Category Archives: How-To

Why Do We Peel Portobello Mushrooms?

Well, it beats me. I don’t know why. Facts are facts though, and every chef on telly peels their Portobello mushrooms. Even Jamie peels his. The contestants on Master Chef do, too.

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So I decided to try it both ways. One peeled, and the other not. Same ingredients. Both on the same tray, baked at the same temperature for the same length of time.

Guess what? No difference whatsoever. If anything the unpeeled one held its shape a bit better. Now I don’t know why the professionals bother, and I wondering what’s up with it. Do you peel your large, flat mushrooms? Is there a benefit?

By the way, these were really yummy. A drizzle of olive oil, then topped with the chopped up stems, sautéed chopped garlic, fresh chives, and thin shavings of cheddar cheese and lots of pepper. We like pepper. Baked in a medium oven for about 12-minutes until the cheese blistered. I’ve also made these with pesto smeared into the dark gills, then sautéed garlic, chives and parmesan shavings. That’s good too.

I’d be very interested hearing if you peel your mushrooms!

How-To Season a Cast Iron Frying Pan

How-To Season a Cast Iron Frying Pan

clip_image002I have a cast iron frying pan. The sort with ridges; it makes those impressive restaurant-style lines on steak when you fry a slab of meat. It does the same for veg, too, in case you think this post is strictly aimed at meat-eaters. Now every good cast iron pan needs a proper seasoning to keep it truly stick-free and slick as Teflon – without the fear of possible toxic chemical fumes.

To season cast iron is dead easy; the oven does all the work for you. The only effort you’ll put into this exercise is lifting the pan. This is most easily done as an evening job. You’ll see why in a sec.

First: preheat your oven to medium-high. 400F or 200C should do it okay.

Next step: Using a pastry brush, ‘paint’ a light (but even) layer of vegetable oil over all the surfaces. I also brush the sides, bottom and handle just to be sure humidity in the air doesn’t rust the iron. Don’t use olive oil as it will start smoking and stink up your kitchen. I once set off smoke alarms by doing that. Put your pan in the oven UPSIDE DOWN with a sheet of foil on the bottom rack (to catch drips). This is why you don’t want to ‘paint’ too much oil on the pan; it’ll drip and make a mess. Just a thin,even layer is all that’s needed.

Last step: Let your pan ‘bake’ in the oven for an hour. Then shut off the heat, don’t open the door, and allow the pan to cool in the oven overnight. (See? That’s why it’s an evening job! You sleep while it seasons itself.) If the seasoned surface looks splotchy in the morning, brush on another layer of oil, very thinly, and repeat the process in the oven. Allow to cool overnight again.

It took two attempts to season my cast iron pan the first time. The second time was perfection. I also coat the pan with a tiny bit of oil after each use and/or before storing.

Do you have a seasoned cast iron frying pan? Do you prefer it over the Teflon surface?

How-To Revive Limp Lettuce

limpLettuce

When your lettuce goes all limp in the fridge’s crisper drawer, because let’s face it – there’s nothing about a clear plastic boxie drawer that’s going to crisp anything destined to go limp in a few days …. don’t toss the lettuce out.

Revive it.

Treat it just like cut flowers. Trim off the bottom a bit, and sink the leaves (standing upright) in a tall bowl of cool water. Let them cool off their toes overnight.

In the morning, drain off the water. Rinse the leaves, and you have fresh lettuce again.

Happy crunching!

How To Make Sourdough Pancakes

Once a week Sedrick, my sourdough starter, gets a feeding. Occasionally I forget, and then I have to feed him over a few days until his little bubbly-self is resurrected and capable of rising 500g of raw dough again. When this sort of force-feeding is required, it creates a bit of extra starter that usually goes straight into the bin. A healthy starter needs reducing by half, and then feed with the discarded weight of flour and water so it has fuel to burn for a few days. It’s that discarded treasure that went straight into breakfast this morning rather than into the bin … and, oh my, delicious pancakes with fresh, crushed blueberries.
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Thanks to Frugal Feeding’s recipe for sourdough pancakes, we used the leftover starter. I plan to do this every time I have starter leftover from a feeding. No more throwing out Sedrick! The recipe is at  http://frugalfeeding.com/2013/03/05/sourdough-pancakes/

How-To Make Celeriac and Apple Soup

The Frugal Feeding’s recent post about celeriac soup reminded me that I haven’t made this bowl of fragrant warm comfort in a long time. Frugal’s soup looks wonderfully rich and creamy. Mine benefits from a subtle hint of sweetness and tartness from the apple. Some crumbled bacon also goes nicely on top with the toasted walnuts and bread cubes.

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So, having decided what was for lunch, I was off to the supermarket in hope of finding celeriac. It’s a pity that this root vegetable isn’t as commonly used as other veg. Can you image only 4 carrots available in the produce bin? – that was the fate of the celeriac at the supermarket. Wedged in a tiny space, squeezed between two bins of curly greens – there sat two shrink-wrapped balls of celeriac. I grabbed the roundest and least scabby one. And a Granny Smith apple. And a large sweet onion. And I was ready to cook lunch.

Celeriac and Apple Soup

Ingredients

30g butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
500g celeriac, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 firm, tart apple, peeled and cut into small cubes
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
750ml hot chicken or vegetable stock (from cubes is okay)
handful walnuts or pecans, chopped in chunky bits
a handful of cubed bread
Salt and white pepper
Celery salt, optional

Method

Prep all the ingredients beforehand: peel/cube the celeriac, slice the onion, peel and cube the apple (I used a Granny Smith), make the veg stock from a cube, chop the walnuts and cube the bread. This recipe moves fast, so it’s helpful to have everything ready.

If you need help peeling the celeriac, refer to this very good tutorial.

celeriacCollage

Heat the butter and oil in a pan until it sizzles, then add the sliced onion, stir, reduce the heat to low, clap on the lid, and sweat until softened. This takes about three minutes. Then add the celeriac, stir and clap the lip back on, and sweat for five minutes. Now pour in enough hot stock to cover the celeriac and onion. Reserve any leftover to thin the soup (if needed) when blitzing the soup smooth with your hand-blender.

Keep the pot covered and simmer for 15 minutes until the celeriac is soft. Add the cubed apple and cook for another two minutes. Turn off the heat and blend using a stick blender/hand-blender until the ingredients are smooth. If the soup is too thick, add a bit of the reserved stock. Taste, and adjust salt if required.

For the garnish, melt a nob of butter in a small frying pan, toss in the walnuts, and then add the cubed bread. Sauté them until the bread is golden and crisp. Place on top of the soup, and serve.

Based on a recipe by Angela Hartnett (as shown on telly, UK Food)

Today’s Lunch: Cauliflower Soup

How-To-Make Cauliflower Soup

cauliflowerSoup_8Feb13This will either taste deliciously subtle … or it will remind you of milky dishwater.

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It’s a very delicate soup with minimal ingredients: one large cauliflower cut into florets, one large onion thinly sliced, 4 cups of hot water, a generous pinch of salt (1/2 teaspoon or more to taste) and some white or black pepper. If you wish, you can add a swirl of olive oil or melted butter with some black pepper just before serving.

Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large thinly sliced onion
1 large head cauliflower (approx 1 kg/2 lbs) cut into small florets
120ml/g or ½ cup boiling water
900ml/g or 3 ½ cups boiling water (to add when cauliflower is tender)
½ teaspoon salt (or a bit of chicken bouillon granules)

Method:

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Slice the onion, and cut the cauliflower.
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Sweat the sliced onion over low heat in 3 tablespoons olive oil for about 15-minutes until soft.

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Toss in the florets, add 1/2 cup hot water from the total 4 cups, clap the lid on the pan tightly and simmer 20-minutes until cauliflower is tender. Turn on the kettle and heat the remaining 3-1/2 cups of water, and then pour it into the pot, simmer *UNCOVERED* for 20-minutes.

Purée with a hand-blender until smooth. Allow to sit for 15-20 minutes, as it will thicken slightly as it sits. Rewarm and serve, adding a swirl of olive oil or melted butter with some black pepper.

Based on Paul Bertolli’s recipe

How-To Steam Eggs

Don’t Boil Them – Steam Your Eggs

In the early days of this blog, I thought I knew how to hard-boil an egg. Now I know better.
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Steaming them is the answer, and I discovered that the eggs just beg to pop out of their shells. The shells came off in one continual piece.

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My friend, Celi at The Kitchen’s Garden, mentioned one day that she ‘steamed’ eggs. Now Celi has chooks, otherwise known as chickens, or more specifically hens. She lives on a self-sustaining farm, and she’s up to her alligator logo, if she wore that sort of thing, with chook eggs. She ‘steams’ them a dozen and a half at a time, and she uses one of those “lotus-blossom-expandable-folding aluminium vegetable steamers. I don’t have one of those; I have a double-boiler steamer. I knew right off that my eggs would need more time than Celi’s because her steamer sits closer to the boiling water than my steamer.

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So, here what I did. I brought of few inches of water in the bottom pan to a rolling boil, and then set the steamer pan with 4 eggs above it. Clapped on a tight-fitting lid, and set the kitchen timer for 13-minutes. No, I really truly have no clue why I chose 13-minutes. It could’ve chosen 15-minutes, but had I done that, I think they would’ve been slightly over-done. I just guessed, and guessed right. When the time was up, the eggs were plunged into icy water and then peeled. They turned out perfectly “hard-boiled”. The whites were softly firm but not rubbery, and the yolk was slightly flaky and firm.

Total success. I might have to call them “hard-steamed” from now on.
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For all the details and complete method, pop over to Celi’s The Kitchen’s Garden, and read her post about steaming eggs.

How-To Stuff Pork Tenderloin with Prunes and Walnuts

Pork Tenderloin Stuffed with Walnuts and Prunes

PorkTend

This isn’t so much a recipe as inspiration. Sort of like if I can do this, trust me, so can you … if you want. This always looks impressive when sliced. Mr Misk always says, “Wow!” And it’s dead easy to do.

Method: Slice the tenderloin open, (it’s called Butterflying). Pretend that your sharp long-blade knife is a machine in a lumber mill that slices and rolls the bark off from an old cedar tree. Now, lay a sheet of cling film over the meat, and pound the tenderloin evenly thin. Next, chop up some walnuts and smoosh some prunes flat with your fingers. If the prunes aren’t smooshable, soak them in some dry sherry (or warm water, which is sort of boring) until softened. Drink the sherry, and then sprinkle the chopped nuts on the meat. Then put the tipsy smooshed prunes on the nuts. Roll the pork up tight into a long log, and tie it closed with cooking string.

Brown the tenderloin in an oven-proof pan, and then finish baking it in the oven at 190C/350-375F for 20-30 minutes. Test for doneness. Snip off the string, slice the pork at an angle, and serve with gravy, potatoes and two veg. Bon appetit.