So I haven’t posted at all over the last couple of months, the reason being that my website has been a work in progress and in the meanwhile I have been directing people to my last blog entry to give them an idea of what I do and to help them decide if they want to go ahead with a cooking demonstration.

I have aptly named my business ‘Annabel’s Kitchen’.  www.annabelskitchen.co.uk was launched last week through my facebook page. Annabel’s Kitchen on facebook has received just short of 100 ‘likes’ this past week!

In the last couple of months I have given various kinds of lessons and demonstrations.

Recently I was invited into Maidenhill school where I did a demonstration and then cooked with 45 of their pupils during their cultural awareness days. It was a great experience and was something totally different for the pupils. Most of them had not tried Thai food before! I cooked with the pupils over two sessions, just over 20 in each group and with the help of two assistants. I showed them first how to fry prawn crackers, they were totally amazing that this was how you made them and they didn’t just come ready in a bag. They then sampled them with sweet chilli sauce. After that they watched me make a curry paste which I then turned into a curry. The pupils were very suspicious of some of the ingredients that went into the paste and curry, mainly the shrimp paste and fish sauce due to their extremely unusual smell (’unusual’ being an understatement!)

After watching the demonstration they got to work  measuring out ingredients and making their curries with the paste I had made. They were extremely enthusiastic but required a vigilant eye whilst they worked out the difference between all the ingredients they had never used before! I put some rice on to steam whilst running round helping all the groups of cooking students. I sampled their curries and they were all very good, all slightly different, some sweeter, some saltier some more herby flavoured yet totally edible. Were there any disasters!? Just a tin of coconut milk exploding all over the kitchen and a couple of woks of burnt paste, but we remedied that by starting again with a lower temperature. They all sat down and ate their chicken curries with rice, and inspite of their suspicions all thoroughly loved it, with the exception of one vegetarian!

I definately plan to do more work in schools, and in October I’ve been invited to give a demonstration at the regions food technology teachers networking meeting, I look forward to it!

So I went from teaching 45 thirteen year olds one week to giving a demonstration for a group of 8 at a house on the luxury gated complex in Cirencester water park the next. Everything went extremely well and I employed my first assistant to help with the evening. Janine did a fantastic job and I’ll definitely be working with her again.

I’ve also given practical cooking lessons to various people, did a demo and tasting for 16 people from the Cleeve Hill society and had the Stanton Guildhouse host a demonstration and tasting open to members of the public. They plan to host another on October 21st. See Annabel’s Kitchen for more details.

I’ll keep you posted as to what’s coming up next.

 

 

 

Last week a group of 7 gathered at my house for a Thai cooking demonstration and dinner. As they sat around the dining table  nibbling on prawn crackers I demonstrated several dishes whilst they followed what I was cooking on their copies of my recipes.

 I provided them with information on buying their ingredients, all of which are available in Cheltenham. I gave them details of equipment that I find useful, provided tips on techniques to use and shortcuts to take if time is limited. I also answered any questions that they had as we went along.

This culminated in a delicious dinner of all the dishes cooked and a dessert that I had prepared earlier. Here is a copy of the recipes and photos.

 

 

THAI GREEN CURRY PASTE

THAI GREEN CHICKEN CURRY (Keaw Wan Kai)

STEAMED RICE

GREEN PAPAYA SALAD (Som Tam)

THAI STIR FRIED VEGETABLES (Phad Phak)

COCONUT ICE CREAM

SPICED BERRIES

                                                                           

 

 

THAI GREEN CURRY PASTE

 Making your own curry paste produces such a fresh tasting curry as well as lending to a wonderful colour. This is my own version of the recipe as kaffir lime zest; an ingredient used in green curry paste in Thailand is unavailable in the UK.

Makes approx. 200g (8-10 tbsp)

2 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

6 big green chillies – deseeded if you do not want the paste to be too spicy

1 stem of lemon grass, finely sliced

5 cm piece of galangal, sliced thinly

5 kaffir lime leaves

30g coriander root and 10cm of stem, roughly chopped

1 tbsp coriander leaves

3 large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

60G (3) shallots, roughly chopped

2 tsp shrimp paste

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

3 tbsp oil

 

Toast the cumin and coriander seeds in separate batches in a pan. Grind in a pestle and mortar.

Blend chillies, lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, coriander root, stem and leaves along with the ground coriander and cumin seeds.

Add the rest of the ingredients and continue to blend until smooth.

 

 

 

THAI GREEN CHICKEN CURRY (Keaw Wan Kai)

 

Thai green curry is one of the most popular dishes in Thailand. This is probably one of the most authentic recipes you will find. It is a slight adaption of a recipe that I learnt whilst at the Blue Elephant cooking school in Bangkok.

Serves 1

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1tbsp green curry paste

½ tsp roasted ground cumin seeds

½ tsp roasted ground coriander seeds

150ml coconut milk

50ml water or stock

70g-100g chicken, sliced finely

2 small Thai aubergines, quartered

10 pea aubergines

2 kaffir lime leaves

3 Thai sweet basil leaves

1 tbsp chopped coriander

1 tsp caster sugar

1 tbsp fish sauce

Heat the oil in a wok until hot. Add the curry paste, cumin and coriander and fry for around 2 minutes until an aroma develops.  Lower the heat and add half of the coconut milk a little at a time. Allow to simmer for 2 minutes, add the chicken and cook until cooked through, and then add the other half of the coconut milk. Gradually add the water/stock until the curry has reached the desired consistency.

Add the green aubergines and the pea aubergines, the sugar, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves and basil. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle with the coriander.

 

 

STEAMED RICE

 

Serves 1

100ml-150ml Thai rice- measured in a measuring jug

100ml-150ml water-equal volume to the rice

 

Wash the rice well in a sieve until the water runs clear.

Place rice and water in a rice cooker and press the ‘cook’ button.

If cooking in a pan, place the rice and water in the pan and bring to the boil. Simmer gently until the water has reduced to the level of the rice. Then place the lid on and cook on the lowest heat for 15-20 minutes or until cooked.

Fluff up with a folk before serving.

 

GREEN PAPAYA SALAD (Som Tam)

 

 

Green papaya salad is a delicious traditional raw salad with mildly spicy, sweet, sour and salty flavours. Green papaya is totally unlike the fruit that we know. The texture of the green papaya is like a white crunchy vegetable.

Serves 1

70g green papaya, peeled and grated into long thin strips

½ -1clove garlic

½ -3 green birds’ eye chillies

30cm yard long beans, broken into 3cm pieces

1 tbsp roasted unsalted peanuts

1 tbsp dried shrimps

3 cherry tomatoes cut in half

2 tbsp palm sugar

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp lime juice

Pound the garlic and chillies in a pestle and mortar.

Add the dried shrimps and pound until crushed. Add the beans and peanuts and pound.

Add the sugar, fish sauce and lime juice and stir together. Then add the tomatoes and press with a pestle.

Finally add the papaya and stir until well mixed in.

Serve at room temperature.

 

 

THAI STIR FRIED VEGETABLES (Phad Phak)

 

Serves 1

Stir fried vegetables are a great accompaniment to eat alongside all Asian dishes. Or for a healthy meal, eat the dish on its own with steamed rice.

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 garlic clove, finely sliced

40g baby corn, halved

40g Chinese cabbage, coarsely chopped

50g broccoli florets

40g carrots, julienned

25ml vegetable stock

2 tsp soy sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

½ tsp sugar

40g beansprouts

Heat the oil until hot. Add the garlic and fry for a couple of seconds, then immediately  add all the vegetables except the beansprouts, stir fry for 30 seconds to 1minute, or until the vegetables are cooked to your taste.  Add the stock and the sauces and sugar. Mix well. Toss in the beansprouts just before serving.

 

 

 

COCONUT ICE CREAM

 

Serves 4

2 sheets of gelatine

560ml tinned coconut milk

250g caster sugar

Soak the sheets of gelatine in cold water for 15 minutes. Dissolve the sugar in half the coconut milk in a pan over a low heat. When the sugar has dissolved, remove the mixture from the heat and add the gelatine. Mix to allow the gelatine to dissolve.

Stir in the rest of the coconut milk and set aside (put in the fridge once the mixture is cool enough) until the mixture is completely cold.

Freeze in an ice cream machine or put it into a container in the freezer. If making it in the freezer, after an hour of freezing take it out and beat by hand or use a food processor, repeat this process again after another hour, and repeat until it is smooth and evenly frozen.

 

 

SPICED BERRIES

 

Serves 4

400g mixed berries

200g sugar

225ml water

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise

 

Put the berries into a bowl.

Put the sugar, water, cinnamon stick and star anise into a pan and bring slowly to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Boil for just 2 minutes.

Cool for 4-5 minutes then pour the hot syrup over the fruit and allow the flavours to infuse for several hours in the fridge.

NB If using frozen berries, pour the boiling syrup straight onto the berries rather than allowing it to cool.

Way back in October I went and heard Ruth Rogers speak at the Cheltenham literature festival. I’ve heard and know of The River Cafe but I’ve never eaten there before, nor did I know of its history, until I went to hear Ruth speak. The story of The River Cafe is intriguing. I was particularly inspired by the fact that Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers set up the River Cafe as friends and with no formal chefs training and twenty-two years later they are still going strong and have gained an outstanding reputation. She spoke particularly on their new book The River Cafe Classic Italian Cookbook, a collection of 200 traditional and regional recipes from their extensive travels through Italy, cooking with friends, chefs and winemakers. Of course I bought the book and got it signed. Whilst signing the book Ruth said to me ‘do you like to cook?’! To which I replied ‘yes, I love to cook’ whilst my head was telling me to add ‘would I be able to come on work experience at The River Cafe?’ but I didn’t pluck up the courage!!

I got home and tried two recipes, the Italian focaccia bread, which was a total success and the Pumpkin Gnocchi, not so much of a success. The pumpkin was so wet that I ended up having to add far more flour than stated in the recipe.  The gnocchi didn’t end up tasting much more than a raw ball of dough. Extremely unappetising. In fact probably one of the worst things I’ve ever made and tasted! But I’m sure with a good pumpkin it would have been delicious.

This Christmas I received an Magimix ice cream machine, a totally brilliant invention and it does not require any freezing of bowls in advance- which is great, because our freezer does not even fit the old ice cream bowl part that I have in.  From turning the machine on it is ready to make ice cream within 5 minutes! Then, once the mixture is in the churn, it is frozen into ice cream within about 20 minutes.

The first batch of ice cream that I have made in the machine is the River Cafe Caramel ice cream found in their Classic Italian book. ( Gelato della caramello) This is apparently the most popular ice cream they make at the River Cafe. It is a bitter caramel ice cream, in fact it tastes rather similar to creme brulee.

For 10

1.75 litres double cream

450ml full-fat milk

20 large free-range eggs

350g caster sugar

For the caramel

300g caster sugar

120ml water

In a large thick-bottomed pan, gently heat the cream and milk to just boiling, then remove from the heat.

Beat the eggs with the sugar for about 5 minutes, until pale, thick and creamy in consistancy. Pour a little of the warm cream and milk micture into the eggs, stir to combine, then add this mixture to the remaining cream and milk. Return the pan to the heat and cook very gently, stirring constantly to cook the eggs but prevent them curdling. When the mixture has thickened and is almost boiling, pour it into a bowl and leave to cool.

To make the caramel, whisk the caster sugar and water in a small thick-bottomed pan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Then turn up the heat slightly and boil until the sugar turns from toffee to almost black caramel- but do not let it burn. Immediately remove from the heat and add the caramel to the cooled custard (carefully, as it does spit imensely!), stirring with a whisk until everything is comnined and is a beautiful dark rich colour. Allow to cool, then pour into an ice cream machine and churn until frozen, or freeze in a container, stirring occasionally to break up the ice crystals as it freezes.

I thought I would post the recipes for various quick and easy meals I’ve been cooking whilst unpacking boxes, painting and filling holes in walls etc. I have to admit that it still looks like we moved in yesterday and when people call by they look amongst the boxes and say ‘ Oh it’s looking great!’. Filly our dog has just added to the list of chores by attacking the door frame to the utility room in an attempt to escape. It looks like a job for a carpenter. Her other antics have included climbing on the dining table and stealing three pork pies, to which she is highly allergic. As well as chasing the neighbours cat and she’s also showing a keen interest in their chickens!

The first two recipes are adapted from recipes I saw in this months Olive magazine (actually they are so adapted you probably wouldn’t recognise the recipe if you had the magazine, but that is where the inspiration came from – i guess I could call them my own recipes!) and the Pad Thai is a noodle dish we learnt in Thailand.

Linguine with green and black olives and feta cheese

Serves 2

Olive oil

Garlic 2 cloves sliced

Small onion 1 chopped

Chopped tomatoes 1 x 400g can

Tomato puree 2 tsp

Linguine 200g

Pitted green and black olives approx 12-15 halved

Feta cheese 2 tbsp cubed

Flat-leaf parsley a small bunch, chopped

Heat 2 tbs oil in a medium pan and add the onion and garlic. Cook gently for 2 minutes, without allowing them to brown. Add the tomatoes and tomato puree and season (including seasoning of 1 tsp of sugar to counteract the sourness of the tinned tomatoes). Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile cook the linguine according to packet instructions. Drain well. Stir in the olives and parsley and heat through for 1 minutes. Add the feta to the sauce just before serving.

Toss the pasta with the sauce and serve.

Tip: I bought a pack of marinated olives and feta all together instead of buying them all separately

 

Roasted root vegetable and green lentil soup

Serves 4

Chantenay carrots 250g halved lengthways

 Potatos 2 peeled and cut into small chunks

Onion 1 cut into thin wedges

Olive oil

Dried chilli flakes a pinch

Ground cumin 2 tsp

Green lentils 200g

Vegetable stock 1.5 litres

Parsley a small bunch, chopped

Heat the oven to 190 degrees. Arrange all the vegetables in a single layer in a large roasting tin. Drizzle over 2 tbsp oil and spronkle over the chilli flakes, cumin and some salt and pepper. Toss the veg to coat in the oil and roast for 30-40 minutes until tender.

Meanwhile put the lentils and stock in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the lentils are tender. Stir in the roasted vegetables and parsley and serve with crusty bread.

 

Pad Thai

Serves 1

70g rice noodles

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large egg

3 prawns, deveined and headless but with tail attached

1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp yellow bean curd, finely diced

1 tbsp ground dried shrimp ( soak in cold water for 5 minutes, drain and pound in a pestle and mortar)

1 tbsp ground roasted peanuts

1 stem spring onion, cut into 2 cm pieces

30g bean sprouts

Soak the rice noodles in hot water until soft, approx 10 minutes. Careful they don’t get too soft.

Heat the oil in a wok until hot, then break the egg into the oil and scramble it.

Add the prawns and noodles, stir-fry for 15 seconds.

Add the fish sauce, sugar and lemon juice. Stir-fry for a further 15 seconds.

Add the dried shrimps, peanuts and beancurd. Stir-fry for another 15 seconds.

The toss in the spring onion and bean sprouts. Mix and remove from the heat.

Garnish with a lemon wedge and sprinkle with coriander leaves.

My friend Jess is expecting a baby girl in March. We decided on an afternoon tea party for her baby shower. Which included cooking for various specialist food requirements…the whole family bar one being vegetarian and one also being gluten free! However the selection of cakes I got together were still tasty and I’d say the one that was gluten free was probably the best!

I received The Hummingbird bakery cookbook for Christmas from a friend so I tried out their chocolate cupcakes with American cream cheese frosting. I wish I’d had a camera because they looked gorgeous and Christmassy, but you have to have an exceptionally sweet tooth to like them! Also my untouched Christmas cake made an appearance ( which remained untouched! and then got taken to the in-laws who love their fruit cake!)  along with the gluten free Italian hazelnut cake. I’ll include the recipe for the hazelnut cake below as people are often after something delicious to cook for gluten free eaters or celiacs. This is an exceptionally light cake. It’s from Rachel Allen’s Bake book.

ITALIAN HAZELNUT CAKE

200g (7oz) hazelnuts (skin on)

1tsp baking powder

1tsp ground cinnamon

100g butter, softened

5 eggs separated

175g (6oz) caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

You will need 20cm (8in) diameter spring-form/loose-bottomed tin

1) Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (Gas mark 3). Butter and line the sides and base of the cake tin with greaseproof paper.

2) Grind the hazelnuts with the baking powder and ground cinnamon in a food processor until fine. Add the butter and combine.

3) Place the egg yolks in the bowl of an electric food mixer or use a hand-held electric beater. Add the sugar and whisk until the mixture becomes slightly ‘moussey’ and the mix holds a trail when you lift the beater. Add the hazelnut mixture and the vanilla extract and whisk until combined.

4) Whisk the egg whites and salt together in a large, spotlessly clean bowl until stiff peaks form, then gently fold into the nut mixture in three stages so as not to deflate the whites.

5) Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, smooth the surface an bake in the oven for 55-70 minutes or until the cake feels firm and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. The mixture is quite delicate so don’t be tempted to open the oven until close to the end of the cooking time.

6) Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes. then very gently ease the sides of the cake out of the tin using a palette knife. Remove the base after another 15 minutes and leave to cook before cutting into slices.

For one month now I haven’t posted at all. This is because a rare event happened….my husband took a holiday! One month off work infact, so I took one too. But really it was a month of gradually moving  house, a slow process because not only have we had Christmas and New Year in between, we’ve had plentiful snow and have also been doing all the moving ourselves (with a lot of help!).

However, there has been no shortage of Christmas cooking! I got given Delias new book, HAPPY CHRISTMAS by Pauline who we cooked for down in Cornwall. I love it, and as much as people scoff about Delia and her recipes these days, they all worked and they were all extremely tasty, so I could only highly recommend it- for your Christmas cooking next year. I made her classic Christmas cake, which I generally cook every year, although this year I didn’t have the exact quantities of the various dried fruits, so I used more of some and less of others to make up the measurements, and perhaps  I would say the cake wasn’t as good as usual. Another Christmas cake I made was the Italian chocolate nut Christmas cake, this was great becuase it’s less dense and more like a fresh cake but wrapped in foil in the fridge it keeps for 2 weeks, although it never actually made it to the fridge.

 This year I also made more chutneys than ever before, Delias spiced cranberry chutney- which just reading though now, I realise I made totally wrong! I misread 425ml red wine vinegar for 425ml red wine!! Having tasted it the red wine I used was also corked!! I really ought to recall the jars I gave out as a Christmas gifts! The chutneys that worked well were the Ballymaloe spiced apple chutney and the tomato and apple chutney. We made 21 jars in total, between 3 of us that made them for Christmas gifts.

I also made Delias home-made mincemeat recipe, delicious, though no one was massively keen on the pastry that went with it, apparently not crumbly enough was the verdict from the keen mince pie eaters. (I’m not a massive fan of them anyway!) Her book provides a drinks recipe section, and we tried her hot spiced cider with buttered apples, which everyone loved, and also the mulled wine.

On Christmas eve I made canapes of chicken liver pate with onion jam on little biscuits. We had friends over and we bought a whole salmon. I filleted it and stuffed  home-made salsa verde between the two fillets and baked it in the oven. I served it with potato dauphinoise and buttered peas. Instead of dessert we had a cheese board with home made cheese biscuits.

The cooking of Christmas day lunch was handed over to my Dad, a welcomed day off for me! But I did cook the accompaniments of cranberry and bread sauce.

Amongst many other things cooked over the Christmas period I made a  Sri Lankan turkey curry, a beef hotpot and a good old 70s chicken chasseur!

Having been to the dentist 5 times in a week and being full of cold I have been on cooking strike. Last night I wanted to make something very quick and easy and I only had limited ingredients (ones that I would probably not usually use in a Chinese soup) as I haven’t done a grocery shop either! Inspite of being very simple it turned out to be pretty tasty. I’ll add the recipe below but I didn’t measure anything so if you want to make it add the ingredients to taste.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 litre Beef Stock

2 Star Anise

2 Sticks of celery

1 Leek

1/4 small cabbage

3 blocks of flattened egg noodles

1 piece of Salmon

Soya Sauce

Sesame Oil

Black Pepper

Bring beef stock to the boil with the 2 star anise. Meanwhile shred all the vegetables very finely, add to the stock with the egg noodles and boil for about 3/4 minutes. Season with pepper. Steam the piece of salmon and serve on top of the noodles.

We only wanted one piece of salmon between us, but you could do 2. These quantities also made more than enough noodles and soup, so there is more for lunch today! We ate this dish with chilli sauce made by my Dad as he had a large crop of chillis from the garden this year. To make the chilli sauce mix the ingredients below to taste. I have made this before and have never measured quantities-it always works!

Chilli sauce ingredients:

Chillis-sliced finely

Vinegar

Garlic-crushed

Sugar

I have not posted on the blog for a few weeks now. This has not been due to lack of activity in the kitchen…infact I’m still being very productive, unfortunately my Dad has lost my camera. I feel posts without photos are rather uninteresting. However there is still no sign of it, so i’ll post what i’ve been up to and add pictures at a later date. Either when my camera turns up or if I resort to buying another one.

Looking forward to a guest post from Joanne, all the way from Japan, with photos and recipes of her Japanese creations!

Here are just a few of the things I have been cooking in the last couple of weeks. I have been making as much as I can with all the vegetables we have growing in the garden. Including a variety of french beans, runner beans, tomatoes, lettuces, cabbages, purple sprouting broccoli, carrots, courgettes and various chilli plants. We also have a victoria plum tree that is absolutely laden with delicious juicy fruit and we have been trying to think of as many things as possible to make with the plums, as they are also proving extremely popular with the birds. (We have found that hanging CDs in the tree acts as a useful deterrent!) I feel all I need now is a couple of chickens! Or perhaps a pig or two!

VICTORIA PLUM TART: This is just one of the recipes we have made with the victoria plums. They have also been put to good use in different chutneys and even in a flapjack recipe, from this months Good Food magasine.

CHOCOLATE PECAN CAKE: I offered to make a cake for my friend Amy’s birthday BBQ,  she requested a chocolate cake. This is a recipe from Baker and Spice. It is rich and dense with an extremely chocolatey icing. In fact about 7 bars of green and blacks chocolate went into making the cake!

BANANNA AND WHITE CHOCOLATE MUFFINS: A recipe of my own. To take to my friend Leila’s birthday brunch.

STRAWBERRY TARTLETS WITH CREME PATISSIERE: A slightly labour intensive dessert, I saw something looking like these in a patisserie and decided to create my own version at home.

THREE RICE SALAD WITH COURGETTES AND GREEN BEANS: A variation on a recipe in my new Ottolenghi cook book. I used what we have in season in the garden rather than asparagus specified in the recipe. Inspite of the fact that this is a vegetarian recipe it proved extremely popular with the three meat loving men in the house!

This is just a small selection of what I have been cooking. Bread baking is next on the list….I’ll keep you posted.

I decided it was time to try out making puff pastry again so that it doesn”t become a forgotten skill! What I had forgotten was the amount of effort involved in making it; 6 rolls, multiple folds and turns of the pastry, as well as numerous chilling sessions in between in order to achieve 729 layers of pastry and butter! Was it worth it? The proof is in the pictures. I made cheese straws with Gruyere and Parmesan, a beef steak and kidney pie and a beef steak and mushroom pie. There is definately a skill involved in making puff pastry that I could still improve on, however I was pretty pleased for my first attempt back home.

I tried out my friends SLR camera to take the photos- I like it- I think I need one!!