Ciaran’s Omnipurpose Blog

Yesterday was a Bank Holiday in the UK. Instead of sitting down to write a post about the New Year, and my resolutions, which are pretty mundane (get fitter, balance work and life, cut down on coffee), I took a look back at my post from the beginning of 2011, figured it still made a lot of sense and decided to take Courage Wolf’s advice:

I was set a challenge at Christmas through the gift of a pizza dish and cutter, so I decided to take on this challenge yesterday, making a pizza from scratch. Here’s how:

Ingredients

For the Dough (Makes a lot of pizza bases, but I wanted to prepare some to keep in the freezer for later)

Method

• Mix the flour and salt together in a very large mixing bowl.
• Mix the sugar, oil, yeast, warm (not hot!) water in a large jug.
• Fold the flour mixture and warm (not hot!) water in the mixing bowl.
• Use your hands and get in there! knead until the dough is rubbery.
• Have a cup of coffee and read the paper.
• Lo and behold! The dough has risen! Now beat the air out of it – you don’t want bready pizza!
• Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to the right size for your pizza tray/ right thickness for your tastes. I don’t have a rolling pin, so a beer bottle did the trick.
• In the meantime, heat the passata and squirt in a good helping of tomato puree. Simmer it down to get lots of the water out and spread over the pizza.
• Sprinkle the cheese and toppings over the pizza
• Put it in the over for a bit at a hot temperature (the reason I’m not specific is because my oven is rubbish and barely hits 175C), but 200C for 20 minutes should do.
• Serve hot with beer and a movie!

The finished result was more like a pizza loaf, being rather thick, but still delicious!

Enjoy the health it brings you!

Easter has come and gone. In its wake lies a lot of chocolate. I didn’t think I could possibly manage to eat all of that chocolate, so I decided to do something creative with it.

Ingredients

• 350g self raising flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 200g butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 175g soft brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 200g chocolate of any kind (dark is good) – smashed into small pieces

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C
2. Mix  the flour and salt in one bowl
3. In a glass bowl, combine the butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract. Put this bowl over a boiling saucepan and melt the butter and sugar together. Try not to just stop here and eat the sugar/ fat mixture: Yes – it’s tempting!
4. Leave the butter/ sugar mixture to cool for a while.
5. Beat the eggs into the butter/ sugar mixture.
6. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate.
7. Roll small marble sized balls of dough out in your hands and place at intervals on a tray with baking parchment.
8. Bake in the oven for 8-11 minutes.
9. Put on a rack to cool.
10. Nom!

This warming soup is a big favourite in the house and with friends. I took about 4 litres of it to a dinner party for 6 as a starter and the guests got to third helpings by the time the soup was all gone. Like most soups, it’s incredibly simple to make. This recipe serves 4.

Ingredients

• 350g broccoli
• 400ml  vegetable stock
• 25g butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 50g Stilton, crumbled, or to taste
• 100ml creme fraiche
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• pinch freshly grated nutmeg

Method

• Chop the broccoli into chunks, florets and stalks.
• Steam the broccoli in a pan until tender.
• Whilst the broccoli is steaming, fry the onion in the butter for about a minute
• Shove the broccoli, stock, onion, Stilton into a blender and blend until lumpy
• Add the creme fraiche. Blend again until smooth
• Transfer the soup to a saucepan and simmer.
• Add nutmeg and pepper to taste

The Linzer Torte dates back to the mid to late 17th Century. It’s widely thought to be the oldest cake recipe in the world and originates from the city of Linz, whence its name. It’s also known as a Linz Tart or Linz cake. Of course, that’s all by the by. The really important criteria for me in assessing the merits of a cake are:

• Is it delicious?
• Is it delicious with coffee?

I’m pleased to announce that, after several dozen scientific experiments, this cake passes both tests with flying colours. The cake is nutty and moist thanks to the jam and not too sickly or creamy to clash with a damn fine cup of coffee. Observe the best in all its glory (as baked by my mum on the weekend):

Ingredients

• 150 g butter
• 250 g self-raising flour
• 150 g powdered sugar
• 100 g roasted hazelnuts
• 1 egg
• Spices (vanilla, lemon, cinnamon, powdered cloves – be generous with the
• 300 g raspberry or redcurrant jam

Method

• Knead the butter and sugar together.
• Knead in the flour sifted together with the baking powder, add nuts, egg and spices.
• Chill the dough for some time, then take it out of the refrigerator and divide it into quarters.
• Roll out three quarters of the dough to a thickness of about 1,5 cm (for a 22 cm baking pan), cover it with the  jam.
• Shape the remaining dough into strips and lay them on top of the jam as a grid and around the edge.
• Brush with egg, sprinkle sliced almonds around the edge.

I cooked this on New Year’s Day for my Mum and Dad. It’s been a signature pudding of my Dad’s for quite some time, so it was nice to return the favour and it topped off a fantastic roast joint of beef rib with all the trimmings beautifully!

Ingredients

• 100-175g softened butter
• 10-12 slices thick sliced white bread
• A jar of thick cut marmalade
• Juice and rind of 2 large oranges
• Juice and rind of 1 lemon
• Vanilla Custard – make your own from your favourite recipe or get the best ready made stuff you can.

Method

• Preheat oven to 200C
• Grease a shallow baking dish with butter
• Cut the crusts off the bread
• Spread the slices with butter and marmalade and cut into triangles (this is the messy bit)
• Combine the juice and rinds of the oranges and lemon.
• Line the bottom and sides of the baking dish with the bread slices. Dip them in the juice/ rind as you do so. Arrange them butter side up.
• Fill the dish with the remaining bread triangles, keeping a few in reserve to decorate the top.
• Fill the dish with custard.
• Decorate the top with the remaining bread triangles.
• Bake for 30 mins or until crisp and golden on the outside. The centre should still be nice and creamy.

Christmas is coming! So the important thing to remember at this time of year is FOOD!

I love Lebkuchen. It’s a bit like gingerbread, only spicier and fruitier. Well, the variety I like the most is. It’s called Nürnberger Lebkuchen. There are lots of varieties, but I think this one is the best.

It really takes me back to my roots: my mum used to bake huge batches of this at Christmas. This Christmas, I’m going to do it. I’m probably going to start tonight. It’s a very laborious process, but the cookies last for ages and they’re delicious.

So here’s the recipe. You’ve still got time before Christmas to get the ingredients and bake them whilst snowed in:

This recipe is for a small batch. We usually multiply the ingredients up 3 or 4 times to get a good quantity for keeping in airtight tins. They’re full of honey, so they keep well.

Ingredients

• 175g Clear Honey
• 50g Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons oil
• 2 Tablespoons water
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 heaped Teaspoon cocoa
• 6 drops lemon essence
• 1 pinch ground cloves
• 1 level Teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 250g Wheat Flour
• 3 level Teaspoons Baking Powder
• 75g ground almonds
• 75g ground hazelnuts
• 50g candied lemon peel
• 75g dried apricot (diced)
• Whole hazelnuts and almonds (optional – for decoration)

For the icing:

• 125g Icing sugar
• 1 egg white
• Water

Method

• Mix the honey, sugar, oil and water in a bowl, gently warming over a pan if necessary. Allow to cool slightly.
• Into the mixture, fold in the egg yolk, cocoa, lemon essence, ground cloves and cinnamon. Don’t forget to reserve the egg whites!
• Sieve into the mixture the flour, bakikng powder and some water if necessary to make a good dough.
• Into the dough,mix in the ground almonds, hazelnuts, peel and apricots.
• Roll out the dough to a thickness of about half a centimeter.
• Cut out cookie shapes and (optionally) decorate the cookies.
• Bake the cookes at 175-200 degrees in a warm oven for 15-20 mins.
• Whilst the cookies are baking, mix the egg whites with the icing sugar and water until the icing is ready.
• Then paint the icing sugar over the cookies with a pastry brush.

I’m going to make these tonight. If I’m not too busy stuffing my face, I’ll put pictures up of the final product.

Enjoy! Let me know if you like the recipe!

There’s no substitute for mum’s cooking. That’s a definite universal law, up there with Gravity or Entropy. Rebecca’s started experimenting with the family recipe and it’s a hit!

Some people think these things should be kept secret. I don’t really see why: if others can enjoy the recipe, then the world’s a better place.

This recipe serves 8 very generously or fewer if you want to have it around for a while for grazing:

Ingredients

• 3kgs yellow fleshed potatoes. Charlotte potatoes are good.
• 1 jar pickled gherkins. This brand is particularly good.
• 1 small jar of mayonnaise.
• 1 Large red onion
• English mustard

Method

• Boil the potatoes until soft, but still a little firm so that they can be chopped and not go mushy. Set them out to cool down.
• Drain the gherkins and chop them into small chunks – reserve the liquid for later.
• Chop the onion finely
• Empty the mayonnaise into a large bowl. Stir a little mustard into mayo. Add a little black pepper. Stir in the pickle juice to thin out the mayo a little. Don’t make the mixture too thin – just use common sense.
• Cut the potatoes into small square pieces. There should be no need to peel them. Gently stir them into the mayo mixture.
• Decorate with parsley, slices of boiled egg or whatever. Leave it to rest. Like a fine ragu, it gets better with age!

Enjoy! Let me know if you like the recipe!

Despite the snow today, summer’s definitely coming. I can feel it in the air: there’s this frisson of ozone. I can also hear it: the birds are singing. I can see it too: it’s light when I go home (usually), and my flowerbed and veggies are starting to wake up.

Summer also means barbeques. Lots of them. It also means some experimentation at Nev’s place. Last year we grilled pretty much everything we could lay our hands on, but there was always a trusted favourite that we keep coming back to: the Nev Burger.

I call it the Nev burger, but chances are Nev found it somewhere else. I don’t know and I’m not really sure I care. It’s delicious.

Here’s the recipe. You’ll notice that it’s a “guy” recipe, in that it doesn’t rely on weights and measures in the same way that a “chick” recipe might. In “guy” land, measures are units of booze and weights are things you lift in the gym to pack the burgers you eat onto your Herculean physique.

Back to the recipe (feeds the guys you have over):

• Some ground beef. Maybe half a kilo. Maybe more. Use your judgement.
• Fresh Coriander
• An onion or two
• Garlic
• Some buns
• Lettuce
• Beef Tomatoes
• Creamed Horseradish
• A pack of cheese slices (the plasticky kind)
• Some chilli powder
• Mayo
• Ketchup
• Mustard

Chop the onion and garlic, chuck them into a bowl with the beef. Add some chilli powder and creamed horseradish. The horseradish acts as a flavour enhancer and binder. Chop the coriander. Chuck it in. Chuck some more in. Salt and pepper the mix. Form into patties and chow down with the rest of the ingredients in traditional burger fashion.

Enjoy with a cool, crisp, refreshing beer or a mojito.