Panna cotta with raspberry coulis

My very favourite dessert and so simple to prepare!  Be sure to use enough vanilla, there should definitely be more than just a hint of it!  Tastes luxurious and there’s minimal effort required.  Always a crowd pleaser, so perfect for a dinner party!

Makes 2 large panna cotta

Ingredients:

For the raspberry coulis:

250g of fresh or frozen raspberries
50g icing sugar

For the panna cotta:

75ml milk
300ml double cream
1 1/2 vanilla pods
1 1/2 sheets gelatine
40g icing sugar

Method:

Raspberry Coulis:

• Add the raspberries and icing sugar to a blender and blend until smooth (if the mixture is a little thick, add a tbsp. of cold water).

• Pass the mixture through a fine sieve over a jug and allow to cool.  Serve cold or slightly heated with the panna cotta.

Panna cotta:

• Soak the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water.  Keep in the water until required.
• Pour the milk and two-thirds of the cream into a saucepan. Cut the vanilla pods in half, scrape out the black seeds and put them, along with the pods into the cream. Simmer gently for 5-6 minutes. The mixture will reduce slightly.

• Remove from the cream mixture from the heat and discard the vanilla pods.  Add the softened gelatine to the mixture.
• Fold the icing sugar into the remaining cream and add to the cream mixture.  Now pour the mixture through a fine sieve over a jug.  Pour the mixture into ramekins.  Allow to cool and refrigerate, ideally overnight.

• Serve either straight from the ramekin with the coulis on the side or serve the classic way by dipping the ramekin in hot water for a few seconds and then turn out onto a plate and pour the coulis around it.

Chicken Pie

Ahhh, the humble chicken pie!  I have an undying love for this dish and the ingredients it contains!

I had a good look at a number of different chefs versions of this classic and most looked mouth-watering, but only very few combined all the ingredients that I would deem MUST go into a chicken pie – double cream, white wine, rich stock, bacon, leek and mushrooms!  So I’ve come up with my own version and combined them all!  Warning, your kitchen will never smell as good when cooking this dish!  ENJOY!

Ingredients:

• 400g of chicken
• 100g of leek, trimmed and sliced
• 2 rashers of smoked bacon
• 120g of mushrooms
• 25g of butter
• 250ml of chicken stock
• 125ml of white wine
• 300ml of double cream
• 1 tbsp of garlic infused olive oil
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 sprigs of thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• salt to season
• black pepper to season
• sheet of puff pastry
• 1 egg, beaten

Method:

• Pre-heat an oven to 200c/Gas mark 6.
• Add 1 tbsp garlic infused olive oil to a frying pan and set to a high heat.  Cover the diced chicken in flour, season with salt and black pepper.  Dust of the excess flour and add to the hot pan.  Brown the chicken all over but be careful not to over cook.  Set aside.

• In a large saucepan, heat some olive oil and bring to a medium heat.  Add the leeks and bacon and cook for one minute.  Add the mushrooms and the butter and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.
• Add the stock, wine, double cream, thyme & bay leaves and bring to the boil.

• Once reduced by around a third, reduce the heat and add the chicken and keep cooking.  Once the sauce has thickened slightly, remove the bay leaves and thyme (be careful not to reduce too much or the sauce will become too thick as it still has a further 20mins cooking in the oven).

• Add the contents to a pie dish.  Cut a piece of puff pastry so it covers the pie dish and trim the edges for a neat finish.

• Cook for around 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown in colour.
• Serve on it’s own or with green beans and new potatoes.

Celeriac Soup with Pan Fried Scallops, Black Pudding and Pancetta

Scallops are one of my very favourite foods and in some Scotland we really get the pick of the bunch, so tonight i decided to serve them up pan fried with a slightly spicy celeriac soup along with black pudding and pancetta, which both compliment the scallops perfectly!

The ginger and nutmeg in the soup gives this a slightly wintery feel – perfect for the freezing evenings!

Serves 4:

2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 celeriac (about 500grams), peeled and cut into cubes
3 shallots, peeled and sliced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 small piece of ginger, peeled and grated
100ml white wine
0.75l chicken stock
good pinch of nutmeg
100ml double cream
50g black pudding
12 scallops (coral removed)
50g butter
4 rashers of smoked pancetta

Method:

1.    Heat the oil in a large pan over a medium heat and add the celeriac, shallots, garlic and ginger. Gently fry for a few minutes, until they soften slightly but don’t brown.
2.    Add the white wine, bring everything to the boil and reduce the liquid by half. Add the chicken stock and ground nutmeg and bring to the boil again, then reduce the heat and simmer for around 20 minutes until the celeriac has softened enough to blend.
3.    Transfer the soup to a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour the soup back into the pan, add the cream and generously season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Reheat when you’re ready to serve
4.    In a large frying pan, fry the black pudding until crisp. Set aside on kitchen paper to soak up any fat (be careful not to overcook). Crumble into small crumbs.
5.    In the same frying pan, fry the strips of pancetta until crisp and remove and place on kitchen paper.
6.    Season the scallops with salt and black pepper. Heat the frying pan again until very hot and add the butter. When the butter’s foaming, add the scallops and sear for 1 min on each side
7.    Heat the soup and serve in a shallow bowl.   Place 3 scallops each in the middle of the bowl, place a crisp pancetta rasher on top and garnish with the black pudding pieces.]

ENJOY!!!

My Sweet and Spicy Meatballs

I conjured this recipe up a good 5 years ago and they’ve gone down an absolute treat every time i’ve cooked them!  I urge you to try these – they’re a perfect mix of the fresh flavours of Italy (tomato, mozzarella, basil) and the smokey flavour of Spanish chorizo with some added paprika!

It’s well worth investing in good quality meatballs (or make your own) and a good quality chorizo ring (you won’t need much oil for frying – the oil in the chorizo will more than suffice – in fact you may have to drain some off before adding the sauce contents)

Perfect for feeding a crowd!

Here’s the recipe:

12 beef meatballs
1 chorizo ring (chopped)
1 red onion
3 garlic cloves
2 x tins of chopped tomatoes
1 jar of sweet peppadew peppers (i also highly recommend el Navaricco piquillo peppers)
2 tablespoons of ketchup
1 mozzarella ball (chopped)
Handful of fresh basil
Splash of red wine
1 teaspoon of paprika
10-12 drops of tabasco
1 garlic bread (i urge you to use a £1 supermarket baton (don’t go all focaccia)

1. Finely chop the onion, garlic and chorizo
2. Heat oil to a high temperature and fry the meatballs, onions and garlic until brown.  Add the chorizo and fry for a further 5 to 6 minutes (you may need to drain some oil as the chorizo will give off some excess)
3. Add the chopped tomatoes, chopped sweet peppers, ketchup, tabasco, paprika and red wine.
4. Bring to the boil then lower to a medium heat and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Put the garlic bread in a pre-heated oven.
6. When the sauce has reduced slightly, add the chopped mozzarella ball and melt through the sauce.
7. Simmer the meatballs for a further 3 to 4 minutes until reduced to a nice thick and rich sauce.
8. Serve the meatballs in a bowl and garnish with some fresh basil.
9. Season to taste

My mums Curried Soup with sundried tomato oil

My mums soups have somewhat of a cult following amongst my family and friends (eventually leading to me conjuring up her alter ego – Brenda Broth).

Both her and her sister are fantastic cooks and have been cooking simply delicious meals for family and friends for a quite a number of years!

The following recipe is one of my mums most recent and is absolutely delicious! It’s an absolute blue print for a curried soup!

Garnish with some parsnip crisps for an added crunch!

I’ll be attempting this myself in the coming week, so pics to follow!!!

A little oil for Cooking
1 small onion chopped finely (food processor will do this)
l small leek chopped finely ”
2 Tablespoons Medium Curry Powder( to taste or hotter if you like!!)
2 – 3 Fairly good sized potatoes chopped
1 Litre Vegetable Stock ( I use Marigold Stock Powder – it’s in a green tub)
1 Tablespoon Creme Fraiche or cream if preferred
Seasoning

A little Sundried Tomato Paste mixed with some olive oil for garnish

Put oil in pan and heat then add onion and leek and cook gently for a few minutes until soft then add curry powder, stir around for a few minutes until vegetables are coated.

Add potatoes and stir around for a minute or two until well coated then add vegetable stock and some seasoning to taste.

Cook until potatoes are vegetables are soft. Cool then puree soup and stir through creme fraiche.

When serving soup top with a little of the tomato and oil mixture.

ENJOY!!!

My Teriyaki Salmon (Quick and perfect for a small dinner party)

I’m a relative newcomer to cooking Far Eastern cuisine, but this dish always goes down a treat and is quick and simple to make!  I would really urge you to give this a go.  The classic combination of soy sauce, ginger and lime makes for a truly perfect marriage with the salmon!

Teriyaki Salmon:

2 Salmon fillets
60ml Mirin
60 ml dark soy sauce
Juice and zest of 1 lime
1 red chilli finely chopped
Grated ginger (medium chunk)
2 Spring onions sliced and some reserved and cut into thin strips for deep frying (keep some of these strips raw)
2 tablespoons rice wine
40g dark brown sugar
Noodles to serve

1. Combine the mirin, soy sauce, lime (juice and zest), chopped spring onion and chopped chilli in a medium sized bowl.  Add the salmon and marinade on each side for 5 minutes.
2. Heat a good glug of sunflower oil in a small saucepan and deep fry the thin strips of spring onion until lightly crisp.
3. Remove salmon from the marinade and fry dry or with a small amount of oil on a high heat for 2 minutes on the bottom side.
4. Flip the salmon, add the combined ingredients from step 1, and fry for a further 2 minutes.
5. Remove the salmon and place on warm serving plates.
6. Add 2 tablespoons of rice wine to the sauce and reduce to a syrupy consistency.
7. Remove the sauce and set aside.  Add the noodles to the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes.
8. Pour the sauce over the plated salmon, garnish with the deep fried and raw spring onion strips and serve with the noodles and a wedge of lime.

Braised shin of beef

The shin is absolutely full of flavour and is a really under-rated cut of beef. Keep it simple and slow cook in a rich beefy sauce for best effect!

You’re definitely best heading to a reputable local butcher to source the meat!  I can highly recommend George Bower in Stockbridge, Edinburgh.

Here’s my recipe:

2kg shin of beef, trimmed and filleted into roughly 5/6cm chunks
1 bottle of dry red wine
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
1 medium onion diced
1 bay leaf
1-1.15 litre of rich beef stock

1 litre of chicken stock
2 or 3 sprigs of thyme
1 tablespoon sun-dried tomato paste or a few sun-dried tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
30g plain flour
1 sprig of rosemary

Place the beef fillets and bone into a dish and cover with the bottle of red wine.  Marinate for 24 hours.

Remove the meat from the wine, season, and brown on all sides on a high heat in an oven proof pan.  Remove the meat when browned and add the onion, carrot and celery.  Brown the vegetables and place the meat back in the pan along with the reserved red wine.

When the wine has a slightly syrupy consistency, add the plain flour. When the flour is mixed in start adding both the chicken and beef stock then add the remaining ingredients.

Transfer to a pre-heated oven at around 160 degrees and cook for around 3 hours.

Strain the sauce (it should have a nice syrupy consistency) through a fine sieve and pour over the beef.

Serve with baby carrots or mashed potatoes.