Posts Tagged ‘Flour’
Tuesday, July 10th, 2012
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Brick House has been keeping me pretty busy, so there’s not been much action on here of late. I really want to keep Hand To Mouth going, but mustering the energy after early mornings and busy days is a pretty tricky. That being said, I’m going to do my level best to keep the dream alive.
Those of us living in England will have no doubt noticed that the weather of late has been (and I’m afraid there’s no other word for it) shit. Summer has properly evaded us. In fact as I write this, rain has started lashing down on the bakery roof. So at a time of year when we should be thinking about salads and light summery food, my thoughts have turned to more comforting stuff, this Italian cauliflower cheese being the perfect example.
The ingredients will answer the question as to why this version has a touch of the Italian about it, and the addition of the breadcrumbs turns it from a Vespa into a Moto Guzzi.
Ingredients
1 large cauliflower
400 ml milk
50g unsalted butter
50g plain flour
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Tags: Anchovy, Breadcrumbs, carlic, Cauliflower, Cheese, Flour, Fontina, Italian, Milk, Nutmeg, parmesan, Parsley, Ricotta
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012
I was making some daal yesterday (recipe to follow), and had a hankering for something bready to go with it, and then I remembered this recipe for these paratha-esque buttery flat breads from the excellent Mission Street Food book.
As fans / stalkers of the guys behind MSF, we went to the launch of the book whilst we were in San Francisco, but until now I’m a bit ashamed to say I’d not attempted anything from it.
Whats cool about these breads is that they combine different styles of cooking. In this case, probably the simplest kind of bread you can make, with basic lamination techniques more commonly found in pastry work.
I’ve amended the recipe slightly by scaling it down, converting it into grams, and adding some whole wheat flour to the dough. One thing to note is that the butter you use has to be VERY soft. You’ll be spreading it on a thin sheet of dough, so if it’s firm, the dough will tear and screw up all your hard work.
Ingredients (makes 6)
50g White bread flour
50g Pastry flour
20g whole wheat flour
30g Grits / cornmeal / polenta
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Tags: Bread, Butter, Buttermilk, Buttery, Cornmeal, Curry, Flatbreads, Flour, Indian, Lamination, Mission Street Food, Paratha, San Francisco, Wrap
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes, Snack | 2 Comments »
Sunday, March 18th, 2012
Believe your eyes. It’s a big cornbread muffin, encasing a boiled egg, shards of maple candied bacon, chilli and topped with more of that sweet, sweet bacon.
This recipe is totally inspired by a cornbread and egg muffin I had at a place called Sweetcakes in Chicago a few years ago. It’s an idea that’s been knocking around in my brain ever since, but in my mind, there were two major problems with their version of this inspired bit of breakfast madness. 1: The ratio of cornbread to filling. Too much egg, not enough bread. 2: No bacon. What a mistake-a to make-a.
This recipe rectifies both problems, but as a result, you can’t bake them in regular muffin tins as they’re just not big enough. So I use small aluminium pudding molds. The kind of thing you’d make a chocolate fondant in. Also, make sure you buy medium sized eggs, not the bigger ones you can get these days.
Ingredients (makes 6)
150 g yellow grits / cornmeal / polenta
150 g white bread flour
1 large red chilli, de-seeded & finely chopped
8 medium sized eggs (6 for the inside, 2 for the batter)
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Tags: Bacon, Big, Breakfast, Chili, cornbread, Cornmeal, Eggs, Flour, Grits, maple syrup, Muffins, polenta, Tabasco
Posted in Breakfast, Lunch, Snack, Travel | 4 Comments »
Friday, March 2nd, 2012
I’ve got a lot of love for Wales. Most of my family holidays in the 80s were spent in Snowdonia, and whilst I’d love to be able to tell you about some formative experience of eating Welsh Cakes fresh from a village bakery, the truth of the matter is my family were more likely to be found destroying a pack of Mr Kipling country slices. But I’ve moved on from the UK’s favourite fictional baker, and in honour of St David’s day yesterday, I’m celebrating with Wales’ answer to the scone.
The Welsh Cakes you get in the shops tend to be rather rubbery, but in my mind the key to a good one is a crunchy crust and a fluffy, crumbly inside. Usually they are made with currants, but I prefer bigger and juicer raisins, soaked over night in a wee bit of booze. Not exactly traditional, but there you go.
Ingredients (makes around 25)
500 g Self-raising flour / 500 g flour with 2.5 tsp baking powder
250 cold, unsalted butter
90g caster sugar
1.5 tsp of allspice
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Tags: All Spice, Butter, Cakes, Egg, Flour, Orange Zest, Rasins, Rum, St David's Day, Welsh
Posted in Recipes, Snack, Sweet Stuff | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I’ve learned quite a lot from my mother in cooking terms over the years. For the most part its been a case of me picking up stuff by watching her at work, but every now and then I’ll steal a recipe or two off her too.
This cake is one of those firm family favourites, and it even gets the royal seal of approval from my very sweet, but ever so fussy niece, Ksenia. It’s a bit tangier than most lemon drizzle cakes because of there’s more lemon juice in the glaze, and that’s how we like it.
Ingredients
For the cake
125g unsalted butter
175g self-raising flour
175g caster sugar
2 large eggs
Zest of 2 lemons
4 tablespoons of milk
A pinch of salt
Butter for greasing your loaf tin
For the ‘drizzle’
The juice of 2 lemons (about 6 tablespoons)
Zest of 1 lemon
100g icing sugar
Method
You’re going to bake this cake in a loaf tin, so first up, prepare and line it. Use a half kilo tin, smear it with butter, and then line with greaseproof paper. Now set your oven to 180 c to get it up to cooking temp.
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Tags: Cake, Drizzle, Eggs, Flour, Icing, Lemon, Mum, Sugar, Syrup
Posted in Recipes, Sweet Stuff | 3 Comments »
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
The final course of our valentines meal was a lemon posset with heart shaped shortbread biscuits (forgive the cheese).
The Posset is pretty much as old school as it gets with roots in 12th century England where it was drunk for it’s medicinal properties. I’m not sure this recipe could ever be described as good for you, cream and sugar tend to be frowned upon these days, but it is delicious, and very easy to make.
Ingredients
For the Posset
300ml double cream
75g caster sugar
1 lemon zested and juiced
For the shortbread
45g icing sugar
90g plain flour
30g cornflour
15g ground almonds
125g butter
Lemon zest
Golden caster sugar
Method
First up, put the cream and sugar in a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 3 minutes, making sure it doesn’t boil over, and then take off the heat. Allow to cool to room temperature, add the lemon juice and then whisk. Divide the mixture by pouring into two glasses and then put in the fridge to set.
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Tags: Almond, Biscuits, Buter, Cream, Desert, Flour, Lemon, Posset, Shortbread, Sugar, Zest
Posted in Reading, Sweet Stuff | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
It was Valentines Day at the weekend, and as Hand To Mouth got engaged at New Years, I thought I’d better make a bit of an effort. Not being a fan of going to restaurants on VDay (always disappointing) I whipped up a three course feast fit for the future Mrs HTM. The menu:
Salt & Pepper Squid
Baked Cod & Leeks
Lemon Posset with Lemon & Almond Shortbread
I’m going to do a post per course as I don’t have the time to do them all at once, so first up our starter, Salt & Pepper Squid. If you can’t get hold of Szechuan peppercorns, just use 3/4 of a tablespoon of black peppercorns instead.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon Szechuan peppercorns, ground
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
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Tags: Chilli, Cornflour, Flour, Lemon, Pepper, Rapeseed Oil, Salad, Salt, Spring Onion, Squid, Szechuan peppercorns
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes, Snack | No Comments »
