The armchair kitchen

Magical transformations

In many foodie circles the microwave is dismissed as a tool used by the lazy non-cook. Melting chocolate is tricky: softening it over bubbling water involves the risk of water spilling over into the chocolate and rendering it unusable. Giving it the microwave treatment involves no such danger, as long as you err on the side of cooking for too short a time, rather than too long.

White chocolate (which strictly speaking is not chocolate at all, as it contains no cocoa solids and can contain up to 55% of sugar), is useful as decoration as in the picture above by professional photographer Ilian (click on the photo to see more of his work). But to my mind adding it to cheesecake or making it into a mousse is not a good idea. First it’s harder to melt than dark or milk chocolate, often ‘seizing up’ and becoming lumpy. Then it is simply far too sweet.

Coming up next…… some ideas of what to do with melted chocolate.

Saving food

This little boy is holding a giant turnip that’s just been picked. He’s not a child labourer, he is working with his family in a field in Israel collecting vegetables that are not perfect and would otherwise be thrown away. The produce is packed and transported by an organisation called Leket.

Leket was started by one man, Joseph Gitler, who saw that many families were going hungry in Israel, and at the same time, much food was going to waste. So he set about organising the recovery of fruits and vegetables from farmers whose crops were not perfect. He then moved on to collecting excess prepared food from weddings and parties and taking it to those in need.

If any of you have tasted an Israeli hotel breakfast you will know that there is an abundance of cheeses, fruits, breads, smoked fish, omelettes and pancakes. In order to offer a full and attractive buffet, it’s inevitable that there is too much. This is one of the ways where Leket steps in. They have trucks and drivers who do collections and thousands of volunteers who help to get appetising, but otherwise unusable food, to those who need it most.

Every school day they also make 8,000 sandwiches for children from underprivileged homes. Each year they rescue 20 million pounds of produce and perishable goods, redistributing it to the poor, the invalid, the aged and children of all races and religions.

If you enjoy food and ever think of those who are hungry, then click on the picture and see how you can donate. Even a small amount would be much appreciated.

Good Morning

On Monday mornings I go walking with two friends up Primrose Hill and into Regents Park. At 8.30am the London parks are quiet - unlike on weekend afternoons when the open spaces are full of families, laughing and playing. The walk takes an hour and a half and I then have breakfast when I get home.

After that I get down to work, writing. I am in the middle of editing my second novel. I wrote it a few years ago, then put it aside, but now it is being re-structured. I would like to spend all day working on the book, but I get distracted by cooking, taking photos and choosing what foods to feature for the blog.

As the long walk is only once a week, I can get down to writing much earlier on other days. People sometimes ask if I find it difficult to concentrate; it’s the opposite, I think about my characters at night and in the morning I can’t wait to invent conversations they are having.

(The picture of the muesli and fruit is by professional photographer Ilian. He is also writing a book. Click on the picture to see more of his work.)

Cheese blintzes

Some of you may know that I am a few days late in featuring these soft cheese pancakes. They are usually served at the Festival of Shavuot and are an Ashkenazi Jewish speciality. I was reminded of them because I have a new book called Recipes from My Jewish Grandmother by Marlena Spieler. Leafing through the pictures I realize that this collection comes from her earlier book Jewish Traditions, which, as the title implies, tells you everything you want to know about both the food and where it comes from. There’s also a comprehensive explanation of many of the laws and customs.

On Shavuot the Book of Ruth is read. It’s a moving story of a woman who leaves her home and country to go with her mother in law whose two sons have died. Ruth converted to Judaism and it occurs to me that this book would make the perfect gift to anyone who might be considering conversion: the details of the laws and customs are well explained and there is a wealth of knowledge about the food and the many countries it comes from.

The cheese blintzes are pancakes that are cooked on one side only, then they are filled with a mixture of creamy cheese (you can use curd, cottage or cream cheese) with sugar and raisins. The pancakes are folded into little parcels and gently fried on both sides to make them brown and heat the centre. They’re served with fruit and sour cream or creme fraiche. Fortunately, since the stages take a little time, the finished blintzes can be made in advance and finished off in the pan just before serving. They also freeze well. You’ll find the recipe in Marlena’s book. Click on the picture to find out more.

Vegetarian Steak - Here’s the ‘How-to’

I just thought: I’ve devised and written the recipe for the vegetarian dish wrapped in roasted peppers (see below), so why not just put it up? I use the words ‘How-to’ because that’s what I call instructions in my children’s book Lookit Cookit. It’s so much more encouraging than a list of details.

Vegetarian Steak

First roast 2-3 long romano peppers (shorter ones will do, but the long ones are easier). Cut them open and put them on a sheet of baking paper with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and cook for 25 minutes in a hot oven. Cool a little then peel off the skins (they will come off easily).

While this is cooking, peel and chop an onion and saute it in a frying pan in a little olive oil. Add a cupful of fine bulghur wheat and two cups of vegetable stock. Bring it to the boil, stir the mixture and cover the pan. Turn off the heat. After about ten minutes the bulghur will have absorbed the liquid.

If you want to make it more tasty, add some nuts, raisins, fried mushrooms or cubes of aubergine.

To assemble the dish pile some of the bulghur in the centre of a plate and flatten the top. (If you have a ‘cooking ring’ this is ideal for making a perfect circle, but since ‘steak’ isn’t circular, it doesn’t really matter). Cut the roasted peppers into strips and wrap them around the bulghur and over the top, making sure it is all covered. Brush with a little olive oil.

You can serve this warm, or prepare it in advance and reheat it, covered, in the microwave for 1-2 minutes.

Vegetarian Steak

This is a bit of a cheat: of course it isn’t meat, and it doesn’t have the texture of meat. But the finished dish did remind me slightly of a juicy steak so that’s why I chose the name.

Many ‘faux’ meat dishes contain tofu since it absorbs other flavours and has a chewable texture. This is different - it’s a light and easy-to-put-together plateful that would be perfect for vegetarians, or for someone  who has an unexpected guest who doesn’t eat meat.

The outside is roasted, peeled red peppers. The centre is bulghur wheat with fried onions. You could add nuts, raisins, chopped fried aubergine, mushrooms or anything else that you fancy. If you want a detailed recipe, please click on the Ask me Anything button at the top. I’ll be happy to give it to you.

Noodle Pudding

The rice pudding I put up yesterday takes about 2-3 hours to cook. The result is something soft and creamy.

Here is another dessert that takes a fraction of the time and is equally delicious. You need the four ingredients in the picture, plus some vanilla sugar. (I slide a cut vanilla pod into a jar of sugar and leave it to infuse for an hour, a week or much longer. The result is sugar that has a fragrant flavour that is perfect for most sweet dishes.)

So to make the pudding: boil 2oz/50g vermicelli noodles in lightly salted water. Drain. In a bowl, mix an egg with 1-2 tablespoons of raisins, 1-2 tbsp sugar, 1/4pt/150ml milk and stir in the cooked noodles. Cook on medium power in the microwave for about 6 minutes, stirring once or twice during this time and continuing a bit longer if the milk is not beginning to set. It should be like custard - just thick. It may take a few minutes longer, but take care not to overcook it as it might curdle as the egg separates.

If you have any questions, please click the Ask me Anything button.

Elegant simplicity

In America you can buy a brand of rice pudding called Cozy Shack. It is utterly delicious. I always used to buy some to take on to the plane when leaving the US for London. Now the security rules make that impossible, as it is deemed to be a liquid.

It’s very simple to make rice pudding (and very cheap too). You need to use a short grain rice - not the longer, fine basmati rice. On the back of a pack of pudding rice, (available in the UK, hopefully elsewhere too) you will find the instructions for making the pudding. All you need is full cream milk, sugar, vanilla and the rice. If you want to know any more details, please do Ask me Anything (click on the button above).

Today’s post is in celebration of the Jewish Festival Shavuot. It commemorates the giving of the Law to the Israelites after 40 years of wandering in the desert. The story goes that Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the tablets containing the words of the torah, and the people were waiting so long that their milk went sour. So as a reminder of this Jewish people enjoy dairy foods at this time. The most popular dishes are cheesecake and pancakes called blintzes, both served with sour cream.

Green and simple

This is a soup made from just two ingredients: leeks and potatoes. The idea comes from a classic called Vichyssoise, which was a velouté (a very smooth purée) of leeks, onions, potatoes and cream. It was invented by Louis Diat in 1917, a chef at the Ritz Carlton in New York City.

Vichyssoise contains chicken stock and a large amount of cream, making it smooth, rich and indulgent. It is perfect, served with a few chopped chives, on a hot summer’s day.

My version is far simpler: chopped leeks and some potato cubes are simmered in vegetable stock till soft, then they are blitzed in a liquidizer till there are no lumps. You can add milk to make it thinner, but I have left it thick and floated a layer of single cream on the top.

For details please click on the photo and go to Today’s Recipe.

More is more

This is one of the favourite sayings of the man in The Armchair Kitchen. He doesn’t understand the word moderation. For him a sandwich has to be filled and stuffed and generous.

My mother, who I wrote about yesterday, had a very different view. After the privations and rationing of the 2^nd World War, she was used to making food stretch. When she made little squares of bread covered with smoked salmon, she would cut a piece of the fish to the same size and smooth it over the buttered bread, so there was one thin, elegant layer.

So here is my tribute to them both - a sandwich which spoils you for any one you can buy. Inside (or on) three slices of buttered bread is 6 oz/170 g of the best oily, Scottish smoked salmon.

Come for dinner

My mother, Tess Blackburn, was a maths teacher and later started a chocolate making business. She was an incredible cook and after her death I wrote a small book (distributed only to those who knew her) encapsulating her life and recipes. Here is an extract:

“Good cooks are often uncomfortable at their own dinner parties. Tess would plan well in advance, select a menu from the copies of Gourmet magazine and nervously make a countdown list to hang in the kitchen for the day itself. The guests at her table were often single people or friends and family who were much younger than she was (89). Coming from a generation where formality was the rule she took a long time to get on first name terms and lived for years next door to a man she referred to in her dinner notebook as simply ‘Tomkinson’.

Back in 1979 dinner was always three courses and not very elaborate. Ten years later, when Tess was already suffering from an arthritic hip and a heart condition, she added another course of little puff pastry appetisers containing meat or sausages, and finished the meal with coffee and petit fours.

The heart problem led her to a series of doctors and specialists with whom she had an instant positive or negative rapport. Perhaps it was a subconscious response to the threat of being seen as old and incapable that she invited her doctors to dinner a few weeks after her return from each visit to hospital. In 1992 Tess underwent major heart surgery. She was determined to get back to normality and though she was nearly 90 that meant entertaining. She had someone to help serve and clear up and they would arrive to find vegetable timbales ready to be surrounded by their sauce and brandy snap baskets waiting to be filled with chocolate mousse.

Two years later Tess gave her final dinner party, with her favourite doctors as the main guests. As they sipped their drinks, they were passed mushroom or chopped liver canapes and little melon balls on sticks. They sat down to a meal of creamy artichoke soup followed by roast duck with apple or orange sauce. For dessert there was a choice of chocolate mousse meringue, mango and lemon mousse or apple caramel cake. With the coffee came stuffed dates and coffee macarons, something she had copied from the famous Fauchon in Paris. Of course she had help. The waitress had cut up the ducks and then popped what was left in her bag to take home. Tess’ note in her party book read: “There was none left for second helpings. Must serve it myself next time.”

Red what?

Have a guess what this is. Scroll down to see what it looked like before I ‘coloured’ it.

It’s a vegetable with a mild and pleasant taste. I defy anyone to hate it. I love it.

What is it?

This is cooked celeriac: a knobbly root that looks ugly and brown. When it’s peeled you can slice it and then cut it into sticks like this. They discolour easily so it’s a good idea to throw them into a bowl of cold water with a squeeze of lemon juice to stop them going brown. I then cook them briefly with a few tablespoons of vegetable stock, in the microwave. (Timing depends on how many you do: half a celeriac, sliced, takes about four minutes).

Cooked, cooled celeriac can be mixed with mayonnaise. You can serve it hot with butter or a drizzle of olive oil. You can make it into soup by buzzing it into a puree.

To make the sticks red, I dipped them in the juice of some cooked beetroot (see the picture above).

Incidentally, a study published in America suggests that people with high blood pressure would do well to drink beetroot juice. It contains nitrate which converts to nitrite and helps to widen the blood vessels. But you need to consume two whole beetroot a day or 8oz of the juice.

It’s not something you can buy in your local pub or bar. So I would forget about the health aspects and just enjoy beetroot for the taste and brilliant colour.

Do they think we’re nuts?

A supermarket has been forced to withdraw transparent bags of roasted peanuts because the packaging did not state ‘contains nuts’. The label clearly says Wholehearted Roasted Monkey Nuts, (which are peanuts in their shells).

The UK Food Standards Agency said that although you could clearly see the contents through the transparent packaging, the retailer had failed to identify peanuts as an allergen on the labels. Around 300 bags with a ‘best before’ date of 12^th July 2013 are affected.

Now, if you are allergic to nuts - specially peanuts - wouldn’t you know what they look like? And would you even pick up a pack of clearly labelled Roasted Monkey Nuts?

Why do the authorities treat us like idiots? Of course rules are rules, but some sense is needed when applying them. Here’s an idea: vegetarians should be wary of picking up packs of steak, in case the labelling doesn’t say ‘contains meat’.