From Mississipi to Vietnam in the Recipe Clippings Round Up

Hooray!  Another batch of recipes, been clipped, cooked or baked, blogged and shared for Recipe Clippings. Many thanks to all who joined me for the February Challenge.


1. Rachel Cotterill - Mississippi Mud Pie 
2. Baking in Pyjamas - Jaffa Cake Tea Bread
3. Onions and Paper - Pastitsio


4. Cloud of Cookmorphosis - Bun Mam: Vietnamese Fermented Fish Vermicelli Soup
5. Lancashire Food - Almond Sponge Topped Apple Pots
6. Chocolate Log Blog - Lemon Coconut Cakes with Freekah Flour


If you would like to find out more about Recipe Clippings please visit the page and come back and join in when the March Recipe Clippings Challenge is posted.

Labels: Almond, Apple, cake, coconut, Freekah, Jaffa Cakes, lemon, Mississippi Mud Pie, Pastitsio, Recipe Clippings, Vietnamese

posted by Janice @ 19:00 1 Comments

Cherry and Almond Frangipane Bake

Don't those cherries just look so good?  A real taste of summer in the middle of winter. I received them in a parcel of ingredients from the French company, Sabarot.  The company was formed in 1819 by an ancestor of the current manager and Sabarot aim to maintain the traditions and know how passed down through the family. 

Sabarot specialise in red fruits, dried vegetables (including puy lentils), dried mushrooms and snails, and they sent me a selection of their produce.

I haven't tried all the products yet, but I have cooked the mushrooms in some risotto and they were very good quality.  I decided to use the cherries in a Cherry and Almond Frangipane dessert.  These cherries have had the stones removed and presented in a jar with a light juice.  The juice and cherries are not particularly sweet which means you can regulate the sweetness yourself or even use them in savoury dishes.  As I was making a dessert and wanted a slightly thicker and sweeter syrup, I heated the juice gently in a pan and added a teaspoon of cornflour slaked with a little water, once cooked out this created the texture of a cherry pie filling as shown in the first photograph.

Cherry and Almond Frangipane
Serves 6

1 jar Sabarot cherries in juice
100g caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour

for the Frangipane
55g butter
55g caster sugar
40g ground almonds
1 large egg
15g plain flour

1. Heat the oven to 180C/170C fan oven
2. Put the juice from the cherries and the sugar in a pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Mix the cornflour with a little water and add to the warm, sweetened cherry juice and bring to a gentle boil.  Cook for 2 minutes,stirring all the time until the starch is cooked out.
4. Add the cherries to the sauce and place in a shallow dish, leave to cool slightly. 
4. Using an electric mixer or a wooden spoon, beat together the frangipane ingredients.
5. Spoon the frangipane mixture over the cherries.
6. Bake at 170C for 20 minutes until risen and golden brown.
7. Serve with cream or greek yogurt.


I was very pleased with how the cherries worked with the frangipane.  I've made a cherry frangipane before with fresh cherries but the bottled cherries had a lovely intensity of flavour and were a good contrast to the soft, almond sponge.


I was supplied with these products by Sabarot for review.  I was not paid for this post and all opinions are my own.

Labels: Almond, cherries, cherry, dessert, dired mushrooms, frangipane, puy lentils, review, Sabarot, snails

posted by Janice @ 20:46 23 Comments

Lamb Pot Roast and Peach, Bramble and Almond Crumble - Dish of the Month September

In the Kitchen Diaries II, Nigel Slater tells us " I am not a chef and never have been. I am a home cook who writes about food."  He goes on to say "I'm neither slapdash or particularly pedantic in the kitchen (I haven't much time for uptight foodies; they seem to have so little fun).  Neither am I someone who tries to dictate how something should be done and I am never happier than when a reader simply uses my recipe as an inspiration for their own."

If you have taken part in 'Dish of the Month' or even read through one of the round ups, you will realise that most of the participants use the recipes as an inspiration.  I am trying to cook the Kitchen Diaries month by month, finding at least one recipe from the appropriate month to share in this blog challenge and I have found that the inspiration route certainly works for me.  Some of this may be because the seasons in Scotland are slightly out of kilter with the more southern parts of the UK, for example Elderberries feature in the August chapter and at the end of August they are still green here.  Or it may be that I am more of an ingredient led cook e.g. what is in the fridge/freezer/cupboard/garden

No matter, I've never failed to be inspired by Nigel's recipes and ideas, even if, sometimes, I veer so far off recipe for them to become unrecognisable!

And so to this month's offering which is Lamb 'osso buco' with parsley papardelle.  Guess what?  I didn't have lamb steaks on the bone, I had a nice piece of Herdwick rolled shoulder, so I made this into more of a pot roast, oh and no Marsala either, so I used a tablespoon of Brandy and some lamb stock.  And, because I haven't been feeling too well recently and couldn't face making roasties, I just threw the potatoes in to cook with it.  So no need for pappardelle, although I may make that to eat with the left over lamb.  I also made some fresh mint sauce which added to the deliciousness.



Dessert could have been Pear and Chocolate Oat Crumble from KDII, but I didn't have any pears, so I concocted a Peach, Bramble and Almond Crumble instead.  As this is my recipe rather than Nigel's, I have included it for you below:.



Peach Bramble and Almond Crumble

Serves 4-6

2 peaches
about a cup of blackberries (brambles) - or a couple of handfuls - sorry this is crumble not science!
1 tbsp caster sugar
100g plain flour
45g ground almonds
75g butter
50g demerara sugar
25g flaked almonds

1.  Skin the peaches, by putting them in a bowl, pouring over boiling water and leaving for a couple of minutes, then removing and the skin should come off easily.
2. Slice the peaches and place in an ovenproof dish.  Add the brambles,  and the sugar.
3. Put the flour, ground almonds and butter, cut into cubes, into a bowl.  Rub the butter through the flour and almond mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Add the demerara sugar and spoon over the fruit in the ovenproof dish.
5. Sprinkle the flaked almonds over the crumble mixture.
6. Bake at 160C for about 40 minutes until the fruit is bubbling and the crumble has turned golden brown.
7. Serve with cream, ice cream, yogurt or custard.





If you would like to take part in Dish of the Month, then please:

• Make a Dish of the Month from ANY recipe by Nigel Slater
• Link to Farmersgirl Kitchen or A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate
• Use the Dish of the Month logo in your post
• If you use twitter, tweet your post with @serialcrafter or @Heavenona_plate and #DishoftheMonth and we will re-tweet it to our followers.

Rules:

• If you own The kitchen diaries II please do not publish the recipes on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
• If you are using recipes from the BBC Food website, please link to the recipe on BBC Food rather than publishing the recipe. Likewise recipes on the Guardian Lifestyle website.
• One entry per blog.
• Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.

Labels: Almond, Bramble, crumble, Dish of the Month, lamb, mint, Nigel Slater, one pot, Peach, pot roast

posted by Janice @ 10:30 5 Comments