cold day spicy biscuit with tea needed

those darker bits are especially delicious

As the leaves start to fall I start wanting to eat biscuits with my tea. I like these biscuits which have a zingy ginger bite and a warming flavour of cinnamon and cloves.

Maybe you do not like cloves? It's worth giving it a go in these biscuits - even my white-food-only daughter does. Although I'm not sure she even knows what a clove is, still she notices when I forget to put them in.

Here in rainy London cookies are creeping up apace. Back in the deprived days of my childhood had someone asked me for a cookie I wouldn't have had the first idea what they were on about. Now it's common culinary currency. So call these biscuits cookies if you like. You can cook them a bit less and have them chewy, or you can cook and cook again, making them teeth-threateningly crisp. That is the origin of the word biscuit after all - bis=twice, cuit=cooked. And don't worry, noone has lost a tooth to biting these biscuits yet.

jumped ship and ate one
 with vanilla ice cream

RECIPE

Ingredients
250g plain flour
110g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
1 egg
1tbsp treacle
1 tsp cinnamon
half tsp bicarbonate of soda
half tsp salt (leave out if you use salted butter)
half tsp ground cloves
half tsp ginger
demerera sugar

Method
Preheat oven to 200C/gas mark 4. Line two baking trays with baking parchment, or butter them.

Sift the flour, bicarb, spices and salt if using. I actually just stir the lot around with a whisk.
Cream butter and sugar together, beating until light and creamy.
Add the egg, beating all the time.
Add treacle - don't worry if it's a bit more than a table spoonful.
Fold in flour mixture, stirring until you get a stiff dough.

Put some demerera sugar in a bowl.

Use two teaspoons if you don't want sticky hands - take a spoonful of dough and dip it into the demerera, then put it sugar side up on the baking tray.
leave room for spreading.

Bake for 15m - leave to cool before removing from the tray.

If you manage not to eat all the biscuits at once, they store well. They're also welcome as gifts.

flattened chicken or cooking as a dangerous sport

Why cook a flattened chicken? Well, it cooks much quicker than an unflattened one for starters. The meat is marinaded for at least two hours - but don't be put off, because the prep is straightforward and can be done the night before. Oh and it tastes delicious.

This delicious dish doesn't try to be elegant. The cooked flattened bird is slightly unwieldy and you might hesitate how to serve it - I recommend putting it into the middle of the table and letting everyone tear into it at will. It's tender enough to make it easy to get off the bone - the one I cooked on Sunday was picked clean.

Recipe

Ingredients
1 chicken
1 lemon
6 tablespoons of olive oil
handful of peppercorns
heaped teaspoonful of salt

Method
Put the chicken breast side down and use a very sharp knife or a pair of chicken shears to cut from the neck cavity right down to the tail. Turn the bird over and snip or cut the skin between the legs and wings and the breast. Lean on the legs or wings the set them open away from the breast, giving a butterfly shape. Lean on the breast bone to help flatten the bird.

Now comes the bit that can be as dangerous or not as you like. The traditional approach is to beat the chicken with a meat mallet, to tenderise the meat and flatten it out. I place the chicken on a strong tray, I put the tray on the floor, place a large strong board on top of it and I jump on it. NOTICE Please take care - it's slippery! You can just stand on the tray and wriggle, it is still slippery. You end up with a much flatter bird.

Put the bird in a large pot or roasting tin. Crush the peppercorns lightly - under the side of a broad bladed knife or using a pestle and mortar. Sprinkle crushed peppercorns and salt over the chicken, follow with the juice from one lemon and the olive oil. Rub the mixture all over the bird and leave, turning and basting every now and then. Leave for at least two hours.

Cook for 20m on a barbecue or under a pre-heated hot grill, turning from time to time and basting with the marinade.

Cooking the chicken on a barbeque gives a wonderful smoky taste. Grilling it gives a cleaner flavour. The simple marinade of lemon, olive oil, pepper and salt gives a lovely tang. In the summer it goes wonderfully with a pasta or rice salad, in the winter potatoes go well.

The only variation I'd go for is adding garlic, crushed, which is very tasty too

late lunch with friends

I dragged my pals around Hampstead Heath with the dogs before bringing them home and feeding them as much as possible. I abandoned having Sunday lunches a while ago, as it knocks out the whole day, and I don't like walking with a full stomach, it's distracting. I also like to ease into a few glasses of wine while I eat, and in the middle of the day that now just leads to one place: bed. So, I imposed my eating schedule on everyone and spent the morning having a lovely time cooking. I could have done some of it yesterday, but I didn't.

Menu
spicy houmous with coriander
tomato salad with family dressing
flattened chicken, cooked on the bbq
gratin dauphinois
simple fruit tart with creme fraiche

the kids charred marshmallows in the dying embers

I didn't take any photos, as we all just got stuck in and appreciated the spread.

Simple fruit tart

Tart made with Wilma's Bramley apples

The pastry of this tart is buttery, crunchy, like shortbread and flavoured by an unexpected addition – alcohol. The alcohol cooks off, so eating it won’t get you drunk, other than on pleasure. I usually use tightly packed plums or apricots as the filling - but here I've used Bramley apples.

Betty’s original recipe used Calvados, which lent a hint of apple, but any strong alcohol will do. I’ve tried using rum, brandy and vodka, although I prefer something with flavour. 

Since I've run out of Calvados I used rum in this tart

This rich pastry seems to resist getting a really soggy base from the abundant fruit juices. Cook it shortly before eating if you like the base of the tart crisp, or prepare it ahead and enjoy the slightly soaked-in flavour. Of course, it’s delicious either way.

Recipe
for two 8"/20cm tarts


For the pastry:
500g plain flour
300g unsalted butter
100g castor sugar
2 egg yolks
1 coffee cup of strong alcohol


For the filling - per tart
two tins of apricots
or
1kg/2lb+ of fresh fruit, stoned or peeled and cored 
 I usually use tightly packed plums or apricots as the filling - but you can use apples or pears


Method

• cream butter and sugar together
• add egg yolk, beat in until combined
• slowly add alcohol, beating all the time - if it happens to start to separate add a spoonful of flour
• add in sifted flour a little at a time
• if the mixture becomes slightly dry add water to combine into a ball

• allow mixture to sit for at least an hour - best in a plastic bag in the fridge

• roll out half the pastry and line well buttered tart tin - if it cracks patch with scraps
• crimp the edge with your fingers and trim of surplus - I like a nice fat edge

• pack fruit in tightly - fresh fruit is great, but you can also use tinned apricots
• sprinkle liberally with demerera sugar or failing that granulated sugar 

• cook for 45m at gas mark 4/350 F/180 C

• eat hot or cold 
• great with slightly sweetened creme fraiche, cream or ice cream

Tips
Don't stress too much about how the fruit is arranged, just make sure there is plenty of it, packed tight.


Try using the pastry recipe to make wonderful shortbread.

Either

Roll it into a fat sausage, wrap and chill for an hour, then cut slices with a very sharp knife.
lay out on lined baking sheet and prick with fork
cook for 15-20m gas mark 4/350 F/180 C

Or              

Just bundle it up, wrap it and chill, pinching off pieces of the mixture and flatten into discs with a fork.

apple and walnut cake

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3 cups plain flour (1/2 wholemeal/1/2 plain white)
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups chopped peeled baking apples
2 cups chopped walnuts

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add vanilla.
Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg; gradually add to creamed mixture.
Finally, stir in apples and nuts. (Batter will be very stiff.)

Pour or spoon into lined cake tin (20cm) or bundt pan.
Bake at 325° F for 1 hour and 25 minutes or until cake tests done.
Cool for 10 minutes before trying to take the cake out of the tin.

easy peasy green tomato chutney

You never know how many green tomatoes you're going to end up with, so I've given the recipe in volume equivalents.At the bottom of the recipe I've added a recipe with absolute weights and measures

in volume
4 parts green tomatoes
1 part brown sugar
1 part sharp apple
1 part raisins
1 part onions
1.5 parts malt vinegar
tsp cayenne
tsp mustard seeds
tsp salt
piece fresh ginger

use a large pan, not aluminium as it reacts to the acid

• chop up the green tomatoes
• slice the onions
• peel, core and chop apple
• tie up the mustard seeds and ginger in a bit of muslin
• put all ingredients together in large pan and bring to the boil
• boil for an hour or until it reaches good consistency

allow to cool
pour into jars, following the anti-botulism protocols

yum

banana bread - cake really

This is an easy cake to make, and a simple way to use up those bananas you've forgotten to eat.

3 very ripe bananas
butter or marg
soft brown sugar
3 eggs
self raising flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda

you might add
spice:
chocolate:
raisins or sultanas

butter a 7" tin or in preference a bundt tin (tin with a hole in the middle) and dust with flour

beat butter and sugar together
peel the bananas and beat into sugar/fat mixture
add the eggs and beat some more
stir together flour, bicarb and spice if used
add flour and beat mixture together

don't worry if there are some lumps of banana, as long as the banana is mostly mashed in. The mixture usually ends up in a loose speckled batter

if you are adding sultanas or chocolate thrown them in now

cook at gas mark 7 for 40 minutes

chocolate fudge icing

150g icing sugar

25g cocoa powder

50g thinly sliced butter

2x 5ml tsp honey

2x 15ml tbsp milk

1/4 tsp vanilla essence

• sift icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl 
• put butter, honey and milk in pan on low heat, stirring until melted
• pour into sugar mixture immediately and beat until smooth
• leave to cool

spread on cake using knife

enough for inside of 7" cake

lemon granita or sorbet

I eat it looking at this view from my hammock

On a hot day this ice will make you happy, it's softly sweet and has a refreshing bite. Actually it's a recipe for happiness in any weather, I have been known to eat it until my tongue goes numb. 




When made, this concoction may look like ice cream, but there is no milk in it. It uses a syrup and adds a tantalising teaspoon  of orange blossom water. You don't need an ice cream machine to make it either, you can freeze it in a container and as it freezes smash it up a bit, several times with a fork. Low tech is good.

3-3/4 cups water

1-1/4 cups sugar

1 T. orange blossom water

1-1/4 cups lemon juice

• Put water in a pan with the sugar and boil together for a few minutes, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. It doesn't take long - don't let it turn to caramel. 
• Leave to cool and add orange blossom water and lemon juice. 
• Stir well and pour into a fridge container or ice trays. 
• Cover with lid or foil foil and place in the freezing compartment of the refrigerator, set at the lowest setting. 
• As the ice freezes a little, mash it up lightly with a fork without removing it from the trays,  to reduce the size of the crystals. Repeat a few times at 1/2-hour intervals. 
• Transfer from the freezer to another part of the refrigerator about 20 minutes before serving. 

You can fill scooped-out lemon halves with the sorbet to serve. Or use bowls.


Serves 6. Or fewer if you are greedy.


This is something you can serve in small amounts between courses, to clean the palate. Only if you are feeding people with vast appetites of course.


You can make an excellent slushy with this sorbet. Put the ice in a glass and add a shot of water, stir and consume using two straws in the traditional manner.


Also delicious with a ginger biscuit - recipe to follow.

I use an ice cream machine and it makes a beautiful smooth white sorbet. It is also kind enough to roll it into four portions, that look like ghostly tennis balls.

If you keep it frozen for more than a day then it'll need to soften longer before eating, or you will break spoons.



I also make it with alcohol - two tablespoons added to the ingredients is plenty, if you use more it will make the whole less icy. If I use whisky I leave out the flower water, with rum and vodka I leave it in.

University diet

When I started this blog it was after I had found my oldest child gazing happily into a well-filled fridge on a recent visit home. She explained that until she left home for university she hadn’t realised how much shopping was needed to keep it stocked up. It’s the porridge pot principle – your world-weary teen may cast a cynical eye over most fairy tales, but once they’re buying their own food they find that their faith in the pantry’s endless bounty gets tested.

Five kids, limited budget and restricted access to supplies, coupled with a touch of sadistic control, meant that access to food was restricted when I grew up in the 1970s. We were allowed three biscuits a day, there was no eating between meals and one sweet after lunch at the weekend was a longed for treat. In addition, meals had to be eaten, even if what was on the menu wasn’t to your liking. These days I know of just two families who restrict their kids food intake between meals, and neither of them is mine. I decided it was one battle I wasn’t going to take on.

When I left home I specialised in preparing a range of quick, cheap and tasteless meals. Pasta sauces made from soup mix, a speciality. My food obsessive parents ensured that these ‘naughty’ foods appealed to me. Flavour was secondary to MSG or effort. I progressed, through poverty, to conjuring up a dish that made the most of what food was consistently left to rot in my fridge. A saggy head of celery and a pint of milk with lots of pepper, cooked down with some seasoning, made a tasty slightly nutty pasta sauce. I may revisit this recipe in time, right now I am still shuddering at the thought. Other than that it was onion sauce all the way, truly delicious with baked potatoes and other veg. Occasionally I paired it with liver, as a treat.

So, this blog was started in an effort to teach my teenage daughter to cook. It was her idea, when she was living in halls, and wanted to enjoy some tasty homemade food.

The starting point was vegetable dishes, starter cooks are mostly not ready for meat. Aside from family classics, including caramel carrots, cabbage and bacon and a coconut dhal she’s also interested in onion sauce.

Taking tips from my younger self, economy of time, money and effort are the greatest influence on the recipes tackled. I also started trying to limit the need to wash up.

Imagining she’ll be happy to have the same meal twice in a row, or may invite others to join her to eat, so the recipes are for two, or can simply be scaled down.