The War On Cookbooks

Christmas Canapé Project part 5

Egg Nog

 

Although I don't think I've ever been near egg nog in all my 30+ years, reading the ingredients I immediately knew what it tasted like. 

Milk, egg, sugar, cream, eggs are mean its basically a crème anglaise with flavoring. Which is fine cause whilst I've never made egg nog or tasted it, I've made and eaten crème anglaise in vast quantities. Sometimes I drink it straight up...I know disgusting, right ? but it's still an improvement over my old habit of drinking condensed milk straight out of the can. In 1000 years I may evolve to just having a refreshing glass of milk but don't hold your breath.

So I decided to start with a base crème anglaise infused with nutmeg. I did this in a water bath ( I know boring, right ?)  but it can easily be done the standard way. Just chop of a bit of nutmeg and let it infuse in the pan. Cover with some cling film whilst cooking and leave covered once cool and leave over night for best results. 

In addition to this I slow cooked and egg at 65oC for exactly 45 mins. Not a minute more or less. The result was this.

The runny white simply falls off and you are left with a perfectly cooked yolk soft on the inside but strong enough so you can throw it about a bit.

In order to do this you need a good fresh egg. Supermarkets are fine in fact I found the best ones at sainsburys in the end. 

To tell how fresh your egg is simply look at the best before date. The date is there not because the egg goes bad on that date but because the egg has a natural immunity to bacteria for 28 days after it is been laid. Meaning that after 28 days you need to put it in the fridge, not chuck it out like my mum does. 

So the date stamp will give you the exact date it was laid. I found one that was laid two day ago. I also found some in my all organic, all singing, all dancing, freshness guaranteed farmers market that were laid 20 days ago...tut tut.

The egg was rolled in a mixture of cinnamon and caster sugar then topped with some icing sugar for decoration. 

The result was fabulous if a little messy to eat. And yes I have already finished of the rest of the creme anglaise, and yes I feel a little sick as a result.

Christmas Canapé Project part 4

Pigs in Blankets

"I cant wait to see what you do for pigs in blankets. I take it your not doing that kind of thing" 

Oh I'm doing it alright, I'm doing it. Chipolatas wrapped in bacon ? Not a chance I'm missing out on that action.

Of course I tampered with the traditional menu somewhat. 

This recipe has taken me a while to do. I originally wanted to do a chipolata terrine but the terrines I had were either too small or too big. So I opted instead to do a Ballotine of sorts. I also wanted a vehicle to use up the leftover turkey legs and this would be perfect. 

First thing I did was to make the sausage mixture. I used the sausage meat from a traditional chipolata sausage and mixed it with chopped water chestnuts, dried cranberries, extra sage, exrta thyme and a little brandy for luck( its turning out that I'm using a lot of brandy in this menu, for which I am 100% unapologetic).  

I seasoned this mixture up and flattened it out into a big rectangle, to which I added some of the turkey leg meat in a line through the middle.

Next I laid out the bacon side by side and flattened it out with the heal of my hand. I rolled the sausage mixture up over the turkey into a "sausage" shape and then rolled it up in the bacon. 

It then took a piece of cling film big enough to wrap the bacon/sausage/thing up in several times and tightly rolled it making sure there are as few air pockets as possible. Then whilst holding the two ends I rolled it on itself so as to tighten up the shape. 

Now you could put this in a bain marie in an oven at 150oC for an hour or so (or lower for longer), or if you have a water bath like I do you can put it in at 65oC for 2 hours. Whatever you do once you have cooked it you need to get it back in the fridge for a good few hours, if not a day. 

What has happened is the fats and juices in the ballotine have run around each other when cooking, mixing together like a fatty, flavourful disco party. When you cool it down these fats rest and congeal and give it structure. So the longer you leave it the more you will be able to play around with it later.

Once its cooled it needs to be pan fried (at a low heat for a reasonable time, start with the join to seal it) to develop the flavour in the bacon and then sliced as thinly as you want it. If it's cold in the middle you might want to oven cook it for a few minutes or cool it down and serve it cold.

I seasoned the slice with Togarashi and salt and presented it on a crostini brushed with sage oil.

This may be a hassle to do but its much more appealing that wrapping a chipolata in bacon and really easy to work with as a canapé.

Only one this time, two still to go. 

I'm working on something to do with egg nog, but I'm not 100% sure I've ever had egg nog. 

Christmas Canapé Project part 3

Turkey and Gravy

Very Simple* very intense single portion of turkey and gravy. 

*Ironically I found very difficult, for no other reason than there really is nowhere to get decent turkey at the moment. You can get crown and leg and even breast portions but what I really needed was whole bird and if I didn't have  a whole decent bird I knew that quality was going to be compromised. 

So in the end I cheated and used a whole chicken but used turkey breast as the meat (still a bit shit I have to admit, but then again it's not christmas is it ?). I budgeted this exercise by doing a chicken and fondant potatoes dinner at home, which I will post in a few days. So nothing was wasted.

First thing I did was remove the entire skin from the chicken in one piece. To do this you simply cut a slit lengthways down the bottom of the bird and peel from either side gently. I then cooked this separately in an oven at 150oC for about 40 mins until it was nicely dry and crispy. 

I then removed the breast and legs (if your feeling flush you can leave them on) and made a chicken stock form the rest. 

I made an onion gravy by caramelizing some onions in a pan (deep colour) then adding some noilly prat, reducing it, adding the chicken stock, reducing again and finishing it with some sherry vinegar and a dollop of butter. The butter helps to envelop the taste around your tongue, it is very important, especially if you have no pan juices and you have removed the fat from the stock.

With the turkey breast I had to sous vide it I'm afraid. It was just to rubbish a cut to do anything else with. I did this at 56oC and then fried it at the end in a very hot pan to develop the mailard reactions and also to kill off any nasty bacteria.

The whole thing was then constructed on a one of my little spoons (I realise I'm using the spoons a lot but I did order 24 by a mistake on amazon 1 click ordering, so I'm justifying it.)

It was good but the meat even though it was tender and perfectly cooked would still have been 100 times better with a good bird. I'll probably do it again a crimbo just to see.

Mince Pie

I wanted to do a mince pie but I thought even a very good mince pie would seem a little dull. Personally I always like a little cream or ice cream with mine or a little brandy butter sauce.

So I decided to do it all. 

What I made was a mince pie filled with brown brandy butter ice cream and it was a winner.

To make the pie base i used a pâte sucrée recipe from cookery school and baked it in a mould.

I made mincemeat a day in advance ( would be better if you left it as long as possible). Simply some dried fruit (take your pick) with some suet soaked in brandy then cooked in some bunched up tin foil the next day for 3 hours at 140oC.

The ice cream is a simple ice cream base (egg yolks, milk and sugar), whisk the egg yolks with the sugar, heat the milk, combine, then heat gently till it thickens ( you could not bother thickening it, it still works well.) I then brown the butter in a pan and whip up some double cream until it is a similar consistency to the ice cream base. 

You then combine all three once they are all at room temperature and freeze. 

I added  most of the mincemeat to the ice cream once it had reached a thick pouring stage and filled the pastry cases almost to the top. I then placed them back in the freezer to set.

To finish I simply added some of the leftover mincemeat on top wit a splash of good brandy for some extra boozy goodness.

Christmas Canapé Project part 2

Roast Potato Bubble Cakes 

To have a christmas dinner without roast potatoes would be like having mexican night without tequila or sombreros. In other words profoundly disappointing.

On the other hand serving a simple roast potato as a canapé would be pretty boring and even the smartest looking roasty would fail to make the aesthetic grade required for such an event. 

There is also the issue of how too include brussel sprouts. As much as I'd like to leave the disgusting little blighters out of this I feel I would be doing the project a disservice to do so. 

So I went back to the the only time in my life I've eaten brussel sprouts and liked them. This was last christmas when I cooked them up in a traditional bubble and squeak recipe for boxing day breakfast.

Bubble and squeak is basically a way of using all your leftovers by mixing them with mash and pan frying the result. It not haute cuisine by any stretch but its bloody nice all the same.

So how are these made ?

Properly roast some good quality potatoes in goose fat. By properly I mean boiling the them from cold in very salty water (think the sea) so that the outer layer breaks down allowing the fat to penetrate the outside when roasting. They are ready when they are almost falling apart. Drain and rough up the edges a bit in the colander. Heat up the fat in a roasting tray, throw in the potatoes and roll them around until they are fully coated  in fat. Roast at at high heat and baste regularly the fat over the potatoes. They are done when they are nicely brown and crispy all over or as much as possible. 

Cool the potatoes and then separate the crispy skin from the soft potato inside. 

Soften the sprouts in a covered pan with lots of butter and some salt and then add them to the potato mash. Mix with more butter and season to taste. 

Place the mixture into a clingfilmed lined tin and flatten it out till its about 2 cm thick and freeze.

Meanwhile blitz the crispy potato bits up with some rosemary until they look like breadcrumbs and add them to some panko breadcrumbs or similar. 

When the potato is hard enough cut out discs and coat in flour, beaten egg and eventually the panko mix and deep fry until crispy and brown. 

The cakes were lovely despite the sprouts and they retained all the flavors of the original roast potato which was what I had tried to achieve. 

I did feel however that they need something else if eaten on their own. So I think I'd serve a dollop of red onion chutney on top or maybe something creamy, I don't know yet ? 

Cranberry, Thyme and Macadamia sorbet

Easier this one and part of my overuse thyme in sorbet mission which I find myself regularly drawn to. It is fab though. 

Simply cranberry juice (the best you can find) heated with some sugar in a pan. You add the thyme and heat for a minute or two to infuse. 

Pass and place in a container with some dried cranberries and some small chunks of macadamia nuts and a few fresh sprigs of thyme. 

Freeze or put though a ice cream maker. I don't have one so I just stuck it in a freezer and then rough it up a few times during freezing.  

Thats it, pretty simple, pretty tasty. 

Christmas Canapé Project part 1

No I'm not special and yes I know it's a while until crimbo. 

These blogs will focus on my Tante Marie summer project 

in which I have to design a Christmas Canapé menu for 40 

people.

My idea was to totally deconstruct the traditional christmas 

dinner and break it into its essential component flavors. 

Then to reconstruct brand new dishes around these flavors or

concepts.

My aim is to devise a menu that pushes the individual flavor 

combinations much further than they are originally intended 

and breathe an air of originality and surprise into something 

that that is, when all said and done, pretty over familiar and 

basic.

I did my first two today on my day off. They are in no 

particular order as yet.

A Prawn Cocktail

I wanted to start of with a couple a fish courses and when 

I thought of the most common I had when I was growing up 

it was a simple prawn cocktail. 

I came up with the idea of using the word 'cocktail' and 

turning it around to actually being a cocktail. This is 

essentially an intense prawn bisque bloody mary shot with 

a deep fried filo wrapped prawn on top, to dip in or have 

separately. 

The bisque is made by frying of a load of prawn shells in 

oil, then adding a good helping of Noilly Prat. Reducing 

right down and adding a cup of Celery juice (two celery 

sticks put though a juicer). This mix is also reduced down 

almost to nothing. Next I added a tin of tomatoes and their 

juice and reduced until I has the right consistency. I then 

blitzed the whole thing and passed it though a fine sieve.

I took the juice obtained and added a dash of sherry 

vinegar, some worcestershire sauce and a glug of vodka and 

did a final reduction.

All that was left to do was to season the sauce and pour into a 

shot glass.

The prawn filo thing was as you would expect. Take a prawn, 

season it, wrap it in filo, seal with beaten egg and deep fry.

Sage and Onion

Rather than do a simple stuffing I decided to do a spherification 

of onion. I can't really go into detail because its not my recipe 

but I did tweak it by infusing sage into the recipe. The basic 

idea is to blitz up some onions that have sweated soft in butter 

and then do the spherification stuff. 

I served it in a bath of rich onion gravy and topped it with

some deep fried sage.

I'm not a huge fan of over using spherification and I'm well 

aware it's nothing revolutionary but I have to say the 

convenience of using it as a canapé is very inviting and I 

firmly believe every cooking method has it's place no matter 

how stuffy people get about it.

...Also most normal people would still be pretty impressed.