Category: Recipes

Categories
Desserts Recipes

Gooseberry & Redcurrant Compote

They could be described as the forgotten fruits, so rarely do we see gooseberries and redcurrants on the shelves of our local supermarkets and market stalls.

However, this tasty compote cooked up by my wife, Lesley, serves as a timely reminder that both fruits have everything going for them: delicious, nutritious and packed with Vitamin C.

In this guest post, I will let Lesley explain….

When I was little, we had green gooseberry bushes in our garden. I didn’t like picking them as a child, as they had thorns! I also thought they looked like green marbles. However, I loved having them cooked up for tea along with custard. My job was to cut the little shrivelled flower off the fruit with scissors. 

This year, they ripened at the same time as redcurrants at the local community farm I belong to. I brought them home and washed them, as you can see from the main photo at the top of this post.

It seemed natural to cook them up together, so I made the compote shown in my photo below. It is a beautiful rich, red colour, so summery and light. I had made elderflower cordial a few weeks ago so used that as a sweetener, meaning I didn’t need to add in any extra sugar. This helps in appreciating the natural, slightly tart taste of the fruit.

Servings

This will give 4 adult servings.

Timings

15 mins to make.

You Will Need:

  • 200g redcurrants
  • 100g gooseberries
  • 2 tablespoons elderflower cordial

Method

  1. Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat it up until the fruit is soft, and the  juice reduces to make a jammy compote. This takes about 10 mins. Alternatively, you can cook it in a microwave on full power until the fruit is soft. 
  2. Leave to cool, then transfer to the fridge to chill.

Once chilled, I served the compote with yoghurt. It looks amazing when swirled in with a spoon (see below), but you can also have it with ice cream or custard.

As a guest poster on A Different Kitchen, I get to choose the latest track for Kevin’s Spotify Playlist. I have gone for a light and fun track to go with my summery compote. This is Chic with disco hit, Le Freak.

Categories
Breakfast Recipes

Summer Fruit & Nut Acai Bowl

I’m home from my trip to France, to find that a spell of warm sunny weather may have finally arrived in the UK.

Reminded of the climate we enjoyed on our trip to Australia in the spring, I decided it was time to bring out the Acai powder I brought back in my suitcase, to make an Aussie-style smoothie bowl. Here it is, shown in my photo above, glinting in the British breakfast time summer sun.

We found Acai Bowls to be a popular choice in cafes and takeaway joints wherever we went in Australia. The Acai is usually served with combinations of cereal, fresh fruit and nuts (check out my earlier post on the crazy, yet delicious, peanut butter-infused option I enjoyed in Melbourne).

Acai (pronounced ah – sa – ee) is a dark purple berry grown in Brazil. It is rich in antioxidants, fibre and healthy fats, and believed to support heart health and cognitive function, while being low in sugar and calories. It tastes great, with a flavour reminiscent of dark chocolate, berries and red wine. It is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

The berries do not travel well, so outside of Brazil they are sold in pulp form or as powder. I bought a pack of powder from Coles Supermarket in Melbourne, where it was available on the shelf, in several varieties. I have seen it in specialist health food shops here in the UK, but it is nowhere near as mainstream as it is Down Under.

For my Acai Bowl, I blended a tablespoon of Acai powder with two bananas and 3 tablespoons of Greek natural yoghurt. After a minute or so in the blitzer, it forms a thick purple cream that can then be poured on to cereal and topped with fresh fruit. This made enough for 2 Acai Bowls.

I poured it on to muesli and added some fresh strawberry that is grown locally. Just like Cristiano Ronaldo, the blueberries and kiwi are from Portugal. The crowning touch is some toasted brazil nuts, with a sprinkling of pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

It is the time of year to relax outside in the sun listening to good music on my ear buds. This week I’ve been revisiting an old playlist featuring The White Stripes, having forgotten how good they sound. Here they are with The Hardest Button to Button.

Categories
Blog Snacks

Au Revoir, Bergerac

The time has come to leave the Dordogne after a lovely holiday, and head back to the UK.

We have certainly dined well during our stay, as should be clear from my last few posts. My favourite meal in France remains a very simple one, however – a summer spread of cheese, paté, hams and salad that we have enjoyed outside in the sun most evenings, as shown in my photos above and below.

We’ve enjoyed baguettes from the local boulangerie, baked fresh and collected every morning, and best eaten the same day. They have a crisp exterior, and soft, buttery textured inner that carries a real taste.

A visit to the fromagerie is always fun, as there are so many French cheeses to try. We’ve usually opted for a cheeseboard comprising a soft, a hard and a blue: in the one below the soft is a Vieux Pané, the hard cheese a Tomme de Montagne, and the blue a Basque Bleue.

Paté de fois gras goes well spread on a hunk of baguette, and local cured hams from the charcuterie have been tastily paired with chunks of ripe, golden melon from that marché in Bergerac.

Enjoyed with a glass of Bergerac Rouge, of course. While watching the sun set.

Time to say au revoir.

I’ve downloaded my listening for the journey back from Bergerac Airport. I’ve chosen a 2023 digital remaster of New Order’s Substance album, which is sounding even greater than ever. Here’s a track to show what I mean: Confusion ’87.

Categories
Blog Desserts

Baba au Rhum

Of all the pastries we have enjoyed on our current holiday in France (and there have been a few 🙂 ), the one consistently rated the highest in our party has been the Baba au Rhum, or Rum Baba.

This eastern European delicacy was reinvented in Paris in the early 19th Century. The story goes that a cake that had become a little dry was enlivened by a little soaking in some rum.

Since then patisseries all over France have never looked back. Fast forward 200 years and this is the scene in our local boulangerie here in the Dordogne. Amidst a range of to-die-for pastries sits a line of Baba au Rhum.

As you can see, the Baba is served with its own pipette already inserted into the cake. The pipette is filled with rum, which is injected into the sponge before eating, by carefully squeezing the pipette with one’s fingers. It makes a dessert that is light, moist and boozy, topped off with a swirl of whipped cream. Mmm!

The Rum Baba has had some stiff competition from the patisseries we have frequented this week, see below.

Or maybe check out this selection..

Every one a piece of culinary artwork that it is very difficult to fault. In such company, it is saying a lot that the Baba au Rhum has been rated so highly by our group.

Formidable!

I can’t say whether the cake inspired LCD Soundsystem to record this track, but it’s a song I really like, so here it is: New Body Rhumba.

Categories
Blog Mains

Au Marché

One of the great joys of being a foodie on holiday in France is making a visit to the local market, or ‘marché’. So, while here in the Dordogne Valley, we set out for the local town of Bergerac on market day. Some of the fresh produce we bought inspired our evening meal back at the farmhouse. More of that in a moment.

It was a beautiful warm and sunny morning as we arrived. The market was already well under way, this array of soft fruit was glinting in the sun, and business was brisk.

The market isn’t just about stocking up with provisions for the week, however – there’s a real sense of market day being an opportunity for local people and traders to meet and catch up. In between happily chatting with customers, this chap sold us a bag of his healthy crop of radishes. Simply washed, topped and tailed, they made a light, peppery and crunchy snack alongside cold beers.

A long queue of discerning French shoppers waiting patiently to buy their food is usually a reliable sign of a good market stall. So it was with this charcuterie stand, where beef carpaccio was the ready prepared Plat du Jour. The charcuterie included local merguez sausages, which are long and thin with the texture of chorizo, and which went well later on our barbecue.

All the fruit and veg was seasonal, fresh and presented attractively. The range of tomatoes was something else, and they all looked luscious in the mid-morning sunshine.

Garlic is a staple in French cooking, and I treated myself to one of these wonderful looking purple bulbs to take home. Presentation-wise, I liked the juxtaposition of vivid colours alongside these wedges of butternut squash.

And so to that evening meal. I hadn’t come across white asparagus before, being more used to the green variety we have in the shops in the UK. It is popular in central Europe however, so I decided to try some.

It is essentially the same plant, but is grown underground, which stops it turning green. It has a slightly more intense taste, and requires a little more prep by peeling from the end of the spear tip to the base of the stalk. Like all asparagus, the woody bit at the base needs trimming off also.

I steamed the spears for 20 mins, then wrapped them in local prosciutto, and warmed them on a plate in the oven for 10 mins. They were then served with a knob of melting butter, a squeeze of fresh lemon and a few twists of black pepper.

The dish was enjoyed by our group, with a glass of chilled Bergerac Blanc on our terrace in the evening sun.

Voilà!

Time for some more French-inspired rock. This is The Stranglers with Goodbye Toulouse.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Sticky Sesame Roast Veg

This dish serves chunky roast veg on a bed of brown rice, coated in a thick sweet, sour and spicy sauce. The finishing touch is a fresh crunchy topping of chopped scallions (spring onions) and sesame seeds.

Servings

An adult meal for 2.

Timings

25 mins to make.

You Will Need

  • 1 aubergine
  • 1 courgette
  • 1 red or yellow pepper
  • 100g brown rice
  • 2tbsp each of Worcester sauce, fish sauce, cider vinegar, honey and olive oil
  • 1 tbsp oil for frying
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 1 red chilli
  • 2 – 3cm piece of root ginger
  • 500g carton of tomato passata
  • 2 scallions, chopped
  • sesame seeds to sprinkle

Method

  1. Cut the aubergine, courgette and pepper into large chunks and roast on a metal dish in the oven for 25 mins at 180C.
  2. While the veg is roasting, tip the brown rice into a saucepan of boiling water. Reduce the heat and let simmer for 25 mins.
  3. Combine the Worcester sauce, fish sauce, vinegar, honey and oil in a screw top jar. Shake to mix.
  4. Crush the garlic and put in a saucepan with some oil over a medium heat. Finely chop the chilli and ginger and add in. Let cook for a few mins, then pour in the sauce from the screw top jar. Add in the passata and give it a good stir. Leave to simmer – it will slowly reduce to give a thick, sticky sauce.
  5. When the rice is cooked, drain it and spread out to form a bed on each of two plates. Place the roast veg on top, and then pour over the sauce. Top with pieces of chopped scallion and a sprinkling of sesame seeds (see photo).

Customise it!

Lots of scope here. My choice of veg reflects what’s in season in the shops at the moment, but you can swap in any other veg that roasts well, such as sweet potato, butternut squash or parsnip. For the sauce, keep the vinegar and honey, which give it a sweet and sour base, but wine vinegar will be fine. Soy sauce can replace the Worcester or fish sauce if that’s what you happen to have in the cupboard.

This week I’ve been to a party at my Bowling Club, where everyone nominated a track for a jukebox-style playlist. The tracks were then played on shuffle, while everyone ate and drank. It was a fun evening in good company, with some great choices of music. Here’s the track I nominated: The Clash with London Calling.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Firestarter Rice with Chicken

Ever find yourself with a spice jar left over from a previous dish, that you’re unsure how to use up? This happened to me recently, with half a jar of shop-bought cajun seasoning lurking towards the rear of the spice rack in the ADK kitchen. I decided it was high time it was put to good use.

In this dish I’ve combined it with some leftover roast chicken, chicken stock, veg and brown rice to make a tasty bowl of sticky, fiery deliciousness. You can see from my photo above that I’ve garnished it with chopped red chilli and scallions, and a slice of fresh lemon.

Some like it hot, they say, and I purposely gave this dish a good dose of cajun kick. Mind you, I also had some sour cream on hand which, when stirred in, acted like a fire extinguisher in the mouth. If that degree of heat is not for you, however, just tone down the amount of cajun seasoning in the recipe, and omit the fresh chilli garnish.

Servings

4 adult portions.

Timings

35 mins to make.

You Will Need

  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 2 tbsp cajun seasoning
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • 1 sweet potato, cut into 1cm cubes
  • 200g brown rice
  • 750ml chicken stock
  • some boiling water
  • leftover meat from the wings and legs of 1 roast chicken
  • 1 red chilli, chopped
  • 2 scallions, chopped
  • 1 slice of fresh lemon
  • sour cream to stir in (optional)

Method

  1. Combine the garlic, onion and cajun seasoning in the oil, in a wok over a medium heat.
  2. After a minute or so, stir in the red pepper and sweet potato.
  3. After another few minutes, turn down the heat and stir in the rice. Add in the stock and bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer.
  4. Flake in the leftover chicken and let the dish simmer for around 20 mins. Test a grain of rice to see if it is cooked. If it needs more time, top up with the boiling water, until the rice is cooked and the liquid is absorbed, leaving it with a sticky coating.
  5. Spoon into bowls and top with the chilli, scallion and lemon garnish. Serve with some sour cream to douse the flames, if required!

Customise it!

The jar of cajun seasoning I used is a convenient, ready made mix of chilli powder, cayenne pepper, allspice, black pepper, coriander, ginger, cumin seeds, fennel seeds and cardamom. However, if you wish to make your own mix from these core spices then that should be fine.

If you wish to speed it up a little then use white long grain or basmati rice instead of brown.

Here’s a legendary track that kind of sums up my first few mouthfuls of this dish, as I reached for the nice, cooling sour cream to stir in: The Prodigy with Firestarter.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

New Forest Buttermilk Scones

Mmm….freshly baked buttermilk scones with butter and home made plum and apple jam. Yes!

This week I found myself with a tub of buttermilk to spare. The by-product of an exercise in making butter from Jersey cream, I was vaguely aware that it could be used in baking scones.

A little further research taught me that its acidity makes it react well with bicarbonate of soda to give a light texture to baking. It also brings a slightly sour, but pleasant taste to a scone mix.

I decided to give it a go, thinking that the scones would make a tasty picnic lunch the following day, when we had planned to go cycling in the New Forest. A remote national park that has changed very little over the decades, the Forest has an extensive network of tracks exclusively for non-vehicle traffic – just walkers, cyclists and horseriders.

And so it worked out! My photos show the plate of golden brown scones, as we prepared to devour them after a morning’s cycle in the peace and solitude of the Forest. Look carefully in the background and you can see some of those famous wild ponies that roam the New Forest.

Just make sure you eat the scones before those ponies do 🙂

Servings

This made 12 scones and, with a couple of re-rolls of the remaining scone mix, another 2 – 3 on top.

Timings

15 mins to make, 20 mins in the oven at 160C.

You Will Need

  • 450g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 100g butter or baking spread
  • 85g caster sugar
  • 300ml buttermilk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • a splash of milk for basting

Method

  1. Switch on the oven to 160C. Sieve the flour into a large bowl with the salt. Add in the butter or spread in cubes or small pieces, and mix with an electric whisk until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs.
  2. Tip in the sugar and whisk again to mix in.
  3. Warm the buttermilk and vanilla in a saucepan on the hob for 2 – 3 mins. Then gradually add it in waves to the flour mix, turning over with a spatula after each addition to mix it in. Keep going until all the buttermilk has been incorporated, and a cohesive scone mix has formed in the bowl.
  4. Tip the mix out on to a well-floured surface. If the mix is still a little too wet to work with, don’t be afraid to sprinkle over more self-raising flour until it has a consistency that can be pressed and moulded with the fingers, and rolled out to around 2cm thickness.
  5. Press a scone or biscuit cutter into the mix to produce rounds – mine are around 7cm diameter, and this gave me enough for 12 scones. Re-roll the leftover mix and this should give you another 2 – 3.
  6. Place on a metal tray lined with baking paper. Brush each with a little milk on a pastry brush and bake for 20mins at 160C.
  7. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool.
  8. Serve with butter or spread and jam. We had ours with home made plum and apple jam, as shown in my photo at the top of the post. The scones are best eaten within a day.

Customise it!

If you can’t get your hands on buttermilk, I have read that adding 1 tbsp of lemon juice to ordinary dairy milk can be a useful substitute.

The colour of the scones reminded me of this track, so I have been playing it this week. I don’t think The Stranglers intended the song to be about making scones, or cycling amongst the ponies in the New Forest, for that matter. Never mind – here they are with Golden Brown.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Asparagus Risotto

Yay – it’s the time of year when fresh asparagus appears in our shops. I came across the beautiful bundles of spears shown below in a shop on a vineyard this week, while visiting the New Forest.

They were grown just over the Solent on the Isle of Wight, so very few food miles have been travelled in getting them to my plate!

Asparagus has a unique and delicate taste, and is quick and easy to prepare and cook. Nutrition-wise, it has a lot to say for itself, packing high levels of Vitamins A and C, potassium, iron and calcium.

I decided to make it the main feature of this dish, supported by a mild tasting vegetable risotto. You can see the finished article in my main photo at the top of the post.

Servings

A meal for 2.

Timings

15 – 20 mins to prepare and cook.

You Will Need

  • 1 red onion, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • 6 – 7 small chestnut mushrooms, chopped
  • 100g risotto rice
  • 500ml chicken or veg stock
  • 8 fresh asparagus spears
  • 2 – 3 scallions (spring onions) chopped
  • some blue cheese to crumble in

Method

  1. Heat some oil in a saucepan and fry the onion, pepper and mushrooms for a few minutes.
  2. Add the rice and turn the heat down while you stir it in. Then pour in the stock and bring to the boil.
  3. Wash the asparagus, and trim/discard about 1cm from the end of each spear. Place the spears in a steamer basket on top of the saucepan. Reduce the temperature to a simmer and let the risotto cook, and the asparagus steam, for about 10 mins.
  4. Remove the steamer basket and set to one side to stay warm.
  5. Turn up the heat under the saucepan if necessary to reduce the risotto to the right consistency – there should be minimal liquid left and the grains should be a little sticky with the coating.
  6. Stir in the chopped scallions and crumble in the pieces of blue cheese. Stir to combine so that the cheese is just melting in the residual heat.
  7. Spoon the risotto into two bowls and top each with 4 spears. Serve.

Customise it!

Feel free to add in any other fresh veg you have to hand – chopped celery, carrot, peas or green beans will all go well. I didn’t use garlic as I didn’t want to risk drowning out the delicate flavour of the asparagus. Avoid chilli or any strong spices, though some gentle fresh garden herbs torn in should be fine.

Spring is definitely in the air now, and daytime radio is starting to brim with those classic tracks I love to hear in the good weather, played driving along with the windows down, of course.

Lauren Laverne played this one on 6 Music this week, while I was out in the car, and it had my fingers tapping on the steering wheel. I especially like the dreamy guitar track, once famously sampled by Ice Cube. I still prefer the original however. Here it is to share: The Isley Brothers with Footsteps in the Dark, Parts 1 & 2.

Categories
Bakes Recipes Snacks

Anzac Biscuits

Anzac Biscuits are a traditional Australian sweet treat that I enjoyed on my recent travels there.

The story goes that they became popular with Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) soldiers in the First World War, since when they have been adopted as one of the nation’s most popular foods.

Picking up a genuine recipe (from the Aussie supermarket chain, Coles) before I left, I made a batch of the oaty, coconutty, slightly chewy delights this week, as shown in my photo above. I am very pleased with how they turned out, so I’m sharing the recipe here.

Servings

This will make 24 biscuits.

Timings

15 mins to prepare, and 20 mins in the oven at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 150g plain flour
  • 80g desiccated coconut
  • 90g rolled oats
  • 110g caster sugar
  • 55g brown sugar
  • 125g butter
  • 2 tbsp golden syrup
  • 1 and 1/2 tbsp boiling water
  • 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda

Method

  1. Switch the oven on to 180C. Line a couple of baking trays with baking paper.
  2. Put the flour, coconut, oats and sugars in a bowl, and stir to mix.
  3. Place the butter and golden syrup in a saucepan over a low heat. Stir until the butter is melted, then leave to cool.
  4. Combine water and bicarb in a bowl, then add to the flour/oats, along with the butter mixture. Stir to combine.
  5. Pick off 1 tbsp-sized portions of the biscuit mixture and roll into a ball between the palms. Place on the baking trays, equally spaced so that they have room to spread out as they melt. Flatten the tops slightly with your hand.
  6. Place in the oven for 15 mins or until baked to your liking.
  7. Once baked, let cool on the baking tray for a few moments, before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Customise it!

If you like your biscuits particularly chewy, try reducing the brown sugar and replacing it with caster sugar. To make them crunchier, step down the caster sugar and increase the brown sugar.

From classic Australian baking to classic Australian punk. Here are Brisbane’s The Saints from back in the day, with (I’m) Stranded.