Keeping busy - and a new book!
A level results! I was surprisingly calm the night before they came through – I think my mum was more nervous than I was. Luckily for me they weren’t half bad. And I’ve got my place secured at Edinburgh. So the student cookbook will come in handy but not for a year as I’m taking a gap to cook and who knows what. But for the moment I’ve just been chilling out before my hectic end of summer plans – like Leeds fest in a few days – my 18th birthday – another new book to work on and publicity jaunts for the launch of the new one. Food-wise I’ve been attempting to perfect a chocolate birthday cake for Divine Chocolate to help celebrate Chocolate Week in October and their 10th birthday. Here’s one version. Love the cherries. Meantime, we’ve been eating out quite a bit this week which is always good for training the palate and inspiring when you get into the kitchen. More big news – the very first copy of the Student Cookbook arrived this week. It’s great to see it in it’s whole tidy form after months of having it lying round the house in huge proof sheets. I hope you lot enjoy it. I think it’s my favourite out of the lot because it’s got such a range and quantity of recipes and some brilliant photography (cheers Dad) that makes you want to get into the kitchen and get cooking. Anyway, got to go do stuff. Sam x
19 August 2008 Suppers Chinese-style
It’s been a massive cooking week so far. Now I’ve got all this time to play with I can be fooling around with different ingredients and everyone’s having parties with food as the focus. I was round at Joe’s for a barbecue at the weekend and found myself cooking a feast for everyone along with my mate Jordan. What did we do? There wasn’t much in the house as the parents were away so we had to blag it and work with a few ingredients, stuff from the garden and no recipes. So it was Chinese-style spare ribs – stuffed mushrooms (feta, oil, chilli, garlic) – steaks, sausages, potato, couscous and courgette salads. Pudding? We cut rhubarb from the garden – roasted it with elderflower and honey. We made meringues and a concentrated juice from the rhubarb and fresh raspberries. Smashed the lot up together with whipped double cream. It was well nice. On Tuesday I headed for the new Chinese supershop in town and picked up loads of interesting things. Came back and cooked up these wontons for soup. The filling for this classic’s a mix of minced pork and prawns, sesame oil, cornflour, seasoning, chopped water chestnuts. Wrap in wonton wrappers and poach for 6 minutes in boiling water. Meantime heat up your chicken stock and flavour it with sliced ginger, garlic if you like, spring onion and optional coriander. Add a bit of chopped pak choi, Chinese leaf or spinach to wilt for a few seconds. Put the wontons into bowls. Pour soup over. Drop sliced spring onion on the top. Lovely. Sam x
7 August 2008 Wild Cooking
It’s been food experimentation week – again. First off, I stumbled upon some wild mushrooms by accident when I was out at the farm shop. Don’t ask me their individual names but here’s a photograph. I wouldn’t go foraging in the fields myself as I don’t know what I’m looking for (and some are deadly) but these I trusted. They smelled disgusting but I persevered and they tasted lovely. Prepping and cooking took 4-5 minutes. First I diced up a couple of cloves of garlic which I cooked lightly in a bit of olive oil and butter, watching that they didn’t brown up (as the taste turns bitter and ruins everything). I added the roughly chopped mushrooms and cooked for 2 minutes or so, then added a splash of white wine (not too much), which I boiled quickly to burn the alcohol off (not long or you ruin the mushrooms). Turned the heat down – added a bit of sea salt, pepper and a little fresh thyme (though I thought about using tarragon). Slapped it onto some thickish slices of Italian bread which I’d cooked on the griddle till it marked up. (You don’t need to use oil for this.) The finished dish tasted so rich but with a little acidic lift and a herby flavouring. Awesome, speedy and so simple. (Try the basic method with your ordinary mushrooms. You don’t have to use wine – try lemon juice, stock or apple juice.) Secondly, I’ve been trying to perfect a new chocolate cake recipe using Divine chocolate and cocoa. It’s not the worst job in the world. On the non-work front I’ve been sleeping a lot. Caught the new Batman Movie – v. good. Went for a roast at my mate Henry’s house – the lads were cooking chicken with all the trimmings. Nice one. Tonight if the weather holds they’re all round at my house for a Barbie. I’m trying out a new way with my burgers – Heston Blumenthal style – and making focaccia. Sam
30 July 2008 A Greek Feast
I’m back. Greece with the lads was awesome. Partying, sunbathing, swimming, parascending, quad bikes. It was well hot all week – in the high 30s. Sadly the air conditioning in our apartment broke so that bit wasn’t too pleasant. And it was far too sweaty to do any cooking. So we ate out. I’ve become addicted to feta cheese, taramasalata and tzatziki. One night I managed to put away a 16oz steak – with salads – and won myself a free t-shirt. I felt pretty horrendous afterwards though and wouldn’t recommend it. I brought back some presents for the house. Some great feta, honey with walnuts, dried figs and some fantastically powerful olives (nothing like the weedy specimens we can buy here). So, it’s Greek salad all round this week: Chuck sliced tomatoes and cucumber into a bowl. Add your Greek olives. Crumble in the best feta you can find. Sprinkle with a bit of dried or fresh thyme or oregano. Mix lemon juice and good olive oil (one part juice to three parts oil) or just freestyle them both over your salad. Add a bit of diced red onion or shallot if you fancy. Eat with warmed pitas. Simple. Gorgeous. Bye for now, Sam xx
23 July 2008 Home-made jam
Sorry for short changing you on the blog last week. The holiday was great. A bit of a meat fest (vegetarians - stop reading now) and a hunting event. I know rabbits are cuddly, soft and furry but they make good eating. Most days I was out hunting with my mate Tom in his neighbouring fields. First it was catching. Then back home where he showed me how to skin and gut them before cooking. Top recipe involved marinating the meat for 2/3 days for maximum tenderness then griddling – we were hoping to have a barbecue but we didn’t get the weather. Elsewhere there was loads of meat-free cooking going on too (there were ten of us to feed). I found myself making pitta bread from scratch at midnight – fermenting a basic dough for an hour and a half (a bit of honey in there for sweetness) then letting it puff up in a hot oven to the count of ten – eating it hot and fresh with homemade falafel, hummous, guacamole, loads of salads and easy street-style food. Back home my dad noticed that our blackcurrants were ready so mum stewed up some brilliant jam for when I was back. Give it a go – there’s no jam quite like it. Jam’s easy to make but you need to think about a couple of things. 1. Use the right sugar. We use preserving sugar from Sainsbury’s which says it’s good for blackcurrants. If you can’t get any, then just use granulated. 2. Get it to the right temperature and it should set. Use a sugar thermometer or the cold saucer method to test it. Method: Get 900g of blackcurrants. (They’re in season now so pretty cheap.) Chuck away any leaves, pick off the stalks and the nobbly bit at each end (get help as it can take a while). Chuck them into a big heavy-based pan with 575ml water on a really low heat. Let this simmer v v gently for about 15 minutes. Meantime get five or six jars ready. You can buy these if you don’t have any or we keep any jars for jams, chutney etc. Wash and dry them well and put them into a low oven on a baking tray and let the heat sterilise them. At the same time put 1.25kg of sugar (as above) into a heatproof bowl and put it into the oven to heat. When the fruit's been heating for 15 mins, chuck the hot sugar in with it, give it a good stir and leave on that low heat for another 15 minutes. Meantime put a couple of saucers into the fridge to chill. Once the sugar’s melted into the fruit for your jam and the 15 mins are up, turn up the heat so the jam bubbles away and heats to setting temperature. That’s 'jam point' on the thermometer or if you don’t have one, spoon a bit of hot jam onto one of the chilled saucer after 10 minutes cooking. Leave it for a minute. Push with your finger. If it looks thickened and wrinkles up a bit it’s ready. If not, give it another couple of minutes then test again on the other saucer. Remove from the heat when done. Stir in 10g butter to deal with the scummy bits that always form (spoon off any bits that won't shift). Spoon into your hot jars. To seal and preserve your jam you need to put a disc of waxed paper on the top (from a jam kit – cheap from hardware store or Lakeland) then a cellophane lid sealed with an elastic band or the lid from the original jar. Make sure the tops are airtight and sealed well. Leave to cool – wipe off the mess. Stick labels on. Start to eat the next day or it lasts for a year or more. It’s nothing like bought jam. Am off travelling again. See you later. Sam x
14th July 2008 Tasty car snacks
Well that’s it. School’s officially over. I’m on holiday so no blog. But check out the chocolate orange cookies (they're in 'Real Food Real Fast' if you want to make them). I’m taking some for the car heading down to Cornwall. A load of us are off to stay with my mate Tom. It’s going to be fresh fish all round – maybe a spider crab or two - and Cornish pasty heaven. Report back soon. Sam x
7th July 2008 End of School
Get in! I’ve finished exams. It’s such a good feeling though it hasn’t really sunk in yet that I’ll never have to go back to school again. I’ve got 15 months of freedom lined up (well, sort of) including a trip to Ireland for 3 months intensive cooking to take my skills up a notch. Also, hopefully, I’ll do a bit of travelling, writing.. the world is literally my oyster – I’ll be eating and prepping a few. I’ve got to leave now as there’s stuff to do. I’m having a bbq for my mates tonight. Vegetarians look away now. There’s so much meat in it’s amazing. I love meat. I’m doing Memphis ribs (thanks to the butcher in the market who got them in) burgers, chicken wings, shish kebabs, bangers, Barbie griddled bread (my first go at it) loads and loads of salads. Fruit salad and baby meringues. Celebration chocolate cake. Dozens of cookies using a mega box of novelty cutters my brother and I bought for mum at Christmas and she’s never used. So anyway for all of you guys still at school – keep with it. Summer’s nearly here. Sam xx
24 June 2008 Father's Day celebration roast
Six days to go before the last exam and I can’t wait. Motivation’s getting tricky. Seems like revision’s been going on forever. Just my luck that politics is the last-but-one A level. Loads of mates are already hitting the town – my turn soon though. To be honest I did take a bit of time off for Father’s day. What did you get/do for yours? I treated mine to some favourite cheeses (mmm… very nice) and a celebration roast lunch. He got to choose what he wanted to eat – but as I was working he had to go out and buy it. He and mum headed off to The Farmer’s Cart – the awesome Yorkshire farm shop. He got a sirloin roast (their own beef), broad beans (not my favourite, but he loves them), cauli, broccoli, mucky spuds. (Ok the baby jersey royals are in season and pretty gorgeous but he wanted traditional roasties). The FC has just started a loyalty card scheme – on your sixth shop you get 20% off the bill. It was the third time they'd been since it was launched, so the girl at the checkout gave them a free cabbage! Everywhere you look food prices are heading up but farm shop prices are still reasonable because the food doesn’t need to travel, and there aren’t zillions of people adding on their own profits. That and the best fresh food. You can’t beat ‘em. Other news? The fourth book has finally gone to print. Phew. The aim is to get all Uni students cooking for themselves – and saving money and energy. Huge thanks to Gordon Ramsay and Prue Leith for taking time out to look at it. Sam xx
16 June 2008 The great chicken debate ... and a chocolate cheer
Two exams down and a few more to go. It’s all getting pretty intense to be honest and the cooking’s therapeutic. This week I learned how to spatchcock a chicken. It’s so easy! Take a small bird (eg a poussin). Sit it breast down on a board. Cut along either side of the backbone with sharp kitchen scissors or shears. Chuck the bone away. Press down with the palm of your hand. I sealed it quickly on the griddle then grilled it. You can do with with a garlicky olive oil, add salt and lemon juice/herbs at the finish. I devilled it with a mix of mustard and tabasco, a bit of brown sugar then finished it off quickly with garlic breadcrumbs for a crunch. Once exams are done I’ll be cooking it on the barbie. The debate about free-range chicken goes on. Check out Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s Chicken Out! website. Hugh (Saint Chicken) is taking on the supermarket Tesco this week. He wants them to guarantee that all the birds they sell are kept in the best conditions so he’s become a share holder in the company. When they have their annual shareholders meeting he wants to put forward a proposal to that effect. Tesco wants to charge him 84 grand to send out the paperwork so he’s started a fund and an on-line auction. Check out all the issues online. He’s right. We should keep all our animals in humane conditions – preferably free-range. And not just chickens. Finally – a big cheer for Divine Chocolate. They’ve won a major ethical product award this week – plus they make the best chocolate and cocoa. Try it for these chocolate muffins – recipe on the chatboard. Divine is owned by a co-operative of cocoa farmers in Ghana and 45,000 people in 1,200 villages get a share of their profits and decide how it should be spent. Apart from that it tastes brilliant. Well, gotta go revise some more. Sam xx
9 June 2008 Spare ribs - whatever the weather
To be honest I’ve not had a lot of time for cooking this week – exams kick off big time tomorrow. So Sunday was spare ribs – something that didn’t need a lot of prepping. Usually I make up a bit of a sauce. Chuck single pork ribs in to marinade. Bake it up. I went for a different style of rib this time. I cooked these up as whole racks (keeps them tastier and tender) in a really low heat (110C) for 3 hours coated in a hot and spicy dry rub. A mix of salt, brown sugar, chilli powder, cayenne, paprika, hint of smoked paprika, cumin, coriander. The surface dries and crisps up while the meat underneath soaks up the spices while enhancing the pork flavour. Just at the end I made up a barbecue sauce (see the one in Cooking Up A Storm or make up your own mix of ketchup, mustard, orange juice, brown sugar, crushed garlic, vinegar). Increase the oven heat just a bit. Brush some of the sauce over the ribs. Leave for 5 minutes. Cut the ribs (carve from the underside so you can see to cut between them). Serve with the warmed barbecue sauce to pour/for dipping, soaking into your rice, couscous or whatever else you’re eating the ribs with. If you’ve got the Barbie out then cook these guys in the oven then finish off on the Barbie. Sadly it was raining all weekend so that wasn’t an option. Let me know your top rib/barbecue recipes and if you’re doing exams this week – good luck. Sam xx
2 June 2008

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