Posts Tagged ‘Food’
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011
Weren’t we all brought up on the luxury of After Eights or Elizabeth Shaw Mint Crisps or Matchmakers, those quintessentially 1970s pieces of sophistication? Or was it just me? So using our new mintier Organic Peppermint Extract, I decided to create these Mint Choc Cupcakes that bring together the luxury of chocolate cupcakes with a 1970s feel of mintiness coming from the peppermint flavours in the cake, chocolate topping and then sprinkled Matchmakers over the top.
Simple, delicious and so retro.
Mint Choc Cupcakes By Axel Steenberg
Mint Choc Cupcakes
80g / 2¾oz organic butter (at room temperature)
175g / 1 cup / 6oz Fairtrade caster sugar
1 large free range egg (at room temperature)
170g / 1 cup / 6oz organic self raising flour
1tbsp Fairtrade organic cocoa powder
100ml / ⅓ cup full fat milk
1tsp Steenbergs organic peppermint extract
150g / 5¼oz Fairtrade milk chocolate
50ml / ¼ cup double cream
¼tsp Steenbergs organic peppermint extract
Some Matchmakers or other crispy mint chocolate
1. Preheat the oven to 160C / 320F. Line a cupcake pan with 12 cupcake papers.
2. Using an electric hand whisk cream together the butter and caster sugar until light. Add the large egg and mix well.
3. Add the self raising flour and cocoa in two halves and mix in thoroughly. Add the milk and Steenbergs Organic Peppermint Extract until well mixed in.
4. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake papers. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until firm to touch. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes then cool on a wire rack. They must be totally cool before putting on the topping.
5. Over a pan of boiling water, melt the milk chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Allow to cool a little, then thoroughly mix in the cream, the Steenbergs organic peppermint extract and allow to cool and thicken.
6. Spread the chocolate frosting neatly over the cupcakes, then decorate with broken Matchmakers or other peppermint crisp.
Tags: baking, Blog, chocolate cupcake, cooking, cupcake, cupcake recipe, Fairtrade, Fairtrade spices, Food, food and wine, foodandwine, Mint Choc Chip Cupcake, peppermint, peppermint extract, recipe, Recipes, Steenbergs, Steenbergs Organic Peppermint Extract, Steenbergs spices, vegetarian recipe
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Saturday, June 11th, 2011
On Thursday, I was at home sorting out some domestic chores with some builders and my mind wandered to food and more specifically curry. I craved a great balti, so I whipped one up, together with some dhal.
The balti is now a modern classic curry that came out of traditional curries from Northern Pakistan and was nurtured and loved within the Birmingham restaurant scene. It is an inexpensive and simple way of making a curry once you know how. Also, it fits well into the stir-fry & wok scene, so while not strictly fusion food it does cross-over nicely between the Chinese cooking styles and curry culture up here in the North.
I love it because of its sheer flexibility – effectively you make up a sauce that is chocka with vegetables and add your meat to this.
And of course while here we have made the masala mixes from scratch you can buy a balti masala curry mix or make your own and store it and seriously cut back the amount of thinking time to create a balanced meal. We tend to eat ours with dhal – in fact we are always eating dhal and pureed pulses with everything – and mop it all up with naan bread.
Stage 1: the smooth Balti tomato sauce
2tbsp butter, or ghee
1 medium onion (125g / 4½oz), roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2tsp freshly grated ginger
½tsp cumin seeds
½tsp coriander seeds
¼tsp fennel seeds
½ – 1tsp chilli powder (you could replace this for a fresh green chilli, deseeded)
½tsp Fairtrade turmeric
125g / 4½oz chopped tomatoes
The first stage is to make the balti tomato sauce. In a heavy bottomed pan, dry roast the coriander, cumin and fennel seeds for about 2 minutes, then take out of the pan and put on a cool plate.
Smooth Balti Tomato Sauce
Now add the butter (or ghee for a richer balti) to a heavy bottomed pan and heat to sizzling hot. Add then stir fry the onion and garlic until translucent which will take about 4 – 5 minutes. Add the fresh ginger and stir once. Add the toasted spices and the spice powder and stir these in, turning for about half a minute, making sure it does not stick to the pan. Finally add the chopped tomatoes and simmer for about 15 minutes.
Blitz the sauce either with a hand held blender or take out and pulse in a Magimix until smooth. Return to the pan and keep on a very low heat with the lid on.
Stage 2: the Balti stir fry
3tbsp sunflower oil
500g / 1lb 2oz chicken breast, cut into 2cm x 2cm cubes
1 green pepper, deseeded and chopped into 1cm x 1cm pieces
1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped into 1cm x 1cm pieces
1 – 2 green chillis, deseeded, halved and thinly sliced (we have 1 chilli to keep heat lower)
100g / 4oz spring onions (or 150g / 5oz normal onions)
200g / 7oz button mushrooms, chopped in half
½tsp cumin powder
1tsp paprika
¼tsp fenugreek powder
1tsp turmeric
¼tsp cinnamon powder
¼tsp cardamom powder
2tbsp chopped tomatoes
1tsp Steenbergs garam masala
100ml / 3½ fl oz / ½ cup water
Handful chopped fresh coriander leaves
Heat the oven to 100C / 212F. Add half of the sunflower oil to a wok and heat until smoking hot. Stir fry the chicken cubes in batches until sealed. Put the cooked chicken pieces into the warmed oven. When complete, clean the wok. While frying the chicken, measure out and mix the ground spices together.
Stir Fry The Chopped Vegetables
Add the remainder of the sunflower oil to the wok and heat until hot and smoking. Add the red and green peppers, green chilli and button mushrooms and stir fry for 4 – 5 minutes, stirring constantly, making sure it does not burn and is fried well. Tip in the mixed spices and stir through twice, then add the smooth Balti tomato sauce and mix in, plus the tablespoons of chopped tomatoes. Heat until simmering, then add the water and reheat to a simmer, mixing all together. Cook on a gentle simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the cooked chicken pieces and mix together. Add the garam masala. Cook for a further 10 minutes. About 2 minutes before the end add the chopped fresh coriander and stir through.
Axel's Balti Served Outside
Serve hot with naan, plus we like dhal with it.
Tags: balti, balti masala, Blog, curry, curry recipe, Fairtrade spices, Food, food and wine, foodandwine, foodie, Indian cooking, Indian curry, recipe, Recipes, spice, spices, Steenbergs, Steenbergs spices, Yorkshire
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Saturday, June 4th, 2011
Continuing with our vegetarian fest after a successful week during National Vegetarian Week, I was craving a spicy curry that the kids would enjoy but would also be vegetarian – they are beginning to want some meat, but are just about hanging in there. I came up with this quick and simple recipe for Tofu & Coconut Milk Curry, which we ate with plain boiled rice and red lentil dhal, plus poppadoms. It is versatile so you can change the tofu for other vegetarian ingredients like Quorn or, if you are a pescatarian, white fish like cod or coley.
Axel’s Vegan Tofu & Coconut Curry
1 medium onion, chopped finely
3 garlic cloves, chopped finely
1cm / ½ inch cube of fresh ginger, grated finely
1 mild green chilli, sliced lengthways (optional)
2 tbsp organic sunflower oil
1tsp organic vegetable curry powder, or other mild/medium curry powder
¼tsp organic Fairtrade turmeric powder
10 curry leaves, or bay leaf
400ml coconut milk
4 cherry tomatoes, chopped in half
1tbsp organic white wine vinegar (or cider vinegar)
1tbsp organic lemon juice
1tsp organic garam masala
1tbsp organic sunflower oil
300g tofu, drained then chopped into 1cm / ½ inch cubes
1tbsp chopped fresh coriander leaves
Firstly, we prepare the tofu, by draining it, then placing it between two plates or wooden boards with a weight placed on top to remove the excess water. This is worth doing as it removes extra water and gives a firmer texture for later. After 1 hour, pour off excess water and chop into 1cm (½ inch) cubes.
Chop The Tofu Into 1cm Cubes
Next, we make the coconut milk curry sauce. Heat the sunflower oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the onion, garlic and grated ginger and sauté on a low heat until translucent – this should take about 5 minutes, but make sure they do not crisp and brown at the edges.
Add the green chilli (if you are after some extra heat, but this is not necessary), curry powder, turmeric and curry leaves and stir in. Fry gently for 1 minute. Add the coconut milk and stir in. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a gentle simmer. Add the chopped tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the vinegar, lemon juice and garam masala, stir and simmer for another 1-2 minutes. then take off the heat.
Add the sunflower oil to a wok, or frying pan. Heat until really hot, then add the tofu pieces and turn down the heat. Fry until golden brown, turning over as they fry to make sure all edges get a nice crispy texture.
Stir Fry The Tofu Cubes
Until The Tofu Is A Golden Brown Colour
Add to the curry sauce and reheat to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes until thoroughly cooked through. Add the chopped coriander leaves about 1 minute before the end. Serve with plain boiled rice and dhal.
Vegan Tofu And Coconut Milk Curry
Tags: Blog, cooking, curry, Fairtrade, Fairtrade spices, Food, food and wine, foodandwine, green blog, green way of life, Indian cooking, organic, organic food blog, quick recipe, simple recipe, spice, spices, Steenbergs, Steenbergs spices, tofu, vegan, vegetarian, vegetarian recipe
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Wednesday, May 25th, 2011
As part of my ongoing attempts to create Indian recipes that have some bearing on genuineness, I have been fiddling around with rogan josh ideas. Rogan josh is a signature dish for British curry houses, but was originally a North Indian meat dish that harks back to the exotic meals of the Moghul Courts when luxury was about food that was lavish, plentiful and took time. Time still remains one of the key ingredients of cooking, especially as we rush around trying to whip something up fast and furious to feed the kids quickly, rustling up whatever we can from a paucity of ingredients in the cupboard and fridge, that always means you are missing something, whether the saffron or the yoghurt.
In this version, I have not ended up with a recipe that is particularly red in colour as I have not used tomatoes or any colouring, save for some token beetroot powder which does not really keep its colour under the heat of your cooking. If you want to redden the sauce, you can change the water for chopped tomatoes, but I feel that tinned tomatoes are used a little too readily and I have had enough of them at the moment. Also, the original rogan joshes of the Moghul Era would not have had tomatoes available to them, even though by later times they could have done.
So here you have it, my version of a traditional rogan josh from India to North Yorkshire and the web. It tastes better if you give it a day to infuse, so prepare the day before and then leave overnight before reheating. Another key feature is to get some lamb bones into the sauce as they impart extra depth of character to the curry.
Axel’s Rogan Josh
Thinking About Rogan Josh
For the meat:
750g / 1¾ lb lamb (I mixed 500g of lamb chopped into 2-3cm dices with 250g lamb breast with bones)
2tbsp sunflower oil
1 pinch asafoetida
200g / ½lb yoghurt
3cm fresh ginger, peeled then grated
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1½tbsp sunflower oil
For the masala:
½tsp chilli (for extra heat you could double or triple this to your heat requirement)
½tsp paprika
1tsp coriander seeds/powder
½tsp black peppercorns, or ground black pepper
¼tsp cloves/ cloves powder
½tsp cardamom powder
2tsp beetroot powder
1tsp sea salt
6½cm cinnamon quill
2 black cardamom pods
1 bay leaf
For the stock:
1 pinch saffron, soaked in 4tbsp cold water for 30 minutes
500ml / 1 pint water
Heat the first amount of sunflower oil in a heavy bottomed frying pan then add the lamb and pinch of asafoetida, then cook until lightly browned and sealed all over. Set aside.
In a heavy bottomed pot, add next amount of sunflower oil and fry the onions, garlic and ginger until translucent.
While the onions-garlic-ginger are frying, we need to prepare the spices for the rogan josh masala. Heat a small frying pan to dry fry some of the spices. When hot, add the coriander seeds, black peppercorns and cloves and dry roast for about 2 minutes; however, watch over them and ensure that they do not burn. Remove them from the heat and grind in a mortar with a pestle or a coffee grinder. Add the other ground spices, the black cardamom pods, cinnamon quills and bay leaf. You can simplify the mix by using ground spices and just mix them all together.
Spices For Rogan Josh
When the onion-garlic-ginger is translucent, turn down the heat and add the spice masala and throughly mix through, cooking gently for 1 minute. Stir throughout as it can stick to the pot and then start to burn.
Add the yoghurt and mix thoroughly. Place the top on the pan and heat up until just steaming, then remove lid. Add the meat, then cover with just enough water to go over all the meat. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat, place the lid on the pot and simmer for at least 1 hour.
Remove the lid, then add the saffron infused water and cook through thoroughly.
Axel's Rogan Josh
Ready to serve with rice and dhal, however I like to cook this on the night before then reheat the next day – this gives a much richer, deeper flavour and lets all the spices really meld together.
Tips: you can replace the water with chopped tomatoes to give a redder colour, but sometimes I have just had too much tomato and quite enjoy giving it a miss in this version of rogan josh. For posh nosh, remove the cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and black cardamom pods so no-one complains about chewing on one, but I quite like leaving them in for some extra authenticity and show everyone that you made this from scratch and not out of a jar.
Tags: Blog, cooking, curry, curry recipe, Fairtrade blog, Fairtrade spices, Food, food and wine, foodandwine, Indian cooking, lamb curry, mild curry, organic food blog, recipe, Recipes, rogan josh, spice, spices, Steenbergs, Steenbergs spices
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Friday, May 13th, 2011
We had a visit recently from Helen Best-Shaw of FussFreeFlavours, who is a lovely lady – other bloggers welcome. She asked many interesting questions and one of them got me thinking and that was why are we so interested in spices. It certainly is not the money as I think we are successfully proving that there are no fortunes to be made in spices anymore.
But what it is, I think, is the sheer complexity of them. Spices, herbs and salts are the essence of cuisine that takes food away from being the source of the raw materials of life into cooking, i.e. something that is human, cultural, social and learned rather than just a bunch of proteins, carbohydrates and fats etc.
Spices, herbs and salt have the key things that make food truly great and tickle the senses:
- Aroma – smell
- Flavour – taste
- Heat – temperature
- Colour – sight
- Texture – touch
- Context – knowledge
For me, context is one of the key things that our spices can give you. They create a story of where the cuisine has come from – Britain, Thailand, Japan or India, for example – and a sense of our life story and what we have learnt through our travels and experiences, from other people (whether in cookbooks, websites, from mum or the TV) and through experimentation. They offer a leitmotif to our world. Context tells us whether they are organic or not, whether the people who grew them have been fairly treated or exploited, creating a depth and connection back to farmers who have toiled to bring us these gems of flavour.
When I blend a spice, all these things get wrapped up into the experience. For example, today I made some ras al-hanut. It takes an age to weigh out all the ingredients and then mix them up, all of which we do all by hand. I use a unique recipe that includes 22 ingredients and took about 3 weeks and many years to perfect. It harks back to when we started Steenbergs in 2004, so has context for me as I remember really struggling with the blend, but it also has context as it is based on the Moroccan blend – ras el hanout - which is the master blend of the spice merchants in traditional bazaars across North Africa and into the Levant. It connects Steenbergs back to other spice merchants and we have been indulgent, like you should, as this is not a blend to scrape and pinch like an accountant for bits of profit here and there, it is a thing of character and blend of excellence designed to show off our prowess and balances the flavours, aromas and colours of a stupidly wide selection of spices from a ridiculously wide geographic range of countries.
So we have - galangal from Vietnam; cassia and cubeb pepper from Indonesia; ginger and turmeric from India; cardamom from Sri Lanka; orris root from Italy; paprika and saffron from Spain; black cardamom from Pakistan; dill seed from Turkey; roses from Iran; bay, caraway and fennel from Turkey; and allspice from Guatemala – all of which are blended by hand in rural North Yorkshire. We can travel the world with our flavours and ingredients. Then there are the chromatics of the smells, flavours and colours that are carefully balanced to sing together in harmony and create something that has a bottomless depth of gorgeous sensation that is deliciously exotic – much better than each individually and full of pure intensity. For a little flair, we add some texture by including whole dill seeds and deep purple rose petals that add an extra dimension to a blend of powders. Then there are the colours from the exuberant deep purple of the damask roses, the mute yellow of turmeric, the blacks and browns of black cardamom, cassia, galangal, cubebs, the greens of cardamom and bay and the reds of paprika and saffron. All these heats and flavours and colours meld seamlessly into a flavour bomb of depth and intensity that I just love to blend up.
Or we can enjoy something perhaps more mundane like our garam masala, where you can enjoy the flavour mix as well as its context. The recipe is based on a Punjabi recipe that has been tweaked here in North Yorkshire, then has the context of being organic and Fairtrade, so you get kit that tastes fantastic, is good for the environment and has great social welfare attributes.
And it is not just about blends of spices and herbs, but we also go that extra mile for customers, searching out variety within individual spices. There is a vast range of peppers, from the basic black peppercorns and white peppercorns through to speciality black pepper like the TGSEB we get from friends in Northern Kerala, the Wayanad Social Service Society and the more unusual peppers like cubeb pepper, long pepper and Madagascan wild pepper. Or you could try some of the ersatz peppers, such as grains of paradise (Melagueta pepper), allspice (Jamaican pepper), Moor pepper or our vast range of chillies, that includes the mega-hot Naga Jolokia.
But I am particularly proud of Steenbergs vanilla. As a standard, we have delicious, fragrant, succulent and sensual Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar. It is organic and Fairtrade, and we use these for the base of our organic Fairtrade vanilla extract as well. Then there is variety with vanilla from Congo that has tobacco notes to it, from Tahiti that is more floral and succulent than that of Madagascar. I just love the vanilla. Then there is the context of these that are grown with so much patience and effort by lovely rural communities in Northern Madagascar, for example around Mananara.
For me, what becomes more amazing as time goes by is the sense of community effort that goes into these small gems that are spices and herbs. I am not really meaning the work that we do at Steenbergs, but rather the culture, the social structures, the economies and the people that go into growing that extra special vanilla or that amazing peppercorn. It is they that are the true heroes and heroines and we should salute them by indulging ourselves to enjoy what they have spent time and effort creating, yet they have so little. That for me is what I mean by context and that community effort gives Steenbergs that little bit more to it than just a rigid focus on the mechanics and standards of quality and value as demanded by those faceless high street and big brand corporations.
Tags: Blog, Environment & science, ethical, Fairtrade, Fairtrade blog, Fairtrade spices, Food, food and wine, foodandwine, foodie, foodie news, green way of life, herbs, organic, organic food blog, recipe, Recipes, sea salt, spice, Steenbergs, Steenbergs spices
Posted in Spices & herbs | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010
Rabbit used to be the chicken of England with everyone eating rabbits that live in copious amounts around the countryside. I am not sure why chicken took over from rabbit in our nation’s hearts, but it might be as simple as the fact that it is easier to get the meat off an enlarged chicken breast than cutting the fiddly meat off the rabbit skeleton. And there are still so many rabbits around that I do not know why we have never taken up this as the poor man’s food – free food from the countryside that also keeps their numbers down instead of factory farmed fowl.
Anyway, I like the light, gamey meat taste of rabbit, so on Saturday I prepared this wintry rabbit casserole for eating on Sunday; Sophie and I were out in our village for a party, so we did not want any particular hassle with the cooking on Sunday. Thanks to Sally and Paul for the fantastic party and delicious curries. This is the classic stewing sauce that I make for all game, meat and chicken, varying the amounts of each ingredient depending what is lurking in the vegetables area or in the fridge. The key is the basic ingredients of onions, carrots, bay, salt and pepper, together with the stock plus a long slow cook to let all the flavours infuse together; everything else can be tweaked and changed.
Ingredients
2tbsp sunflower oil
1 desertspoon butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 celery sticks, halved and chopped finely (approx 1mm)
3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped finely
8 mushrooms, cleaned and halved
200ml / 7 fl oz red wine (roughly a wine glass)
2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
300ml / ½ pint chicken stock
1tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp chopped parsley
2 bay leaves
600g / 1¼ lb rabbit, cut into 3cm / 1 inch dices
Salt & pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F.
Add 1 tbsp sunflower oil and the butter to a heavy bottomed casserole pot and heat to really hot. Add the onions and cook until translucent and just starting to brown at the edges, which will take about 5 minutes over a medium heat. Add the sliced celery, carrot and mushrooms, stir and lightly fry for about 3 minutes until translucent.
Mushrooms, Carrots And Celery
Lightly Fry The Vegetables
Add the red wine, then the chopped tomatoes and chicken stock, and bring to the boil. Cook the stock for about 10 minutes on a full boil and with the lid off to allow it to reduce.
Meanwhile, fry the streaky bacon in 1tbsp of sunflower oil. When browned add the bacon to the tomato stock. Add the chopped and prepared rabbit to the streaky bacon oil and cook until sealed and lightly browned. Add to the tomato and simmer for about 5 minutes with the lid off.
Fry The Rabbit Pieces
Transfer to the preheated oven and cook for 15 minutes at 180C / 350F, then reduce the heat to 160C / 320F and cook for another 45 minutes.
Axel's Rabbit Casserole
If possible cook this on the day before eating and leave overnight for the flavours to fully infuse, meld and develop.
Serve with mashed potato.
Tags: Blog, British food, casserole, cooking, Food, food and wine, foodandwine, foodie, foodie news, green way of life, organic food blog, rabbit, rabbit recipe, recipe, spice, spices, Steenbergs, stew, Yorkshire
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 4 Comments »
Monday, December 6th, 2010
Ginger is a wonderful spice, warming and earthy in flavour with a comforting aroma. For me, it is redolent with memories of warmth indoors with an open coal or wood fire while the outside is heavy with snow. It is also so versatile with the spice being warming and earthy and perfect for everything from curry through to ginger biscuits, while sweet crystallised ginger is lovely and sweet and ideal for ice creams through to puddings. I have bought in traditional crystrallised ginger sweets for this Christmas along with some chocolate gingers boxed up in retro wooden boxes. So with the weather brisk over the last week and heavy snows for this time of the year, my mind has wondered to traditional sponge puddings full of suet, treacle and, you got it, ginger.
I made this on Saturday evening, enjoying listening to the pop pop pop sound of the lid on pot as the pud steamed away for 2 hours while I listened to Radio 5 Live. There was a really frank and open phone in hosted by Alec McGivern on the failed English bid for the FIFA World Cup in 2018, but I must admit that I sympathise with Niall Quinn and his view that those who disclosed corruption at FIFA prior to the announcement of the winners of the FIFA World Cups should explain to those football fans in Newcastle and Sunderland why they did it and whether they really believe that they were right to push for disclosure in a way that could harm the “now failed” bid. They need, also, to explain to those in the North East who could have benefitted from any investment in local infrastructure and sport in the build up to a World Cup where that hope for jobs and change will now come from. There are times to talk and there are times to keep stum, and this surely was one of those times to wait for a better moment. I accept that there might have been no change in the result, but it still sticks in the craw.
Anyway back to the Steamed Ginger Sponge Pudding, this is a dark and rich sweet steamed pudding. It is moist and succulent with a satisfying heaviness, rather than a dry lightness that many modern puddings have. I think that hearty body comes from the suet, whereas many recipes now seem to exclude the suet and use self raising flour, breadcrumbs and butter to make more of a cake than a traditional buxom sweet.
Recipe For Steamed Ginger Treacle Sponge
3 tbsp golden syrup
1tbsp black treacle
1tbsp ground almonds
225g / 8 oz plain flour
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
75g / 3 oz suet
50g / 2 oz light muscovado sugar or soft brown sugar
2 tsp organic Fairtrade ginger powder
½ tsp organic Fairtrade cinnamon powder
¼ tsp sea salt
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
25g / 1 oz golden syrup
25g / 1 oz black treacle
75 ml / 2 ½ fl oz / ⅓ cup full fat milk
Prepare a 1 litre (2 pint) pudding basin by placing greasing lightly the whole basin with butter or sunflower oil.
Add the golden syrup and treacle to the bottom of pudding bowl. Sprinkle the ground almonds over the top of this.
Add Golden Syrup And Treacle To Pudding Basin
Sieve the plain flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl. Add the muscovado sugar, ginger, cinnamon and sea salt, and mix thoroughly. Make a well and add the egg, golden syrup, treacle and milk and stir the mixture together to thick consistency.
Mix The Ingredients Together
Pour the mixture into the prepared, greased pudding basin over the ground almonds.
There should be about 4cm / 1 inch space at the top of the basin for the sponge to rise into. Now cover the sponge mixture: cut a square of baking parchment and grease one side; place this over the top of the pudding basin; cut a larger piece of aluminium foil and place this over the top; tie the covering down with a piece of string wound around the basin twice and then knotted.
Prepare The Pudding For Steaming
Steam in a pan with boiling water for 2 hours, topping up the pan as necessary to keep the level roughly consistent. If cooking earlier then reheating, reheat by steaming for 1 hour or nuking in the microwave for a few minutes.
Turn out onto a warmed plate and serve with custard.
Steamed Ginger Sponge Pudding
Serve With Custard
Tags: baking, Blog, cooking, Fairtrade spices, Food, food and wine, foodandwine, foodie, foodie news, organic food blog, pudding, pudding recipe, recipe, Recipes, spice, spices, Steenbergs, Steenbergs spices, treacle pudding, vegetarian recipe, Yorkshire
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
I have been trying to create a hot chocolate product at Steenbergs and as part of my research I came up with this really rich hot chocolate recipe. This Hot Chocolate Recipe is something to relax with and enjoy at home, since Sophie calls it “a hug in a mug”. It is, however, probably impossible to commercialise as any attempt to dumb it down will make the whole experience cheap and less luxurious.
Homemade Rich Hot Chocolate
Recipe For Rich Hot Chocolate Drink
575ml /1 pint / 2½ cups full fat milk
60ml / ¼ cup water
60g / 2 oz / ¾ cup good quality Fairtrade caster sugar (not your plain white stuff)
100g / 3½ oz dark Fairtrade chocolate (I use one bar of Divine chocolate)
In a bowl over boiling water, melt the chocolate bar, then switch off the heat but leave over the hot water.
Put the milk and water into a pan and bring to the boil. Just as the first bubbles appear at the edges, take the pan off the heat. Add the caster sugar and stir in until dissolved.
Add the chocolate and stir in; reheat the mixture until it just starts to bubble again.
Take it off the heat, then whisk quickly with a hand whisk for about 1 minute. Pour into 2 or 3 mugs, sit back and enjoy.
Tags: Blog, chocolate, cooking, ethical, Fairtrade, Fairtrade blog, Fairtrade spices, Food, organic food blog, recipe, Recipes, Steenbergs, vegetarian, vegetarian recipe
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 1 Comment »
Saturday, November 6th, 2010
Indian Rice Pudding
For pudding with my Imperial Korma, I made Indian Rice Pudding. I love rice pudding and I love the Indian versions, especially Pal Payasam which is the traditional Keralan recipe; these use basmati rice which has a firmer mouth-feel than arborio rice, which is used for a typical English rice puds.
In Kerala, you would flavour it with cashews as they are grown all over Kerala, including by my friends at Elements Homestead; however, the other day I did not have any cashews to hand so I used flaked almonds which worked really well (cashews are rarely in our storecupboard, but almonds always are).
As it is an Indian rice pudding, I wanted to add an extra flavour element to the rice pudding and decided to infuse the milk with tea and I actually used one of our chai teas, which I make using a Keralan black tea from the POABS Estates near Nelliyampathy together with Fairtrade spices that are indigenous to the region. You do not need to use a chai tea (or tea at all for that matter), but I suggest you should use light and flowery teas rather than strong ones, so a Nilgiri Black Tea or a Fine Darjeeling would work well, but I do not think a malty Assam or Kenyan tea would be right as those flavours will come through too strongly.
Axel’s Tea Infused Indian Rice Pudding
½tsp green cardamom powder
2tbsp ghee or unsalted butter
2tbsp flaked almonds
2tbsp raisins
100g / 3½ oz basmati rice
600ml / 1 pint full fat milk
1tsp Indian tea (optional)
100g / 3½ oz light muscovado sugar
Heat the ghee/butter in a heavy bottomed pan and fry the almonds and raisins until the raisins have swollen up. Remove from the hot oil and drain almonds and raisins on kitchen paper and keep to the side; keep the oil in the pan but off the heat.
In a milk pan, warm the milk to just below boiling point; you will see bubbles just appear at the edge of the milk just by the pan edge. Take off the heat and add the tea to the milk, stir in and leave to infuse for 5 minutes, then strain out the tea leaves by pouring the milk through a sieve.
Wash and drain the rice twice. In the saucepan, reheat the ghee/butter and lightly fry the basmati rice for about 1 minute being careful not to let it stick or burn. Add the tea-infused milk and stir into the rice; heat to just below boiling point, stirring all the time to stop it sticking on the base of the pan and so burning.
When the rice is nearly cooked with an al dente bite, add the sugar and stir it in until it has dissolved and the rice is throughly cooked. Add the fried almonds, raisins and cardamom powder, stir right through and gently cook for about 2 minutes longer.
Serve hot, with cream or milk if you want.
Tags: Blog, Fairtrade, Fairtrade blog, Fairtrade spices, Food, food and wine, foodandwine, foodie, foodie news, green blog, Indian cooking, Indian rice pudding, lifestyle, organic food blog, pal payasam, recipe, Recipes, rice pudding, spice, Steenbergs, Steenbergs spices, vegetarian, vegetarian recipe
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Friday, November 5th, 2010
Continuing from the first part of my review of blogs, at Not Without Salt Ashley has been making Homemade Honey Roasted Peanut Butter, which sounds so easy and is something I would never have thought of making, like making Homemade Nutella, which seem to be just timeless purchasing items. How terrible and consumerist we have all become. And her Pumpkin Rice Pudding recipe is perfect and will solve the pumpkin problem next autumn, plus also (as you will find out over next week) I have been going through a rice pudding phase myself and need to write up my efforts.
While at Orangette, Molly Wizenberg made a gorgeous sounding Rustic Plum Tart with a so simple pastry; I like plum tarts and cakes but only ever seem to buy them and never get round to making them myself, which seems strange, perhaps one day soon, perhaps? And Gazpacho is another thing I have never made, so you never just never know. The use of heirloom tomatoes and the bite of the sherry vinegar sound like a lovely combination – sweet and sour.
Ree at The Pioneer Woman Cooks has come up with an amazing twist on sweet potatoes, which I like to add into mash to give an extra dimension, but she has made a soulful pudding with them by making the sweet potato into a custard style filling and then covering them with a full on pecan crumble crust. Now that’s different and I am truly intrigued by it. I love the rich umami depth of Beef With Snow Peas which is a classic stir fried beef recipe that anyone can make at home; I like this sort of dish with some soy sauce infused with Birds Eye Chillis close to hand to dip the beef into. Then there is Creamy Cheese Grits With Chili which are a real American piece of cuisine and are a great alternative to potatoes, like pap in South Africa or polenta in Italy, and what better to finish off with that Ree’s classic Skillet Cornbread recipe. Well, there is one thing, she provides a link to an older recipe called Tres Leches Cake, which sounds a must – rich, moist and sweet…what more do you need in a home made cake.
While Luisa Weiss at The Wednesday Chef makes an intriguing sounding Soft Zucchini, Harissa, Feta and Olive recipe. At Wild Yeast, Susan has been making soudough recipes with two catching my eye – Bread Crumb Sourdough and Soft Semolina Sourdough.
Tags: baking, Blog, Blog Review, cooking, Food, food and wine, food blog, food blogs, foodandwine, foodie, foodie news, Not Without Salt, Orangette, recipe, Recipes, The Pioneer Woman Cooks, The Wednesday Chef, Wild Yeast
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