris Kitchen

1 tablespoon dried lavender*
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2-4 pieces of bone-in, skin-on chicken (either 2 leg quarters or 4 thighs and/or legs)**
1/2 lemon, zest and juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
Pinch of salt

* Be sure that your lavender is made to steep for tea and/or to cook with. Not all lavender is made for consumption. Lavender extract can be used if need be, but it’s not really the same and not as good.

** I choose dark meat for 2 reasons – more flavor and cheaper by the pound. If you wish, you can use breast meat or double the recipe and use a whole chicken split into 8-10 pieces.

Do not preheat oven yet.

In a mortar with a pestle, add lavender and dried thyme. Muddle to release and revive the dried herbs.

In a large zip close bag, add chicken pieces. Sprinkle over dried herbs. Add the balance of the ingredients and seal the bag. Mush around chicken in the bag to cover completely with ingredients. Place bag in dish (to avoid leaking everywhere) and let set for 30 minutes at room temperature or up to 4 hours in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 400°F for a minimum of 10 minutes.

Remove chicken pieces from bag and place in roasting dish with skin down, making sure to get as much of the marinade from the bag as possible. Discard bag.

Roast for 45 minutes or until juices run clear when poked at the thickest part of the meat. Turn chicken pieces to skin up about 20 minutes in to let crisp. Let set 5-10 minutes before cutting to let the juices reincorporate. Serve with crunchy bread to soak up the lovely, tangy, floral juices.

Serves 2-4

#52cookbooks

Week off the Challenge for a Craft Fair

I don't want to disappoint and I know it's early to be taking a "break" but I swear I have a good reason.

My friend, Cat and I will be sharing a table at the Astoria Craft Fair at the Beer Garden this Sunday, February 10 from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.. We will be selling cookies, beautiful handmade toys and tea cozies and handmade earrings. 

For more information on the Astoria Market Craft Fair visit the event page at https://www.facebook.com/events/466477993414803/

To see Cat's beautiful homemade goodies, please visit her Etsy site at http://www.etsy.com/shop/catpenfold

Here is what my oven (and my friend's Sarah's oven) has spent the week doing - 

I Love M&M Cookies - chewy and crunchy at the same time.

Sweet Southern Tea Cookies - sweet and tart and perfect for a cuppa

Sugar Love Cookies - sugar rolled in sugar - um... yum!

Lavender Valentine Cookies - sweet with a touch of relaxing herbal perfume

Choco-Cherry Passion Cookies - rich and almost crumbly dark chocolate with cherry buttons

My week also included a new addition to my cookbook wall.  Talk about feeding an obsession - I know - but I couldn't help myself.

The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo

I have seen the show on Food Channel and want to try one of everything on every show.   There is a snow storm heading to NYC and this will be my snowy Sunday retreat!  It's going to be Challenge Cookbook #3.  Details next week!

The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo - my Nemo project

#52cookbooks
#nemo

52 Cookbooks Challenge #1: Nigella Kitchen

My first of new recipes for the New Year was from my culinary idol, Nigella Lawson (are you really surprised?).

On my honeymoon, Nigella’s Kitchen debuted on the shelves. It was great, I was in England for my honeymoon and my favorite cook had a new cookbook out and she was English – how perfect!! I picked up a copy at the airport (couldn’t wait). I was so excited to have a true English version of my idol’s cookbook. I read it front to back on the flight to Edinburgh and made plans for all the good food I was going to make.

Flash forward 2 weeks and I’m home, in my kitchen with my new Harrods Christmas mug full of Breakfast blend from Edinburgh and ready to try a recipe out of my treasured honeymoon gift to myself. I tried pumpkin biscuits. You would think it would have been easy, but to my horror (and with a groan) I looked at the recipe for the first time with cook's eyes. Holy crap… it’s in metric! What does gas mark mean for me? How many milliliters in a cup?

Out came the computer and I started my translation. I translated the measurements best I could to match my cups and ounces.  I made the recipe per my changes, thinking it was quite simple. And the biscuits were... well.... crap. I totally attribute this to my translation and maybe a bit to my own taste buds (I’m not as big of a fan of pumpkin as I thought).

After that, my beautiful book was shelved not to be opened again but to keep as a tribute to my honeymoon trip.

This past winter, I was in my local bookstore chain and they were having a sale on the American version of Nigella Kitchen – YAY!! I picked it up and now, without need of translation, I was ready to dive in again. First off the block is comfort food at its best – Ed’s Mother’s Meatloaf.

Ed’s Mother’s Meatloaf

½ recipe Adaptation of the recipe from Nigella’s Kitchen
Available at: http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/eds-mothers-meatloaf.html

1 raw egg
2 hard-boiled eggs (shelled)
1 onions (2 if you don’t have a finicky husband), diced
3 tablespoons butter and or olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 pound ground beef
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
10 slices of bacon

For a one pot recipe, use a cast iron skillet (looks kind of awesome too).

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a skillet, melt butter or heat oil and start to cook the onion. Add a dash of salt to help the onions soften instead of fry. Once onions are soft (4-5 minutes), remove from heat and cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk raw egg slightly. Add raw ground beef, salt, Worcestershire sauce, breadcrumbs and cooled onions. Bite the bullet and get your hands into the bowl (trust me, it will just break a spatula) and mix until well combined.

Split meat mixture in half and make a mound in the now cool cast iron skillet (or in a baking pan with edges). With the side of your hand, make a well in the middle of the meat in the pan lengthwise. Place the 2 hard-boiled eggs end to end in the well. Take the remainder of the mixture and cover the eggs and try to seal the sides. The end product should not show any sign of the eggs.

Take the bacon and start to cover the meatloaf from one end, overlapping the pieces slightly to adjust for shrinkage. Tuck the ends of the bacon under the loaf, like you were tucking your little beef log in to bed with a bacon blanket. Weird, but that’s what it feels like.

Put swaddled meatloaf into the oven and cook for 50-60 minutes, or until the bacon is crisp and there is no more pink on the inside. Let rest 5-10 minutes to reincorporate juices and then serve.

Serves 3-4

Beef Loaf in a Bacon Blanket - cow in a pig blanket?

This is a no-red-sauce meatloaf so it tastes like a super moist, well done burger with the cute surprise of an egg on the inside.  If you serve right after cooking, and the meat you used wasn't too fatty, the juices can be poured over like gravy.  Perfect comfort food!

#52cookbooks

52 Weeks, 52 Cookbooks

After a year hiatus from writing, I've decided that I'm going to challenge myself. My challenge - 52 weeks, 52 cookbooks.

Way back when Friendster was old, but MySpace was new, I had looked at my cookbook collection and realized that I had purchased quite a few cookbooks, but never had cooked out of them. They were pretty and fat with ideas of culinary delights, but there were only a handful that I had ever actually cooked out of. I decided then to cook one thing (at least) out if every cookbook I owned. 

The same rings true today. My original challenge has never been met but I feel that since my cookbook selection has more than tripled since then, it's even more important to say that I have honestly used all the cookbooks I own.

Now, with 200+ cookbooks and half in storage, I think that might be a hearty challenge for someone who has been thinking about this for 8+ years. So, so I amend my challenge and add writing about it.

52 weeks, 52 cookbooks 

I have 2 shelves in my living room that are loving adorned with 67 of my most beautiful and favorite cookbooks and still, I have only cooked out of less than a quarter of them, much to the chagrin if my husband. 

With the addition if 6 new cookbooks I received for Christmas and the one other one I still plan to buy, I will pick 52 cookbooks I have not cooked from and try something new each week.  For better or worse, I will share pictures, recipes and experiences with you.

The 6 new Christmas 2012 additions - now... where to put them?

#52cookbooks

The Last Few Days of September...

When I think of September, a bright red apple comes to mind.  There is a slight crispness in the air and school is back in full swing.  The leaves haven't turned yet, but football is in the field and on the TV and chili is on the stove.

But in recent memory, September is just as balmy and hot as August.  The AC is still on overnight and it's way to hot to make apple pie in my kitchen (aka The Hot Box).  Grrr...where have my cool September days gone?

This weekend, even though it was 80 degrees in my area of New York, I was able to catch a breeze (aided by an electric fan) and curl up on my couch and break open a fall harvest book with a warm cup of cider and imagine what I would be doing for October (the time when it will get really crisp and chilly).  My book of choice this weekend?  Homemade Harvest by Gooseberry Patch.

Gooseberry Patch was founded in 1984 by Vickie Hutchins and Jo Ann Martin, two women who loved sharing recipes.  They have created a wonderful line of cookbooks (mainly) that are compilations of submission from others who love to share their recipes from all over the country.  They each carry a theme, memories and stories about that theme and/or recipe along with tips and tricks from the staff at Gooseberry Patch.

My first encounter with Gooseberry Patch was Homemade Harvest.  This beautifully simple spiral bound book has beautiful illustrations and fall inspired recipes and crafts.  It covers soups and breads, suppers and a section that focuses exclusively on Halloween.  There is a chapter called Fall Festival Favorites, but it's mainly Friday Night Lights and tailgating friendly recipes and stories and another section that prepares you for a camp out or your next night beside the fire pit (for those of us that don't camp).  There is also a section on fall breakfasts full of eggs, sausage and pumpkins - YUM!

I spend the later half of Saturday afternoon reading this book from cover to cover.  If definitely put me in the fall mood, even if the thermometer was trying to convince me it was still Summer.  I'm sure that everyone could find at least one recipe or craft to try at home.