Hugh's Fish Fight

No recipes this time I'm afraid, but something far more important in my opinion - the conservation of our fish stocks. As I write I'm watching the second in a three part series by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall called Hugh's Fish Fight, a programme which has quite rightly caused a stir in the media and I can only hope indignation across the country.

As well as the launch of this campaign, I coincidentally got Hugh F-W's River Cottage Meat Book for Christmas and this too has whipped me up in to a frenzy of anger and resentment over bad farming practices and unacceptable treatment of animals before they are killed for meat. Now, I hold my hands up and say that I probably haven't educated myself on this subject as well as I should have done as a food lover, but it's time to change. A New Year's resolution of mine this year was to do just that, to learn as much as I can about the meat and fish industry and to ensure that I only buy meat and fish from ethical farms, and if that isn't available, well I'll just do without and turn temporarily vegetarian until I can buy well sourced meat.

I hope if you're reading this that you too are interested in this topic, as I'm sure you are if you're a bonafide foodie like me and the rest of the food blog writing and reading world. After writing this post I'm going to attempt to add the Fish Fight widget to this blog (ambitious words for my practically computer illiterate self) and hopefully the next website you visit will be the Fish Fight campaign that accompanies the programme currently airing. Do send an email to your MP, do sign the petition, but most importantly, if you're like me, change your own buying and eating habits.

I don't pretend to be perfect, and I'm sure over the coming months I'll have a hiccup or two and forget my resolution by picking up a can of tuna (I gather even Princes are less than perfect in their fishing practices) or grabbing a chicken sandwich on the run, but hey - I'm putting one hundred per cent effort in to trying, and sticking to the principles that really, I think I've always had, I just haven't done the research into before.

Wish me luck, and here's to a happy, healthy and conscientious 2011!

Rocket, Moon and Astronaut Space Themed Cake

This weekend was hectic in the best possible way, lots of family and fun!! It was Mr.Colehill's nephew's fourth birthday party, and I (somewhat bravely) offered to make the cake for the occasion, and here is the finished article!! I'm quite pleased with it since it's only my second go at cake decorating - the first being the baby cake for the birthday boy's new baby brother a few months ago.


I definitely want to take a course at some point to learn the tricks of the trade and improve on the basics and foundations of cake decorating, but for a new hobby and a fairly ambitious idea I'm happy with it. If anyone knows of any good courses that run I'd appreciate some tips!!
Both the moon and the rocket are entirely cake - a vanilla sponge with chocolate buttercream, and the astronaut is modeled out of sugarpaste. hope you like it!!

Nigella's Devil's Food Cake

All hail Nigella, she's done it again. I recently bought her latest book Kitchen without having read any reviews, without flicking through it first, and without umm-ing and ahh-ing over it as I usually do with a hefty new cookbook. Should I have been a little more cautious before racing to the counter? A resounding no. It's a triumph and an absolute gem of a book to read, let alone use any of the recipes. There is a beautifully written introduction and a lengthy section on utensils worth having, and perhaps more importantly, gadgets absolutely not worth having. I hold my hands up to making some of the same purchasing errors as her, but it's so tempting at the time!!

Anyway, I couldn't wait to get started and have a go at some of her recipes, and yes I know this is utterly predictable, but I went straight to the desserts chapter and landed satisfyingly on her Devil's Food Cake. If you are on a diet, this is not for you. However if you enjoy a hefty dose of chocolate and cake, then do not hesitate to make this little (or rather large) beauty.

Devil's Food Cake
50g cocoa powder, sifted
100g dark muscovado sugar
250ml boiling water
125g soft unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
225g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

Frosting
125ml water
30g dark muscovado sugar
175g unsalted butter, cubed
300g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line 2 sandwich tins.
Put the cocoa and muscovado sugar into a bowl and add the boiling water, set aside.
Cream the butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy.
Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarb in another bowl, set aside.
Add the vanilla extract to the butter mixture, still mixing, then the eggs one at a time.
Keep mixing then add the flour mixture, then fold in the cocoa mixture.
Divide between the two tins and bake for about 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

For the frosting put the water, muscovado sugar and butter in a pan and melt over a low heat.
When it begins to bubble take off the heat and add the chopped chocolate, leave for a minute to melt before whisking till smooth and glossy.
Leave for about one hour, giving it a whisk every now and then.
When the cakes have cooled and the frosting is ready, put some frosting between the cakes, then cover with the rest.

Although Nigella suggests an hour is long enough to set the frosting, mine wasn't ready at this point and I needed to speed up the process so I put it in the freezer for 5 minutes. I did the trick, however I sacrificed the glossiness that the frosting should have had for speed. I would suggest making the icing before you make the cake and give it plenty of time to firm up at room temperature.

Utterly delicious and dangerously moreish, I highly recommend this cake. This was demolished within 48 hours, leaving only some rather snug waistbands and a smattering of crumbs on the plate!

Rachel Allen's Chocolate and Vanilla Semifreddo

As you may know if you've happened to skim over the 'About Me' part of this blog, I've worked as a pastry chef, and I have to say that the thing I miss most and really struggle to make outside of the confines of a professional kitchen is ice cream. In the restaurant, I had a massive industrial type ice cream churner, and made freshly churned ice creams and sorbets every day, which were beyond delicious. We had chocolate, vanilla, tonka bean, pistachio, coconut, raspberry, pear, passion fruit, coffee...the list is endless, and each one was smooth and soft, set but yielding, and utterly irresistable.

After I left, I really missed freshly made ice cream so I bought a do-it-yourself-at-home gadget for churning ice cream. It's a fairly teeny little device that holds a litre of ice cream, and churns while in the freezer, working off a battery. Sounds great huh? Well, take my advice - don't bother wasting your money on one. Seriously. It made patchy uneven ice cream, some parts frozen, some still liquid, with ice crystals all the way through it. Not delicious.

So what's a girl with an ice cream craving to do? Good old Rachel Allen to the rescue again, I found a recipe for semifreddo in her book Home Cooking, a resident life saver in my kitchen, and it was a real success.

Semifreddo

3 eggs, separated

150g caster sugar

500ml double cream

200g dark chcolate, finely chopped

Line a loaf tin with 2 layers of cling film, with plenty extra over the sides so that you can fold it over to cover the semifredo when freezing.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl until pale and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, whisk the cream until you have soft peaks.

In yet another bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form firm peaks.

Gently fold the cream into the yolks and sugar, then fold the egg whites into the mixture, being careful not to knock out the air you've whisked in.

Sprinkle a third of the chopped chocolate into the bottom of the loaf tin, then pour on half of the semifreddo mix. Then sprinkle a second third of the chocolate on top of this, then the remaining semifreddo mix, anf finally the last of the chocolate.

Fold the cling film over the top so that it's all covered, then freeze for at least 6 hours.

To go along with this, Rachel suggests a hot chocolate sauce, a pretty fine suggestion if you ask me!

Hot Chocolate Sauce

75g dark chocolate, chopped

100ml double cream

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water, then whisk in the cream to give a smooth sauce.

The trick is here to have the cream and chocolate as close in temperature as possible before combining them, so let the chocolate cool, a bit after melting, and don't have the cream fridge cold.

This is a really delicious alternative to ice cream, and it softens so beautifully when it's been out of the freezer a few minutes. It doesn't melt exactly, but becomes the semifreddo it's meant to be - half frozen. It has a firm texture, but the smooth creaminess really comes through and is utterly beautiful...and dangerously moreish! Perfect for a dessert after a fairly heavy meal as portions are flexible and the whipping keeps it fairly light, and is a great standby to have in the freezer if you have people over at short notice and need a delicious pudding!!

Orange Madeira Loaf Cake

It's been a hectic few weeks and I've abandoned the blogosphere since the New Baby Cake which kind of took it out of me to be honest! Anyway, I finally found time to get back in the kitchen and made something considerably less complicated yet utterly delicious. It's a Rachel Allen recipe from her Home Cooking book which I love, I've mentioned it in previous blog posts and really rely on it as a go-to whenever I'm lacking in inspiration; in fact, it is probably second only to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Everyday book in terms of how often it gets used at Colehill Kitchen.

This time it was a lovely warming orange loaf cake, perfect now that the weather is cooling off, but not in the realms of dense wintery fruit or chocolate cakes. It's a nice change from the traditional lemon drizzle cake, but no less delicious.

Orange Cake

175g butter, softened

175g caster sugar

3 eggs

Zest of 2 oranges

225g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 tsp freshly squeezed orange juice

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. I used part golden caster sugar and part normal caster sugar, but it's entirely up to you!

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each one, then add the orange zest.

Sift the flour and baking powder then fold in with the juice, stopping as soon as all the flour is combined.

Transfer into a greased and lined loaf tin, then smoth out the top.

Bake in the oven at 170 degrees for 50-55 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool on a wire rack.

The icing in particular went down a storm, which was simply 75g icing sugar and 2-3 tbsp of freshly squeezed orange juice. Combine the juice with the icing sugar gradually until it is soft but not runny, then spoon over the cake.


Slice and enjoy with a cuppa for the perfect afternoon tea!

New Baby Cake!!

This is an exciting post for me, because this is my first ever attempt at cake decoration in this way. I've always stuck to buttercream frosting and simple cakes, but this is a special occasion, so I tried my hand at something a little more detailed. The occasion in question is a beautiful baby boy, Mr. Colehill's new little nephew, and I wanted to do something special for the event. However, that is easier said than done because I've never done it before. This has been a week in the making in the evenings after work, starting with designing, making the sugarpaste decorations, baking the cake and finally assembling.

Anyway, here is the final product - The cake is layers of chocolate sponge and victoria sponge, with white chocolate buttercream between each layer. The building blocks are also cake, but the rest of the decorations are made out of sugarpaste.

I'd say this is my proudest achievement to date, I'm really pleased with the way it came out, but of course I'd love to hear ny tips and tricks you may have for cake decorating!!

P. S. excuse the milk bottle coming off at the side, it needs to be fixed on firmly before I give it to the new family!!

Julia Child's Quiche Lorraine

A rare savoury recipe has snuck on to Colehill Kitchen this week, a shock I'm sure, but at least it involves pastry!! Mr. Colehill is quite the quiche connoisseur, and while I was flicking through Julia Child's book, Mastering the Art of French cooking, which was a gift from him, he decided that the first recipe used from it should really be a 'gift' for him. I can hardly disagree. And so, a plan to make quiche was born.

I assumed it would be really time consuming for some reason, probably the notion of making pastry from scratch, but it was fairly simple quick and very simple to make. The pastry is a standard recipe, no surprises there. It's written in ounces so that's how I'll do it here:

Pastry:

5oz plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

Pinch sugar

4oz chilled butter, cubed.

4-4.5 tblsp cold water

Sieve the flour, salt and sugar into a large mixing bowl, add the butter and rub together quickly until you get and oat flake texture, careful not to overdo it though.

Then add the water and blend quickly shaping into a ball, before tipping out onto a surface and make one kneading motion for the final blending of fat and flour, the fraisage.

Leave to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour, or until needed.

Roll out and lay in a greased tin, and blind bake for 8 to 10 minutes until it is becoming golden.

Filling:

3 - 4 oz lean bacon

3 eggs

1/2 pint double cream

1/2 tsp salt

pinch pepper

1/2 - 1 oz butter cut in to little dots.

Cut the bacon in to bitesize pieces and blanch in fresh water for a couple of minutes, drain and pat dry. Fry in a pan until crispy and slightly golden - I was too impatient at this step and should have fried them longer. Then place in the pastry case.

Combine the eggs, cream and seasoning in a jug and pour over the bacon, and dot the top with the butter. Bake in the oven at about 180 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top is beginning to brown.

Although it isn't traditional, I added a handful of grated cheese into the egg and cream mix, yum!...we are lovers of cheese at Colehill Kitchen!

I have to say I would probably leave out the extra butter on top, as it resulted in a patchy surface to the quiche. As well as this, I think I would use half and half double and single cream next time too, as all double cream is just a tad too rich for my taste!

Leave to sink a little while it cools, and enjoy!! This of course is lovely cold too with salad and other chilled foods. Perfect for sitting in the garden sipping a cold glass of white wine!