You may have noticed that The Glutton’s Kitchen has a new fancy header – a brilliant paper cut artwork made by the very lovely and super talented Jane Steger-Lewis of www.ilovemayo.com.  In addition to amazing paintings of her roosters, Jane produces a  Love Ireland range of gorgeous contemporary prints inspired by Irish blessings and culture which I am huge fan of.  I particularly love this big bright quirky print, which looks fab in a white frame and is guaranteed to bring out the Mrs Doyle in anyone. To celebrate my brilliant new blog header I am giving one of Jane’s Aw Go On prints to one of you lovely readers. To enter simply leave a comment below. Post to Irish or UK addresses only. Closing date Friday 27th January 2012. Winner will be selected by random number generator thingy.

Filed under: News and Reviews ]]> http://thegluttonskitchen.com/2012/01/19/aw-go-on/feed/ 47 thegluttonskitchen awgoon http://thegluttonskitchen.com/2012/01/11/barbecued-pork-fillet-with-vietnamese-caramel-sauce/ http://thegluttonskitchen.com/2012/01/11/barbecued-pork-fillet-with-vietnamese-caramel-sauce/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:06:59 +0000 TheGlutton http://thegluttonskitchen.com/?p=1379 ]]> From Bill’s Everyday Asian

For my second experiment with Everyday Asian I had to try this recipe – I couldn’t resist the promise of barbecue, caramel and chilli so I apologise for posting another pork recipe so soon but I think you will forgive me if you try this out – it is really delicious!

Similarly to the last recipe this has few ingredients and is a really quick and easy dish to prepare. I was curious to know how the caramel sauce would work – I wasn’t sure if it would be too much but it works perfectly thanks to a little sourness from the lime juice and heat from the chilli.  I also admit to being a bit sceptical when I removed the pork from its marinade – the fish sauce was quite strong but once cooked it gives the meat the most amazing savouriness – I imagine this is similar to the umami effect of pairing anchovies with lamb.  My husband and son wanted to eat the pork straight from the griddle pan.  Don’t be put off by the ‘barbecue’ in the title – although I am sure it would be great cooked outside on a char-grill it can also be done on a griddle or frying pan.  I didn’t quite reduce the sauce enough – it was still delicious but next time I will give it a little more time on the hob which will make it that little bit thicker and stickier. The recipe says that the pork should be cut in to two pieces however I did 4 which made it that bit quicker to cook.

Serves 4

For the marinade:

• 1 whole pork fillet (about 600g)
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar
• 2 garlic cloves crushed with the flat of a knife

Last year I made a conscious decision to cut down on the amount of cookbooks I was buying – not only was I running out of space but I just didn’t have enough time to try out all of the recipes that I wanted to.  This means that I am a little more select now in the books that I do buy and that’s no bad thing really.  I had my eye on this book ever since it was released last year – I am fast becoming a big fan of Mr Granger since receiving my first book of his, Bill’s Basics.  I always find around New Year that I start craving simple but spicier food after all the rich indulgences of Christmas so Bill’s Everyday Asian made perfect sense as the first book purchase of the year. And this book really didn’t disappoint – there are so many inspiring, simple, fresh and no doubt delicious dishes in here – I love that in the introduction Bill states that his one rule is “that nothing should require a list of a hundred hard-to-find ingredients”.  This is my type of cooking.

So on to this dish in particular.  This is the perfect quick Friday night dish but much cleaner and lighter than anything you could order from the local take-away.  It requires very little by way of ingredients or prep and my family really loved it.  The only thing you need to ensure before starting is that, as with most Asian cooking, you need to have everything prepared and ready to go once the wok goes on. Oh and I couldn’t get pork fillet so I used pork loin. Still delicious.

To serve 4

• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce (I used dark soy)
• 2 tablespoons of Mirin
• 2 tablespoons of Hoisin sauce
• 2 teaspoons of sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes
• 800g pork fillet cut in to 5mm strips
• 3 tablespoons of sunflower oil
• 4 garlic cloves crushed with the flat of a knife
• 3 red chillies, cut in half lengthways and de-seeded
• 1 tablespoon of water
• 6 bulb spring onions, halved or one red onion cut in to wedges
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce (I used light here)
• 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons of roasted peanuts

Mix together the dark soy sauce, Mirin, Hoisin sauce, sesame oil and chilli flakes in a shallow dish. Add the pork and toss well to coat and then leave covered in the fridge for at least 15 minutes or longer if you have time.

Heat a wok over high heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil.  When smoking add half of the pork and stir fry for around 2 minutes.  Remove from the wok and repeat with the remaining pork.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil and add the garlic, chillies, 1 tablespoon of water and the onions.  Stir-fry for 4 minutes but covering the wok for the final 2 minutes.  Now add the light soy sauce and sugar and then return the pork back to the wok and toss to coat.  Cook for a further minute and garnish with the roasted peanuts.  I served this dish on top of some egg fried rice.

Make Bake Love is a book I have been meaning to blog about for some time now and I can’t think of a better subject for my first proper post of the year.

Many of us Irish food bloggers were waiting excitedly for Lilly Higgin’s first foray in to the cookbook world thanks to her beautiful blog entitled Stuff I Make, Bake and Love.  I have also heard fantastic reports from those lucky enough to attend the supper clubs run by Lilly and her sisters, Loaves and Fishes, which seem to book up fairly rapidly.  For me the book certainly did not disappoint, it is full to the brim of fabulous treats, both sweet and savoury, and would make a great addition to anyones collection.

Lilly has a lovely style of writing – instructions are clear and concise and thoughtful little tips are often included as well as the occasional little story to accompany the recipe – my personal favourite being Old Henry Bars!   Contents start off with a thoughtfully provided Conversion Chart and then on to Big Cakes, Small Cakes, Bars Biscuits and Cookies, Pies and Tarts, Breads, Thrift (I love that this chapter is included) and Must Haves.  Another thing that I really love about this book is that each photograph was styled and taken by Lilly herself so you get a real feel for how a cake should really look.

The first recipe I have tried from Make Bake Love was the Sticky Toffee Cakes which were amazingly good but yet unbelievably simple to make.  We liked them so much that we had them for our Christmas dessert and the beauty of this recipe is that the cakes are made in muffin cases and can be kept for a couple of days.  My husband and son have marked out several recipes that they want to try out and I have my eye on the very indulgent looking Citrus Tarts.

Make Bake Love is published by Gill & Macmillan and is current on sale, reduced from €19.99 to €15.99 on their website.

I really appreciate all of you who continue to check in and comment despite the lack of recent updates – much thanks to you all for the continued support and encouragement, it means a lot.

As you can see I have freshened things up a bit – as well as changing my blog name to my own domain The Glutton’s Kitchen, I have given the place a little facelift.  I hope you like it and welcome any comments, feedback or suggestions you might have.

I wish you all a very peaceful 2012 x

I have mentioned on this blog before that one of our favourite desserts is Crème Brûlée and when I saw Avonmore’s competition over on the Irish Food Bloggers website seeking recipes for 12 Days of Christmas I immediately thought a Christmas Crème Brûlée would be perfect. It’s very easy to make and needs just a few ingredients and if you haven’t made your own then simply buy a jar of good quality mincemeat.  The most important thing to remember about making Crème Brûlée is to bake at a low temperature and check 5 minutes before time just in case – that way you are sure to end up with fabulously silky, creamy and perfectly set custard.  The wonderful thing about this dessert is the custards can be made a day or two in advance and kept in the fridge until an hour before serving, all you have to do then is sprinkle with sugar and caramelise the tops.

Serves 6.

• 500ml cream
• 1 vanilla pod, split
• 5 large egg yolks
• 60g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 jar of mincemeat
• approx. 1 heaped teaspoon of caster sugar per ramekin for topping

Preheat the oven to 140ºC (130ºC fan) and put the kettle on to boil.  Stand 6 ramekins in a roasting tray and place a heaped tablespoon of mincemeat in to the bottom of each ramekin.

Put the egg yolks, caster sugar and vanilla extract in to a bowl and whisk lightly.

Split the vanilla pod in half and scrape out the seeds and place both the pod and seeds in to a pot together with the cream.  Warm over a low heat until very hot but not boiling.   Gently pour the hot cream on to the egg mixture in a thin steady stream whisking all the time – it is important not to add the cream too quickly as the eggs will scramble.  Pour the custard mixture through a sieve in to a jug and then pour the custard gently in to each ramekin.

Pour hot water from the kettle carefully in to the roasting tray until it reaches half way up the sides of the ramekins and then place the roasting tray in to the oven.  After 35 minutes check the ramekins - the custard should be set but with a slight wobble to the centre, if too wobbly give them just 5 minutes more. Remove the roasting tray from the oven and carefully take each ramekin out and stand somewhere cool.  Once cool enough cover with cling-film and place in the fridge until ready to use.

Remove from the fridge an hour before serving and allow the custards to reach room temperature.  When ready to serve sprinkle the top of each with a heaped teaspoon of caster sugar, gently moving the ramekin around to spread the sugar evenly.  Using a cooks blow torch caramelise the sugar until it is a deep golden brown, be careful here not to allow the sugar to go too dark as it will become bitter.  Allow a minute to harden and then serve.

This is a really quick and easy way to make Dauphinoise.  I have tried the other method of using very thinly sliced raw potatoes but I find it just takes too long as you need to cook on a low temperature to avoid the starch curdling the cream.  By parboiling the potatoes first you avoid this and you can get fabulously creamy, garlicky potatoes in half the time. Also by heating the cream with the garlic, salt and pepper first you can check the seasoning before baking in the oven. Use waxy potatoes if possible as floury spuds will soak up all of the cream and become quite mushy.

To serve 6:

• 6-8 large waxy potatoes, sliced in to 5mm rounds.
• 500ml cream
• 100ml milk
• 2 teaspoons of sea salt
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• 4 cloves of garlic
• approx. 50g of butter

Preheat the oven to 180ºC and lightly butter an ovenproof dish using a little bit of the butter.

Put the sliced potatoes in to a large pot of water and bring to the boil, allow to boil for 5 minutes and then drain thoroughly.  The potatoes should be just starting to cook around the edges but not be soft.

Put the cream, milk, garlic, salt and pepper in to a large pot and heat gently until hot but not boiling.  Dip your finger in and check the seasoning, you want it to be salty but not overpoweringly so  - remember that 2 teaspoons of coarse sea salt will be less salty than 2 teaspoons of fine table salt so if you are using table salt then I suggest you add in one teaspoon and taste before adding any more.

Once the cream is nice and hot tip the potatoes in to the pot and mix gently.  Then carefully in to the ovenproof baking dish and press the potatoes down in to the cream.

 Dot the surface with the remaining butter and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the top is nice and golden and the potatoes are cooked right through.  I love to serve these potatoes with a simple steak or roast chicken.

Filed under: Veggies ]]> http://thegluttonskitchen.com/2011/11/14/potato-dauphinoise/feed/ 16 thegluttonskitchen DSC_0225 http://thegluttonskitchen.com/2011/10/25/almond-danish-pastries/ http://thegluttonskitchen.com/2011/10/25/almond-danish-pastries/#comments Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:32:30 +0000 TheGlutton http://gluttonyforbeginners.wordpress.com/?p=1238 ]]>

There is something about autumn and winter that makes me want to cook and bake.  I don’t know if it is some instinctive desire to squirrel away food for the cold months ahead or whether it is just the lovely comforting feeling of standing in a warm cosy kitchen whilst the rain hammers against the fogged up window but I find myself wanting to cook not just for today but for the days and weeks ahead.  I had been meaning to try out this recipe from Nigella’s Domestic Goddess for as long as I have owned the book…which is quite a while now…and last weekend was just the right time for it.  The recipe suggests halving the dough mixture and freezing one half and using the remainder to make 6 pastries and that’s exactly what I did. 

On reflection it is quite a simple recipe but the process is long and requires a bit of time and resting, especially first time around, but I can tell you that it was really worth the effort.  It is hard at one point to imagine that the gooey sticky dough will ever amount to anything more than a disaster but miraculously it does.  I was tempted, just before the finish line, to skip the second last step of brushing them with a sugar glaze but I’m glad I did as this really gives them that beautiful shiny sticky finish.  I did however skip the final step of drizzling with a runny icing sugar glaze as we wanted to eat them just a little bit warm…in truth we couldn’t wait any longer!  They smell wonderful and are surprisingly light and soft and much better than many shop bought ones I have sampled which can sometimes feel a little heavy and stale. I am quite happy now with the knowledge that I have the remaining dough tucked away ready to be defrosted and made in lovely pastries in no time.

One important thing to note before you get started is that the initial dough needs to be rested in the fridge overnight so you need to start this process the day before you want to bake the pastries.

For the pastry:

• 60ml warm water
• 125ml milk, at room temperature
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 350g white bread flour
• 1 sachet or 7g easy blend yeast
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 25g caster sugar
• 250g unsalted cold butter, cut in to roughly 1cm slices

For the almond filling:

• 150g ground almonds
• 80g icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons soft unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon of almond extract
• 1 large egg white, beaten lightly
• A handful of flaked almonds

For egg glaze:

• 1 large egg beaten with 2 tablespoons of milk

For the clear glaze:

• 80g caster sugar mixed with 100ml of water, heated until the sugar dissolves and the glaze thickens slightly.

Weigh out all of your ingredients and have everything ready to go.

Pour the milk, water and egg in to a jug and beat with a fork to mix, then leave to one side.

Put the flour, yeast, salt and sugar in to a food processor and pulse once or twice to mix.  Add in the slices of butter and pulse again briefly just so that the butter is cut up a little – you should still see chunks of it in the mix – then empty the flour mix in to a large bowl.

Quickly add in the milk/water/egg mixture and fold the ingredients together using a spatula – don’t overdo it, mix gently and just enough to combine all of the flour with the liquid but you should have a gooey sticky dough with butter lumps still showing.  Cover the bowl with clingfilm and put it in the fridge overnight.

Next day remove the dough from the fridge and leave it to return to room temperature.   Flour your work surface and roll the dough – the first time you try to roll the dough out it will be really sticky and prove quite difficult.  Once you have a rough square of approx. 50cm by 50cm fold the dough in to thirds by folding the right side over, then the left as you would a letter.

Fold the dough over in half, flour your surface and rolling pin and roll out again to a rough square of around 50cm by 50cm – you will notice that now the dough is starting to look and act a bit more like pastry and it becomes quite pillowy. If you look closely at the picture below you can still see lumps of butter in the pastry.

Again fold the dough in to three and then over in half and repeat this three times.

On the final folding don’t fold over in half at the end but cut the pastry in two.  Wrap both in clingfilm and if freezing one then place in a freezer bag and put in the freezer – alternatively you can store in the fridge for up to 4 days.  Place the other wrapped half that you intend to bake now in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Whilst the dough is in the fridge make the almond filling by mixing the ground almonds, icing sugar, butter, almond extract and two tablespoons of the egg white together in a bowl or food processor.

Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out again in to a large square and then cut horizontally across in to three equal pieces.

And then cut in half down the middle to give 6 rough (very rough in this case) squares.

 Now shape equal amounts of almond mixture in to sausage shapes and place diagonally across each of the pastries.

Now take the two opposite corners of each pastry that are each side of the almond filling and bring them together, pinching slightly and then folding over to tuck the fold in.  Place on a lined baking sheet, brush with the egg glaze, sprinkle with some flaked almonds and then leave at room temperature for around an hour and a half - now the recipe said until they double in size and whilst mine rose a little they certainly didn’t double in size but I still had lovely light pastries.  At this stage they look a little limp and scruffy.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 160ºC (180ºC for non fan ovens) and when ready to bake place in the oven and cook for around 20 minutes until lovely and golden.

Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool slightly before brushing with the clear glaze.  Dust lightly with icing sugar and enjoy with a nice cuppa whilst still warm. 

 If you have any left over you can wrap in parchment and store in an airtight container until the next day – just pop in to the oven preheated to 160º to warm though a little.

My husband and son both love ginger flavoured treats - gingernuts, ginger snaps, Jamaican ginger cake, gingerbread – they eat the lot with gusto.  Usually when my mum comes to visit us here she brings my husband a supply of his favourite M&S Ginger Snaps but on her last visit he was out of luck as there were no ginger snaps in stock.  The only biscuits I have been making here of late are these amazing chocolate chip cookies from Kristin over at Dinner du Jour but I eventually took pity on my poor husband and thought I’d have a go at making something that might resemble his beloved Ginger Snaps.  I, and indeed he, was really pleased with the results – lovely crunchy outer rim with a just slightly chewy middle.  Delicious and perfect for dunking in a cup of tea.  One thing that used to put me off cooking biscuits or cookies is that they would often go stale before we could eat the whole lot – one brilliant trick I have learned from that recipe for chocolate chip cookies is that if you weigh and roll raw cookie dough in to individual portions and wrap in cling film you can pop them in a freezer bag and keep them in the freezer until you want them - just take out one or two to cook at a time which  means you can have perfectly fresh cookies each day for weeks!  How genius is that?  For these biscuits I used an approximate weight of 30/35g per biscuit and this quantity of dough produced around 26 large biscuits.

• 300g flour
• 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda (bread soda)
• 1½ tablespoons of ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon of ground allspice
• ½ teaspoon of cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 175g softened unsalted butter
• 200g soft brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 100g (or two tablespoons) of golden syrup
• zest of 1 lemon

Heat the oven to 160ºC (180 in a conventional oven).

Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, allspice, cinnamon and salt together in to a bowl.

If you have a stand mixer use the paddle attachment to beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and then add in the egg and beat a bit more.  Turn the speed down to low and then add in the dry ingredients and as soon as soon as the mix is combined stop beating so that the dough isn’t over worked.  If you are doing this by hand then use a hand whisk to beat the sugar and butter together, then whisk in the egg,  then use a spatula to mix in the dry ingredients.

Next add in the golden syrup and the lemon zest, give one final mix and then refrigerate the dough for around half an hour – it is quite a soft dough and this will make it much easier to work with.

Weigh out approx. 30g portions and roll in to balls, if you wish to cook immediately place on a lined baking sheet and cook for 15 minutes.  Allow to cool before removing from the sheet.  If you wish to freeze some wrap each individual ball in cling film and pop in to a freezer bag.  When you want to cook simply unwrap, place on a baking tray and pop in to the oven for 15/20 minutes - no need to defrost.

When we were kids growing up in London my mum used to make Toad in the Hole all the time – I suppose it was a very economical way of cooking for a big family and ensuring bellies were full. It is very much an old traditional English dish and I don’t recall ever hearing anyone mention it here in Ireland.  I only recently starting making this for my own family and I really don’t know why it took me so long – we’re big fans of Yorkshire Puddings and sausages so what could be better than a dish made of both?  You can fancy it up a little by smearing the sausages in Dijon mustard before adding to the batter, or by using fancy sausages, or perhaps you could maybe play around by adding some herbs to the batter.  We like ours served with lashings of onion gravy – the more mopping up the better!

To serve 4:

• 8 sausages – nice fat ones preferably
• 2 tablespoons of goose fat (or sunflower/rapeseed oil if you prefer)
• 120g plain flour
• large pinch of salt and black pepper
• 1 egg
• 300mls milk

Preheat the oven to 200ºC and place an oven-proof dish in to heat.

Make the batter by sieving the flour in to a large bowl.  Add a large pinch of salt and generous grind of black pepper.  Make a well in the centre of the flour and add in the egg and 100mls of the milk and mix using a balloon whisk, drawing the flour down from the side of the bowl, until the mix is really smooth – and then continue whisking for around 5 minutes more.  Once you are sure you have a really smooth batter add in the rest of the milk and whisk to combine, then leave to one side.

Place half a tablespoon of fat in a frying pan on medium heat and then fry the sausages until lightly golden – my tip here is to only cook the sausages on three sides leaving one side uncooked – this means that they won’t over-colour when baked in the oven and will also ensure that the sides of the sausage that are submerged in batter also have good colour.  Remove the sausages from the pan and place to one side on kitchen paper.

Now place the remaining goose fat in to the oven dish and allow to heat until really really hot (almost smoking).  This shouldn’t take too long as the dish will already be quite hot.  Remove the dish from the oven again and carefully pour the batter in to the hot fat.  Then one by one place the sausages cooked sides down in to the batter.

Place carefully back in to the oven, ensuring that the sausages don’t roll around, and bake for around 30 minutes.  The batter should rise, be nice and crunchy and a deep golden colour. 

 This is the same batter mix that I use for a Sunday roast and makes lovely light fluffy Yorkshires.  I use a muffin tray and ladle an equal amount in to each lightly greased well.