Nourished

Recipe

Chocolate

Vanilla-Ice Cream, and Chocolate Ice-Cream

Yes, I’m still making ice-cream at a ridiculous rate since I got the Thermomix, but it’s now so easy I’m determined never to buy another tub of ice-cream again.  This way I know exactly what’s gone into it!

First up, vanilla…

1 vanilla bean
475ml whole milk
150g granulated sugar
4 large egg yolks
240 ml double cream
1 tsp pure vanilla extract.

Hey, it’s a thermomix recipe – first I pulse a whole vanilla bean with the sugar, then put everything in, cook to 80ºC, speed 5, for around 11 minutes in my case.  Do make sure the custard reaches 80ºC.  Strain it, preferably into a bowl over ice, and chill in the fridge.  When cool, churn in your ice-cream machine until the consistency is right, then set in the freezer.

Using exactly the same technique, chocolate… 

475ml whole milk
2 Tbs and 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder (I used the Green & Blacks)
Pinch of salt
170g good quality chocolate.  I used Valrhona 68% cocoa solids
4 large egg yolks
200g granulated sugar
240ml double cream
1 tsp pure vanilla extract.
Just omit the stage with the vanilla, and carry on as above.

Vanilla Ice-Cream

Valrhona Chocolate Ice-Cream (slightly melting :0)

Coconut

Tribute Dish – the Roux Pre-Dessert – panna cotta, jelly and granita… [Thermomix]

At Roux Parliament Square, the pre-dessert is a panna cotta, topped with a jelly, and then a refreshing granita. On the day I went we had a coconut/passion fruit/lime, but I notice from trawling reviews that they also do apple/apple/cucumber (yum!), pineapple/coconut/kaffir lime, strawberry/strawberry/meringue.  So it’s a very successful formula, onto which you can put your own twist.  If you’re going to do this regularly, you’ll need some better glasses than mine, I’m on the lookout for something far prettier, a little like this…

I love dishes like this, you immediately wonder what flavour combinations you’d be able to get away with – is whackier better? Could you go liquorice/pernod/blackberries like some ’80’s throwback drink? How about plum/Prucia liqueur/plum… [I recently discovered Pruci at Gerry’s in Soho, the most amazing stuff! It’s made from the Japanese Ume plum, macerated in grape spirit and aged in French oak barrels – one of the most addictive things I’ve tried in ages!] How about bergamot/apple/elderflower? Earl Grey/Bergamot/Lime? Matcha/coconut/matcha?   

The Roux Panna Cotta

Actually, because I’ve been cooking all weekend, I thought I might try Fruit Tea/Pimms/Cosmopolitan Mixer and massively cheat.  That may be a bad idea, but the grand thing about a thermomix is that it will only take 20 mins or so of prep to try the whole thing out – so why not?

Fruit Tea Panna Cotta (adapted from the Daily Mail). 
3 gelatine leaves
200ml semi-skimmed milk
300ml double cream
50g caster sugar
2 fruit tea bags

A quick adaptation of the standard Thermomix panna cotta recipe gives us a combined technique of…

  1. Soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes. 
  2. Meanwhile, put the milk, cream and caster sugar into the thermomix and cook for 6 minutes / 80ºC / Speed 3
  3. Drain the gelatine and squeeze to remove the excess water. Add to the thermomix and stir for 3 minutes / speed 3 to dissolve the gelatine.
  4. Tip into a bowl, then add the tea bags and leave to infuse for 20 minutes.
  5. Remove the tea bags, pour the mixture into your glasses and leave to chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours or until set – there should be a slight wobble in the centre.
Tips: Now, getting this panna cotta neatly into the glass is going to drive you insane! Make sure you know where your funnel is, and that it fits your glass, before you begin!  I ended up using a sauce bottle, you know the kind, for putting little dots around the plate – still ended up with the odd splash…
Pimms Jelly  (adapted from the Daily Mail)
50g caster sugar
50ml water
Squeeze of lemon juice
2 gelatine leaves
100ml  Pimm’s
100ml  lemonade

Not going to do this in the thermomix.  

  1. Put the sugar, water and lemon juice into a saucepan and heat gently until dissolved. Simmer for 5 minutes. 
  2. Place the gelatine in a shallow bowl, cover with water and soak for 4 minutes. Squeeze out the excess water, then add the gelatine to the pan to dissolve. 
  3. Cool, then add the Pimm’s and lemonade. Cool at room temperature. 

Before you put the jelly onto the panna cotta, make sure it is completely set!  From past experience I’ve found it best to put a tiny layer of jelly on first, allow this one to set, then add the rest of your jelly layer – this gives you a clear jelly.  I know this picture has a frosted glass, it’s just come out of the fridge.  But look at the jelly layer – you can just make out the first, slightly milky layer, and then the clearer jelly on top. Do take the time to do this step properly if you’re doing it for guests – but hey – my kids didn’t even look at it!

Cosmopolitan Mixer Granita:
100ml Funkin passionfruit syrup
2 pouches of Funkin Cosmopolitan Mixer
Juice of 1/2 lime
Ice cubes to blend into a granita
I’m going to cheat, because I can :0)  Put the juicy bits into the thermomix and add enough ice cubes to blend into a granita.  Make sure you really get a fine grain, as the flavour is much stronger in a finer grain than a really gravelly granita (if you’re using a thermomix that is – will not apply to a normal granita if you make it in the traditional way, as your flavour is your ice!).  As usual, mine is far too ungainly, but the flavour is there. I’m going to find a more appropriate glass, and cut back on the quantity and roughness of the granita.  Having said that, the panna cotta is flipping perfect! Absolutely the right amount of wobble, smooth, creamy, so I’ll use those ratios again!  Think I’d be more inclined too to make a proper granita, the thermomix one is great if your in a hurry, but the texture is difficult to gauge like that.






Pierre Koffman

Pierre Koffman’s Pistachio Souffle [Thermomix]

Pistachio soufflé with hibiscus flower ice-cream

We all know I love a soufflé, but now I have a thermomix I’m going through my recipes seeing how I can adapt them accordingly.  This Pierre Koffman soufflé was an absolute doodle in the thermo, the creme patisserie is now so simple to do, that soufflés are now a very real option for every day eating (though perhaps not to be recommended!).  It also means that it’s a very simple and viable option for a dinner party – the creme patisserie has to be made in advance anyway, but whilst your thermo gets on with that, you can be prepping the rest of your meal!  Watch this space, soufflés are going to be flooding out of my kitchen…

Ingredients


Creme Pattiserie:
½ vanilla pod
100g caster sugar
500ml milk

120g egg yolks

50g corn flour
40g pistachio paste

For lining the dish:
25g butter, softened
25g caster sugar

For the Meringue:
4 egg whites (let’s say 140g)
1 tbsp caster sugar
Icing sugar to serve.
Preparation:
Grind together the vanilla pod and caster sugar until smooth.  Mix in the remaining creme patisserie ingredients and cook for 7 minutes at 90ºC, speed 4 until smooth.  Put in a bowl to cool and cover with cling film and cool rapidly.
Generously butter 4 individual soufflé dishes. Put the grated chocolate inside and rotate the moulds so that the chocolate completely covers the inside, sticking to the softened butter. 
In the thermomix, beat the egg whites until firm, add the tablespoon of caster sugar and whisk until stiff. Add a small quantity of the whites to the pistachio mix to soften it, then fold in the rest of the egg whites and pour into the soufflé dishes.
Bake in a hot oven 240°C/ 475°F/ gas mark 9 for 15 minutes or until well risen. (If you’re making large individual ones, 15 minutes will leave them baveuse, which is my preference anyway – if you want them slightly further along than that, you’ll need to watch the oven like a hawk.)
To serve, dust the top with icing sugar and serve with ice cream of your choice.
Serves 4

Additional notes…

I know Pierre recommends the chocolate flake lined moulds in the original recipe, but I always find they go a strange colour.  This time have melted some of the pistachio paste into the butter before double lining the moulds.  I realise these seem very heavily lined, but having recently seen Alan Murchison line his moulds for an apple and cinnamon soufflé, I’m now trying out this heavier method.  It seems to work well, and perhaps offers more ‘structure’ to the soufflé?

And yes Bruno, I know that creme patt doesn’t look smooth, but I was just forking it out :0)

I use the Sevarome purees, fantastic things, though jolly expensive.  There are lots of recipes to make your own on-line, and now I have a thermomix, I may just do that :0)

Hibiscus Flower

Hibiscus Flower Ice-Cream [Thermomix]

Having made the lavender ice-cream so easily, I thought I should see what else I could do with my thermomix!  This time hibiscus flower ice-cream.

Ingredients
1 jar of wild hibiscus flowers in syrup (140g?)
280ml whole milk
290ml double cream 
5 large organic egg yolks
100g caster sugar 
1 Tbsp hibiscus flower tea liquer
Having adjusted down the liquid ingredients a little to accommodate the hibiscus flower quantities, I pulsed the hibiscus flowers down to a puree before adding all of the other ingredients.  Then I cooked it at 80ºC for 10 minutes, speed 5, checking it after 8 minutes to see if it had reached 80ºC.  Leave it to cool, then pop into your ice-cream maker until it reaches the desired consistency.  The ice-cream will have a strange grey-pink colour, so I boosted mine with a tiny bit of red colour paste, but it tastes yummy all the same.  Thought I might serve it with a pistachio soufflé…

Wild hibiscus flower ice-cream

Ice-Cream

Lavender Ice Cream

Lavender Ice-Cream

I found a lavender ice-cream recipe on the Telegraph website, and thought it would be a good one to adapt for the thermomix.

Ingredients
300ml whole milk
300ml double cream
4 large organic egg yolks
6 drops lavender arome, if you have it.
100g caster sugar (I used lavender sugar, with a few of the lavender flowers left in)
I literally put the whole thing in the thermomix, and cooked it at 80ºC for 5 minutes, speed 5.  The main thermomix book tells you to take the mixture to 80º, and although the light was solid, I double checked the mixture with a digital thermometer.  This was only at 73º, so I cooked it for a further 4 minutes – 9 minutes in total.  Leave it to cool, then pop into your ice-cream maker until it reaches the desired consistency.
Lavender Ice-Cream

Blood Oranges

Blood Orange Sorbet

I’m a little bit obsessed with blood oranges at the moment, and served this with a chocolate tart.  It’s based on a recipe by Galton Blackiston.

275ml water
175g caster sugar
425ml of blood orange juice

juice of 1 lemon
Make a simple sugar stock syrup with the water and the sugar.  Bring to the boil, and once the sugar has dissolved, simmer gently for another 5 minutes.  Allow to cool then add to the orange and lemon juices.  Put into the fridge to chill.  Put the mixture into an ice-creamer maker, or into a shallow container, turning every half an hour or so to disperse the ice crystals.  Allow to soften slightly (for around 15 minutes) before serving.

Axis

Tribute Dish: Tony Fleming’s Duck Egg with Truffled Soldiers

This dish is based on one create by Tony Fleming at Axis.  Lovely dish, packed full of flavour!  In an ideal world you’d have a truffle around which you can finely shave over the finished product, but here you can achieve a pretty good effect with more accessible truffle products :0)  Now the point of a tribute dish is to try to achieve a similar effect using normal home tools – we’re not going to make our own stock – it’s not to do a perfect dish – it’s supposed to be fun! Don’t get too hung-up on the finesse of the thing, cook it – eat it!

Sauces

Onion jam: cook sliced red onions in a little bit of olive oil on a low heat for at least 30 minutes.  Once they have reduced to almost nothing, add a small amount of good chicken stock.  Reduce again until the onion mixture has a jammy consistency.  I added a tiny bit of red wine vinegar just to offset the sweetness of the onion jam. Set aside until you’re ready.

Chicken jus: reduce chicken stock until it has a demi-glace like sheen.  I like to put a drop of Madeira into mine.  You can add little butter just at the end to increase the glossiness of the sauce, but save that for the final reheat.

Truffled Brioche Soliders

Mushroom duxelle : chop two large field mushrooms into fine dice and sweat with a tiny bit of olive oil and butter under fully coloured, but not crisp.  I added the tiniest pinch of truffle salt, and a small drizzle of truffle oil at the end. Set aside.

Brioche soldiers : make your brioche according to your favourite brioche recipe (or buy a brioche loaf!).  When it has cooled, cut into large rectangles.  Melt a little clarified butter in a frying pan and when hot, cook the rectangles in the butter, but do not crisp and do not swamp with butter. Set aside in a warm place.

Plating Up

Put a circle of the onion jam into the centre of the plate (I used a ring to get the disc the right size).  Scatter a few warmed mushrooms around the outside edge of the plate in a circle.  Put a little warmed duxelle onto the top of the brioche soldiers on a separate plate, with a little napkin under it to stop the moisture from making the brioche soggy.  Put the fried duck egg on top of the onion jam (I cut my duck egg with a ring to the same size), and drizzle a little of the reduced jus around the plate.  Serve immediately.

Here is Tony’s much finer version, with truffles :0)

Ben Spalding

Tribute Dish: Ben Spalding’s Slow Cooked Duck Egg

I think we all know that I love Roganic, I certainly seem to talk about it enough :0)  One of my favourite dishes is the sous-vide duck egg, which Ben has served us in a couple of different ways.  Recently I was determined to make proper use of my sous-vide machine, which can often languish in the cupboard, unloved and unused.

Here is Ben’s sous vide egg, with soused vegetables and grains.   Of course Ben’s is much prettier and delicate than mine, but I was happy enough with that as a first attempt.  I need to be much tidier next time, and definitely use my mandolin for the onion rings!

 

Baking

Lemon Meringue Tart

The quest for a suitable pudding for Sunday lunch is a long and arduous one – with four children to please, let alone the Hubby – I’m never going to please everyone all of the time.  But we seem to have discovered a new favourite: lemon meringue pie!  A couple of weeks ago I bought one, and frankly it was pretty meagre and insipid.  I didn’t want them to think this was actually lemon meringue pie, and I remembered that there had been a tart in the Great British Bake-Off book.  Not being a massive pudding fan, I knew a tart would work for the grownups too!  The result? A zingy, luscious curd, a crisp base, a dense high tower of soft meringue…

Ingredients:
Pâte sucrée (sweet shortcrust pastry)
175g plain flour
pinch of salt
115g of butter, chilled and diced
1 medium free range egg yolk,
mixed with 2 tablespoons of ice-cold water
1 tablespoon of  caster sugar

Filling:
3 medium unwaxed lemons
40g cornflour

50g unsalted butter, diced
85g caster sugar
3 medium free range egg yolks
300ml water

Meringue:
4 medium free range egg whites
200g caster sugar

And a 22cm loose-based deep flan tin

Method:

For the pastry:

Sift the flour and salt onto a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the butter, egg yolks and sugar. Using just your fingertips, rub everything together until you form breadcrumbs, and then lightly bring the dough together. Knead lightly until smooth, wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.  Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and line a 9 inch fluted flan tin. Prick the base with a fork, then again for chill for 30 mins. Bake blind at 190′C for 25-30 mins until cooked and lightly browned.  Don’t forget, you could also cheat this stage, either buying ready-made shortcrust pastry (make sure it is a sweet shortcrust), or buying a pre-prepared tart base.

Filling*:


Grate the lemon zest into a heatproof bowl, with the juice from the lemons, and the cornflour.  Mix together until the mixture is smooth.  Heat 400ml of water until just boiling, and then pout onto the lemon juice and cornflour.  
Stir until well mixed, and then tip the mixture back into the saucepan.  Bring the entire mixture back to the boil and allow to thicken. Allow to cook out for a further minute.  
Remove the mixture from the heat, beat in the egg yolks gradually, then beat in the butter bit by bit, then beat in the caster sugar.  You should now be left with a smooth lemon curd (smooth apart from the zest, obviously). 

Meringue:

Whisk the egg whites in a bowl until they form stiff peaks. Gradually whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, whisking well between each addition, until very stiff and shiny.  If you feel a little of the mixture between your fingers there will be no grittiness if the sugar has dissolved into the egg whites.




Make sure that you’re making the meringue mixture at the same time, and when reaching the finishing point for both, pour the curd mixture into the tart case. You’re to place the tart onto a pre-heated oven tray, so I already had my tart on a sheet of baking parchment. This allowed me to pull it straight onto the tray when required.


I looked at my very full case and then wondered how on earth to tip all that meringue onto the tart without displacing the filling.  I decided to spoon the blobs of meringue around the outside of the tart and then gradually work my way to the centre.  That achieved, I swirled a few peaks up and popped it into the oven.  Bake in the oven at 190′C for 20 minutes until a light gold colour. Leave to cool before serving.




*Now for the advice bit: bread makers weigh everything.  When we say 4 eggs whites, we generally give an equivalent weight, because obviously not all eggs are the same size.  Herein lies the problem with the recipe for me.  My lemon curd was a little too loose, and I think this is because the quantity of lemon juice isn’t specified exactly. When you make the curd, make sure that it is thicker than perhaps you’d expect it to be.  As soon as it started to thicken, I removed it from the heat and gave it a thorough beating :0).  Perhaps given that I was then to add further liquids (in the form of the beaten egg yolks and the butter which would melt) I should have ensured that the first stage of the curd was much thicker than it needed to be.  I would also say, make sure you have a deep enough tart case!  I made a very short tart, which of course meant that I had a very fine layer of lemon in the finished product.  It also left me with a little spare lemon curd (hurrah).  Personally I preferred it that way, but it really is a lemon tart then, not a lemon meringue pie.  I think you also end up with far too great meringue to curd ratio.  Having said that, the tart was delicious, and very popular.

You can buy the Great British Bake-Off here >

Baking

Bara Brith

If I’m baking, this is the recipe I must make the most often.  Bara Brith is a Welsh speckled bread made with tea soaked fruits.  It’s an absolute doddle to make, and can sit perfectly happily in an airtight container for several days.  I always have so many people in my house, that I usually double up the batch and make two loaves at the same time.  I use the recipe from The Great British Book of Baking, just because it’s always near the top of my book pile, and never makes it back onto the shelf!

Ingredients:
250g mixed dried fruit (and do mix up your choices, this on has giant crimson raisins, dried pineapple, orange river sultanas etc)
100g dark muscavado sugar
225ml strong hot tea (no milk)
a good pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinammon
1/4 teaspon grated nutmeg
1 large free range egg, beaten
250g self-raising white or light brown flour

And you’ll need a 450g loaf tin.

Put the dried fruit and sugar into a large heatproof mixing bowl. Pour over the hot tea and stir well. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave to soak overnight.

When ready to cook, pre-heat the oven to 160ºC. Sieve the flour into a bowl and mix in the rest of the dry ingredients. Beat the eggs then mix into the fruit. Lightly mix together the dry and wet ingredients.



Pop the mixture into your prepared tin and spread evenly.  Bake in the oven for around an hour, until a skewer comes out cleanly.  Leave to rest for a few minutes before turning out onto a cooling tray.

Start checking your cake from around 40 minutes onwards – when I baked this during the week, it was fully cooked at 45 minutes.

You can buy The Great British Book of Baking here…