Month: August 2018

Four simple ingredients.

Convenience food is amazing for productivity at home.  It is a gift from god to those busiest of people – working parents.    And almost everything we eat – even in Mama Dolson’s kitchen – has an element of convenience food.  Let’s work through an example.

It’s lunch time.  You buy a ham and cheese sandwich with mayo, crisps and a bottle of juice.  Breaking down only the sandwich; without ‘convenience food’ you would need to start with wheat, a pig, a cow, some chickens, a sourdough starter, corn to press for oil, something to make vinegar and a source of salt.   That is a lot of work for a ham and cheese sandwich with mayonnaise.   And I didn’t mention the preservatives, colouring agents, flavour ‘enhancers’, etc.

Modern life would be practically impossible without convenience food.   Unless you’ve grown it yourself, all the ingredients in the kitchen have an element of convenience. As a minimum, it’s convenient that they are there in your kitchen.   Butter is a convenience food – can you imagine getting fresh milk and churning your own butter before making toast in the morning?  Convenience food is a game changer.  But it’s worth knowing what you have given up for convenience.

I had  a life changing experience when I stumbled across a recipe for home made Oreos.  I made them and the result was amazing.  What I had made was what the creator of Oreos had invented.  But that Oreo vision had then fallen into the hands of marketing, supply chain management, packaging and dare I say it – the management accountant.  The original Oreo was modified so that it would last 12 months on the shelf, could be easily packaged, transported and so that each package would make the company money.  The ideal Oreo had become a money making convenience food.

It launched me and my family (and anyone else within reach whom can I feed) on a voyage of discovery.  I love taking a convenience food and finding out what it really tastes like.  I’m not a zealot looking to ban convenience food.  I’m an adventurer on a quest for authenticity.

For example, I used to joke that mayonnaise was the only fattening thing I didn’t like.  No longer true – I love fresh home made mayonnaise.   Mayonnaise is so much more than smooth white boring sauce and a convenience food.  Some foods deserve fresh mayonnaise (crab meat for example) or oeuf mimosa (mimosa eggs, coming in a future blog post).

So, let’s make mayonnaise.   The Davinator filmed me making it. The video is 1 minute and 2 seconds long because once you’ve assembled your ingredients – that’s how long it takes. Here’s a link to a video on YouTube.  Mama Dolson makes mayonnaise.      

And if you don’t like my video – there’s about 100 other ones on YouTube that will show you the same thing.

You do need the right equipment for this recipe to work.  You need a stick blender and cylindrical container.   Plus the ingredients.  You can make mayonnaise by hand or in a food processor but this way always works for me.  Once you trust the recipe, you can start to experiment with different oils, acids and spices.  One of our favourites is lime chilli mayonnaise with crab meat.

It only lasts a couple of days in the fridge but I’ve never had to throw any away. Think about how long a bottle or jar of mayonnaise or salad cream lasts…..what do you think they’ve done to it to make it last that long and never separate.

Recipe:

• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• a pinch of salt
• 240 mls of oil; I use 120 mls extra virgin olive oil and 120 mls corn oil

How to:

Break the egg into the container.  Put in the lemon juice, pinch of salt and the oil.  Give it a minute to settle then put the stick blender to the bottom, put it on a high setting and whiz away.  This will take less than 30 seconds and you have mayonnaise.

Watch the video, yes it is that easy.

I haven’t banned mayonnaise in a squeezy bottle because I don’t want to stop and make mayo every time the Davinator wants a sandwich.   But the Davinator has not touched the squeezy bottle since I made the first lot of home made mayo.  If there is no home made mayo – he uses another condiment. Which tells you everything.

A bit more on the equipment:  a stick blender costs about £10 on Amazon or you can get a slightly more expensive set that comes with a cylinder.  If no container with the blender, find a plastic container or a Kilner jar.  There are three things:

1. It needs to be a snug fit for your stick blender.
2. The sides need to be straight up and down.
3. It should be at least 12 centimeters deep.

A stick blender and a cylindrical container are mandatory for this recipe.

So, people.  Let’s make mayonnaise!

A party trick is something that looks impressive but is actually easy once you’ve seen the magic.  This (genuine) no knead focaccia is the party trick of baking.  Have the equipment and ingredients, follow the instructions and voila.  The only thing you do need is time; this bread requires an overnight rise.  But it’s worth the planning.

Focaccia ready for eating

I found this recipe, thought ‘that will never work’ . Knock me down with a feather – it did work.  And it’s worked every time since.  This is an absolute favourite of the family and it disappears faster than I can make it.  I learned to  make (at least) two loaves. I decorate mine with sliced black olives, rosemary and sea salt – but you can omit any of these and substitute at will.  Sun dried tomatoes,  caramelised onions, use your imagination.  The olives tend to put younger children off which is a good outcome for greedy grownups.

Read the recipe through, there is a lot of elapsed time here; an overnight rise, a second rise in the pan for two hours.  Labour low, time high.

As always, instructions written for the non-expert.

Equipment

• A 25 cm or 10 inch diameter cake pan (same shape as you would cook a sponge cake in).  Pan diameter is important – a 25 cm diameter pan has a surface area of 490 scm.  A 22 cm diameter pan has a surface area of 380 scm, its 22% smaller.
• Parchment paper
• A shower cap or cling film
• Large bowl
• Dough scraper (always helpful)

Ingredients

• 500 grams white flour; all purpose or bread flour.  Any old white flour NOT self raising
• 15 grams rock salt or 10 grams fine ground salt
• 4 grams instant dry yeast ( NOT fresh, not fast rising) – Amazon it if you must (don’t worry about the flour, worry about the yeast)
  (dry ingredients)
• 325 mls water, room temperature
• 1/4 olive oil (divided)
• 10-20 pitted black olives, sliced
• Fresh rosemary, don’t chop it but pick the leaves off the stalk, about 2 tablespoons
• Coarse salt

Instructions

Remember, It’s the night BEFORE you want to serve the bread.

Put the dry ingredients in a fairly large bowl and stir well to combine (flour, salt, yeast).  Salt and yeast are not great friends so I put the flour in first then salt on one side of the bowl and the yeast on the other.  Once they’re combined with the flour, its fine.

Pour the water into the dry ingredients, stir to mix well.  You should have a wet looking dough, like this. Cover with your shower cap or cling film and leave for at least 10 but up to 24 hours.  Does not need to be in the refrigerator.

Dough ready for proving.Next day…..

Line the bottom of your cake pan with parchment paper.  And coat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Prep a cake pan 10 inches or 25 cm in diameter.

Your dough will have expanded and more than doubled in size but it will be soft and a bit sticky.  Lightly flour your work surface and sprinkle some flour across the top of the dough.  Using your dough scraper or a spatula, scrape out the dough onto the work surface and form it into a dome (flat on the bottom, round on top).  Turn the dough and tuck the edges under.  You want the top to be smooth and rounded – this keeps the dough hydrated.   Put the dough in the pan, start with the domed top, coat it with the olive oil and then turn it over.  Give it a bit of a squish to flatten it into sort of a disk.  Now cover the cake pan with your shower cap or cling film and leave for about two hours.

focaccia, dough, second rise

Preheat your oven to 225C (210C fan).

Prep your olives, rosemary and have the olive oil and coarse salt ready.   The dough will have expanded to fill most of pan.  Press it down to fill the pan and then lift the bottom edge of the dough, moving around the pan, pressing out the air bubbles and making sure the oil has coated the bottom.

Sprinkle your olives and rosemary across the top and press FIRMLY into the dough.  If there are kids around, get them to help with this – they love it.  If the olives and rosemary are not in the dough, they will be scorched bits of vegetable matter.  This is not what we’re looking for.   Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with the coarse salt.

focaccia, dough olives, rosemary,

Put the pan in the middle of the hot oven for at least 15 minutes and as long as 20 or 24 minutes until golden brown.

Let it cool in the pan for 20 to 30 minutes.  It should come out easily. You can serve immediately, serve it after it is fully cooled or warm it up in the oven later before serving.

I hope your family and friends love this bread as much as mine.

Keep on baking!

Salad Nicoise – my ‘go to’ lunch when I want to get on the Davinator’s good side.

Every cook needs people who eat.  It’s like leading and following; what kind of leader are you if no one follows? What kind of cook are you if no one is eating your cooking?  Cooking only for Instagram?

My consumers are family, friends, co-workers, fellow volunteers at SmartWorks,  my pilates instructor and her family not to mention my fellow Pilates students.  But my prime consumer and best critic is the Davinator (my husband Dave).  On the one hand, he has never met a baked good he didn’t like.  On the other hand,  he has great ideas about what he wants to eat and has learned to offer frank feedback (or get the same thing again).   I hate to be old fashioned but being a good cook is unlikely to attract a man but it certainly keeps them around.

I digress briefly for an anecdote.  A merchant banker of my acquaintance (probably 5-10 years older than me) told me that he married a terrible cook.  I think that this was a fairly traditional It girl marrying merchant banker story.  Assessing that this inexperience and not bad training, he cheerfully ate whatever she cooked and only offered the mildest and most gentle of suggestions.  He believed that encouragement would get him further than criticism.  Apparently, it was three years before he would come home to a reliably decent meal.  I said ‘did she ever figure it out?’.  He seemed puzzled by the question.  End anecdote.

The Davinator’s favourite salad is Nicoise.  It is a great showcase for summer produce so fits well with our ‘eat locally, eat in season’ ethos.  It also helps with using up the Abel & Cole weekly organic vegetable box.  Well maybe not the tuna but all uncooked tuna you get the UK has been frozen and comes from a distance.   I use fresh tuna but use canned tuna if it suits you for cost or convenience reasons.  Nicoise is very flexible, so feel free to adjust the dressing (there is a ‘standard’ vinaigrette and a dijon vinaigrette below) and add or subtract ingredients as you wish.  Change it enough and it’s something else, of course but it might still be amazing.   This is my ‘go to’ recipe for Salad Nicoise.

Ingredients – salad

• 450g  fresh tuna, about 2.5 cm or 1 inch thick
• 400g new potatoes (approximately 8 to 10 if small, if big, be prepared to chop)
• 120g cherry tomatoes, halved (8 to 12 cherry tomatoes)
• 120g young fresh green beans
• 4 small lettuce hearts to 2 cos lettuce heads
• 1 bunch of spring onions
• 4 eggs, to be cooked
• 6 anchovy fillets (from a jar or tin)  chopped into 2.5cm or 1 inch lengths
• 16 pitted black  olives in brine
• 8 basil leaves (optional)

Marinade/vinaigrette dressing

• 105ml/7tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar (or balsamic)
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped small
• 2 tbsp fresh chives, chopped small
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped (optional, I omit because of Davinator’s allergy to all of the lily family)
• 1 tsp fine salt (not kosher or rock salt)
• 1 tsp black pepper
  (note that most vinaigrette dressings are roughly 2 parts oil to 1 part vinegar or other astringent ingredients)

Marinade/Dijon vinaigrette dressing

• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped (can omit)
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 1 tsp black pepper

Preparation instructions

(I’m trying to write for non-experts so apologies if I’m explaining things you know how to do).  This is my suggested order for preparation.

1. Tuna. Whisk together all of the ingredients for the marinade/dressing and put in a shallow baking pan.  Put the tuna in.  Turn it once or twice while you are doing the rest of the preparation.
2. Potatoes.   Scrub your new potatoes, do not peel them.  If you’re blessed with new potatoes the size of a cherry tomato (or indeed not much bigger than a cherry) go straight to the boiling phase.  If not, you want to cut into chunks not much bigger than one inch square.  Once cut, put in a pan with plenty of water and some salt (just throw the salt in but at least a teaspoon and more if you want).  Bring to a boil.  Boil for 12 minutes then take off the heat, cover and leave in the hot water until you’re ready to assemble.
3. Green beans,  Top and tail your green beans.  Get a pan of water boiling, add salt (see above for potatoes).  Throw in the beans, cook for 3 minutes.  Quickly drain the beans, then put in a bowl with ice water to quick cool.  (This is known as blanching and it keeps the beans a lovely bright green colour).
4. Eggs.   Get a medium sized saucepan, fill with water, bring to a boil.  Pierce the bottom (less pointy end) of each egg and quickly add to the boiling water.  Here’s an egg piercer, it keeps fresh eggs from cracking when cooked using this method.  It’s on my favourite gadget list.  Cook the eggs for 7 minutes, then run under cold tap water.  Some chefs would say 6 minutes, but I find this undercooked for most people.   When the eggs are cool, remove the shells.Obviously, you can do steps 2 through 4 well in advance and refrigerate your ingredients.
5. Prep the salad ingredients on individual plates: lettuce, halve the cherry tomatoes and distribute across the plates,  chop the spring onions very fine and distribute on the plates.
6. Prepare a heavy skillet or cast iron pan, bring it to a relatively high heat.  Cook the tuna steaks, to taste.  I like mine rare so 3 minutes per side.  The Davinator is a ‘well done’ merchant so 5 or 6 minutes per side for him.   While it’s cooking,  distribute the potatoes, tomatoes and green beans on the plates.  Cut an egg into quarters the long way for each plate.
7. When the tuna is cooked, add it to the plates.  Garnish with the olives, anchovies and torn basil leaves.  Whisk the marinade again (or make some more) and dress the salads.

The Davinator likes to have a some toasted sourdough rye bread with butter with his Salad Nicoise but any bread is a good accompaniment.

Good gadgets that help out with this recipe

None of these are mandatory for the recipe but each is a help.

I mentioned the egg piercer above.  The best way to make reliable boiled eggs (soft, medium or hard boiled) is to put them in boiling water (using a slotted spoon) after piercing them.  They won’t crack if they’re pierced before being put in the boiled water.  You can also bring the eggs to a boil starting with cold water and eggs in the pan (also won’t crack) but this method is much more difficult to time accurately.

Great for boiled eggs, allows for accurate timing.

I find that fresh herbs make a difference in this recipe (not always by the way).   I chop mine with a mezzaluna (Italian for half moon), its a lot quicker and more effective than chopping with a knife.

My favourite tool for chopping fresh herbs

I’ve got a grilling skillet that I only use for cooking tuna.  It probably is good for steak (Davinator cooks the steaks btw) and sausages but for some reason I only get it out for tuna.  And it does make those attractive stripes.

Nothing quite like it for searing tuna.

Keep cooking! And eat more vegetables.