Thursday 5th July - Creme Brulee Recipe

Wednesday 5th July - Creme Brulee

I actually made this as the dessert to Tuesday's Thai Chicken Soup but haven't had time to write it up and put it up yet. Tonight will be spent playing with my new Head Cam which I will be using to film cooking and cooking myself a pork chop. Simples so probably not worth putting online but might do just to try out the camera!

so, Creme Brulee - What a fantastic excuse to use a blow torch. I have a poncy little chef’s one but if you have access to a proper plumber-type one then go for it. Absolutely no reason not to! You can also use the grill...

This is a really easy pudding to make, it’s not that cheap if you do it properly but nor is it very expensive and is impressive. I’m not really a pudding man (as you may have guessed) but I love a crème brulee.

Ingredients (serves 2):

35g  Caster Sugar (plus some more for the top, and it doesn’t have to be caster, any whire sugar will do, you can probably use brown sugar too, if you do let me know how it goes)

2 Egg Yolks (please buy free range, it’s only 20p more!)

170ml of double crème (really easy size as it’s the size of the smallest pot they sell in Waitrose)

A third of a vanilla pod (this is the expensive bit because you have to buy them whole, you can use vanilla essence but it’s not the same). You can save the rest of the pod in the jar and make jthe recipe again another time, if the pod has come sealed in a plastic thing in a jar as most of them do then chop through the pod and the plastic wrapper to chop a third of it off to maximise freshness.

You’ll also need some ramikins to serve it in. The things that Gu puddings come in are perfect but use whatever you can find, espresso cups / tea cups / coffee cups are cool too (thank you to my colleague Jamie Oliver for that idea).

Method

1.       Preheat oven to 150 degrees (more like 135 if it’s a fan oven).

2.       Put the cream in a small saucepan over a low heat. It’s easiest to use a milk pan (one with a pouring lip) for later.

3.       Slice your bit of vanilla pod down the middle and scrape all the gunky seeds out of it then chop up the outside of the pod. Scrape it all into the cream. Turn the heat up to high but keep an eye on it, as soon as it hits boiling point turn it down to a low heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

4.       While that’s happening seperate the egg yolks, you don’t need the whites for this but if you’re making a lot then you can keep them in the fridge and use them for other things (mirangue based goodness mainly).

5.       Put the egg yolks in a bowl, put the bowl on the scale, set it to zero and measure in the 35g of sugar (saves on the washing up rather than measuring seperately).

6.       Beat the eggs and sugar together (with a whisk, a fork, or a multi-fork). Keep going until it changes colour and becomes sort of pale and creamy and smoothish.

7.       When the five minutes are up turn the heat back up on the cream until it’s just about to boil again, then pour the cream over the egg mixture (make sure you get all the bits of yummy expensive vanilla pod and vanilla seeds out of the saucepan and into the mixture) and beat it all together with the same tool as step 5.

8.       You then need to sieve this mixture into the ramikins to keep out the bits of the outside of the pod. Don’t fill the pots more than two thirds full.

1.       Next you need to make a “bain-marie” this is just a posh way of saying a water bath. I use a roasting tin (it’s from my parents I think this one so it’s really battered but doesn’t matter). Put the pots in it and then fill with cold water from the tap until the water is two thirds up the side of the pots. Be bloody careful at this point to make sure you don’t get the water in the custard. The bain-marie means the custard cooks nice and slowly.

2.       Pop it in the oven and leave for about 30 minutes or until the custard is slightly brown on top and feels a bit like jelly to the touch. It's better to UNDERCOOK than OVERCOOK.

3.       Take them out and leave them to cool then put them in the fridge. If you have run out of time to do that then don’t worry, you can eat them a bit warm!

4.       Just before ready to eat, sprinkle with sugar (about a teaspoonful each) and then blowtorch them! If you don’t have a blowtorch you can do it under the grill but if you do this then make sure you reduce the cooking time in the oven accordingly.

5.       You can add fruit on top, I put strawberries from the garden on top of my last ones, you can also dust with icing sugar or generally ponce around with them as you like.

TIf done correctly and served to someone you fancy, this will probably get you sex.

Wednesday 4th July - Sausage, bean and tomato casserole - Cheap and delicious

Sausage, tomato and bean casserole

Costs about 2.50 per person

Ingredients (serves three):

9 or so sausages
2 x Onions
2 x Garlic cloves
1 x Tin mixed beans
2 x Tin tomatoes
Stock (I used the liquid from yesterday’s ham cooking, chicken stock will do though)

If you have it:
Some cooking bacon
Booze in the form of red wine or similar (I used some six month old port)
Tabasco

To serve:

Green veg (cabbage, greens, peas or similar)
Brown Rice

This is delicious, very cheap, different, and easy peasy to cook.

Only had 20 minutes to cook today between getting home and heading off to pick up Sam and go to the pub before dinner so had to race through it. Easy to do though.

I used my wonderful pressure cooker to cook this. If you don’t own one then you should do, but you can (Bert just caught and ate a fly, disgusting) use a proper casserole dish and cook for a bit longer in the oven (see below).

1.       Get home and put your main pan on a high heat, throw in a bit of olive oil and get your sausages in it and browning. Whilst that’s happening chop the onions up.

2.       Once the sausages are a bit brown, whip them out and cut them into chunks about 1 inch thick then put these bits back in the pan to brown each end more, you’re trying to ensure they don’t fall apart so brown each end.
If you’re using bacon then cut into small bits (I find it easier to do this if the bacon is still a bit frozen) and add to the sausages.

3.       While that’s happening open up your tins and crush your garlic.

4.       Add the onions and garlic to the sausages, turn the heat down to about half way. Sweat for five minutes.

5.       Add the booze if you’re using it and then the stock, pour in the beans (bung the liquid in too) and the tomatoes and some herbs if you have them, I threw in some Oregano.

6.       Leave it for five minutes bubbling away then taste and add salt / pepper / Tabasco as needed.

7.       Cook for 25 minutes in the pressure cooker or cover and throw in the oven for 45. Serve with brown rice (make sure you check how long the stuff you’ve got takes as some can take 45 mins and that’s a bit of a shock if you’re about to serve) and something green.

ENJOY!!!

Thai Chicken Soup

Tuesday 3^rd July – Thai Chicken Soup

This is a brilliant dinner if you’ve had stodgy English stuff for the last couple of days (I had beef stew yesterday, AMAZE). It’s not quite enough of a dinner for me on its own so I like to have it with a pudding, usually crème brulee or something else sweet  as your mouth should be a bit alive from chilli after the soup. It uses up roast chicken leftovers very nicely too.

Got home at about 1630h today and had the phones on divert to here so used the extra time to experiment with making my own ham. The idea came from seeing gammon really cheap in Tesco and converting KG of gammon to packets of ham and working out how much I was being ripped off for sandwich fillings. Only slight problem was that I went shopping in Waitrose and the gammon wasn’t that cheap... but if it works then it’s one for the future and I’ll keep you updated.

Time from start to finish for preparing: 60 minutes (but 40 of those I was doing other things!).

Cost of dish: Depends on how much stuff you already have in the cupboard but about £3.50 a head is a fair average.

Ingredients:

A chicken (small one is good, or leftovers from a large roast)

A lemon or a lime (whichever is handier, I’m using lime tonight left over from overbuying them to put in Corona)

Chicken stock cubes (or Knorr stock pot is better)

Garlic

Coconut Milk (or what I prefer is “Bart’s Creamed Coconut” which is dried stuff and costs less than a single tin of the milk for four servings).

Chillis (dried or fresh, as many or few as you like)

Lemongrass (either fresh or dried)

Fresh Ginger (amazingly cheap keep loads at home)

Kaffir lime (if you’ve got it)

Some cabbage, spring greens, summer greens or pak choi (depending on how middle class you are)

Spring onions (if you’ve got them)

Thai Red Curry Paste (this lives in the fridge well although not so well that it can last six months like the jar I pulled out today, solid mould).

A red pepper (if you like)

Some noodles

Method:

If using a new chicken:

1.       Turn the oven to its highest. Put the chicken in a roasting tray (use one as close to the size of the chicken as possible) stab the skin with a fork, cut the lime or lemon in half and squeeze the juice of ONE half over the bird. Pour a bit of olive oil over the chicken add some herbs (thyme is good if you have it) and put it in the oven, turn the heat down to 180 degrees. A smallish chicken will need about 45 minutes in a fan oven (Google Chicken Cooking Times to be more precise). You can either use this time to go for a pint, have a bath, make dessert or any or all of the above (I used it to make Creme Brulee and have a bath). If sticking around then you can baste the chicken if you can be arsed but it’s not that important as you’re eating it in a soup so you also don’t need to bother with tin foil or anything.

2.       When it’s cooked whip it out and leave it to cool a little bit.

If using leftovers start here:

3.       Pull the meat off the chicken. You can save the best breast meat if you like for use in sandwiches the next day, or you can do what I do and forget to make them in the morning and leave the chicken in the fridge to go mouldy.

4.       Put the chicken bits in a big saucepan with about a litre and a half of cold water and your stock cube / stock pot. If you’ve got posh chicken stock then use that instead of the water and cube combo.

5.       Chop up the cabbage like you would normally, the red pepper into thin strips, the lemon grass into slices as thin as you can get if it’s fresh and big chunks (so you can remove them later if dried  EDIT: Always leave it in big bits and take it out before you eat it, even the fresh stuff tastes like wood), garlic into little bits, ginger into thin slices and chillis as small as possible.

6.       Throw them all in and bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer.

7.       Add the red curry paste and the dried coconut stuff (or coconut milk if you posh) and bubble for a bit. Taste it, add salt and pepper as needed.

8.       Cook the noodles as per the instructions on the packet, put them in bowls and then ladle the soup with stuff on top of it. FIN. Unless you have creme brulees (they'll be up tomorrow).