I came across this video of  USA baking legend Peter Reinhart and I must say he confirmed my feelings for baking bread. His passion together with his simplistic and humorous manner of explaining how to make the perfect dough, what happens during the “making” process and all things  technical  is just simply perfect!

If you have a  spare 16 minutes watch this video as it definitely clarified any remaining issues as to why I still sometimes bake bricks! Baking bread is the radical transformation of taking wheat or flour and making it into a tasty loaf, it’s a tricky process and the fate of your loaf lies in your hands. The baker makes the ultimate decisions on which flour or ingredients to use but a small fluctuation in temperature and timing  will effect the final outcome of your loaf.

In short you cannot fast track the process and without the true understanding and knowledge it’s a daunting task. Anyone can bake bread but armed with the knowledge and know how, it’s an even more interesting and exciting process.

Peter talks about the 12 stages of bread baking and explains the Bakers Mission of extracting flavour from wheat or flour:

1. Mis-en-place – weighing ingredients and getting everything ready
2. Mixing – developing the gluten to give the dough the strength to grow and activates the yeast
3. Fermentation – developing flavour – this is the stage  where the yeast ‘eats’ the sugars and starts to ferment by creating carbon dioxide and alcohol- in Peters words the yeast “burps” and “sweats”
4. Dividing – the dough into smaller pieces which makes it easier to handle
5. Shaping – Shape the dough into required shapes such as loaves, rolls, sticks etc..
6. Resting
7. Final Shaping
8. Panning – transferring the dough to suitable tins and baking vessel such as baskets, loaf tins or baking trays
9. Final Fermentation also known as proving stage
10. Baking – Three transformations take place: 1. the sugars caramelise and forms a crust; 2. proteins coagulate at 160°C, this forms the crumb of the loaf; 3. gelatinisation takes place when the dough reaches 180°C, all the moisture is absorbed and the yeast bubbles bursts and all the flavours are transferred to the bread
11. Cooling
12. Eating!

Click here to view the embedded video.

This lavish lobster macaroni is the exact dish that we have put on the menu for the opening and will enable me to produce proper costings  I thought it best if I cooked this dish to give all the British Larder readers a look test and once the doors are open you could happily tuck in on the taste test. It’s not going to be the cheapest dish on the menu as you can imagine but it surely will be lavish and cooked with a lot of love.

When I cooked this dish, I so enjoyed every moment as it took me right back to the years when I used to cook lobsters every day for the lobster raviolis on the exquisite  menu of the restaurant where I used to work . It was a daily task performed early in the morning and it was my job to cook the lobsters, pull them apart and prepare the meat for the raviolis. I have a mild allergy when I touch cooked lobsters, my fingers swell up and they itch fiercely. I remember how the boy’s used to call me a “pansy” for wearing the yellow marigolds, they thought I could not stand the pain  when the sharp bits of shell pierced my finger but it was due to the mild allergy. Boys!! I can eat it  which is a good thing because this is one of those dishes I would not miss for the world.

Lobster is still classed as a delicacy with its incredibly high prices. Lobster should not be taken for granted and for that reason I use the whole lobster to make this lavish dish. It takes the average lobster about eight years to reach maturity, hence the strict fishing regulations that ensure a caught lobster must measure at least 10cm from the eyes to where the tail is attached to the body. There are several groups of crustaceans known as lobsters. However, the most commonly known and used by chefs in the UK is the North American or European lobster, with its blue coloured armour. See the one in the picture above, it was brought in from the river Ore near Orford.

The inspiration for making this dish came from spending time out in my kitchen garden admiring the bees at work pollinating the raspberry bush. Last summer Mum visited and she gave Mr.P a small bee house as a birthday gift. We attached the bee house to the wall in between the raspberry and blackberry bushes. There were no occupants last year as we had only put it up at the end of the summer however this year we were delighted and very excited to see movement and very happy residents residing in the bee house.

They are fascinating little creatures buzzing away round the raspberry bush so I’m expecting a bumper harvest. This particular cane is the Tulameen variety  bearing plenty of large plump fruits and the fragrance is what I like the most, a true sweet raspberry perfume.

I thought I should keep the dish simple and simplicity is exactly the way to describe a classic cranachan. I dug out the bottle of good quality Scottish whisky that Mr.P got for Christmas and along with the jar of heather honey,  cranachan is the obvious choice.

I served them in these small glasses,however it’s the perfect dish to make in small kilner jars and to take along on a picnic. I would suggest however you bake a few shortbread instead of these fragile toasted oat wafers.

Cherry trees in Britain have been around for quite some time as they were introduced to us during the 1st century by the Romans. They thrived in our countryside and climate and became crucial for the survival of wild life. With the steep decline in the number of cherry trees due to the growth and expansion of our towns and cities it became apparent and important that we should protect our cherry orchards.

Food Lovers Britain established a Cherry Aid Campaign to save the British Cherry. This campaign highlights why we should buy British cherries in preference to imported ones and why it means so much to our heritage and wild life to save the humble cherry tree.

We met Sudi Pigott also known as The Better Foodie a while ago at a dinner party. It was a lovely evening, we enjoyed fantastic food, drink and great company followed by one of Sudi’s enjoyable and very interesting foodie quizzes and a few bars of Original Beans exquisite chocolate.

I must say when I first cast my eyes on a bar of this exquisite Original Beans chocolate I was bowled over! The packaging is absolutely beautiful and the story of conservation grabbed my attention. They had thought of absolutely everything!

Sudi made sure that we received a few bars, especially the 75% piura criollo from Peru, one of the rarest chocolates in the world. This particular Piura Criollo chocolate was subjected to the conching process for 72hrs to ensure an incredibly smooth chocolate that showcases the pure chocolate flavours. This chocolate has a wonderful lasting flavour, loads of black pepper and passion fruit. It’s perfect for the most indulgent dessert.

After a long time deliberating over what I should make with this wonderful treasure that Sudi had sent me, I realised that there is only one dessert that I possibly could make. This chocolate fudge cake with cherries in red wine is a near to death by chocolate dessert. It’s rich and very memorable if you use the right chocolate like the Original Beans you will never forget making nor eating it.

I baked the chocolate fudge cake in small individual cake tins as it’s rich and is served best in small portions. I finished the pure chocolate indulgence off with a small quenelle of Original Beans Chocolate Ganache and a spoon full of British cherries in red wine. Pure indulgence and deliciousness at it’s best!

As you know by now I’m not quite normal and find it hard to do things the standard way, there has to be a twist somewhere along the line. Perhaps I’m putting too much pressure on myself to be slightly different or perhaps it just comes naturally.

Mr.P and I enjoy eating a good chicken Caesar salad as it is satisfying and has lots of different textures and does not leave you feeling heavy and bloated.

I made this particular dish into a portion big enough for a main coarse but if you wish you can  make a smaller amount and serve  as a starter.

It’s not always about the gimmicks and twists  that make a great dish but it’s also about good quality ingredients that are to be enjoyed when in season. These baby gem lettuces are from my small kitchen garden and this year I had better success as I introduced kolhrabi, a member of the brassicas. This was planted next to the lettuces and this helped to minimise  the pest problems which allowed us to enjoy a lovely harvest of baby gems. The chicken is from a farm near Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, I go specially to the Snape farmers market to buy these chickens as they are plump and delicious.

These Sutton Hoo Chickens are very big, the average weight is 2kg. This is enough to make stock from the bones and at least two meals for the two of us from the legs and breast or alternatively its sufficient for four people. I roasted the legs, flaked the meat down and then made the small pots of chicken. It’s fun and adds that extra texture and enjoyment into eating the dish. The Caesar dressing and Parmesan cheese also found itself revamped into a mousse textured foam, I served that in a small glass jar on the plate.

It’s great fun, gets a wow at the dinner table and would also make a great dish to take along on a picnic.

A culinary foam consists of natural flavours such as fruit juices or vegetable purees, soup and stock bases mixed with gelling or stabilising agents such as lecithin, gelatine or natural fats in cream and other dairy produce .This is achieved by the introduction of air by using either a mechanical technique of whipping the fluids with either a hand held immersion blender or extruded through a cream whipper using N₂O cartridges.

This technique is not new to us and has been used for many generations such as the making of cappuccinos and the old childhood favourite  for adding a topping to an Ice-cream Sunday. Adrià has taken this 1970’s technique and equipment, refined the philosophy and used the science behind it all to develop the more commonly used culinary foams, airs and espumas that we all know these days.

In the ‘90s, when Ferran Adrià developed this technique it took the culinary world by storm and and it was considered avant-garde at that time. Then foams were used in the white-tablecloth establishments around the world and became totally over used.However who cares if foams are so ‘yesterday’ in the restaurant world? I still love the technique and think it’s definitely one to retain. It shows that the culinary world is turning and we are not all stuck in obeying the classic French school of cooking . I class it as a cookery technique developed and learnt in my cookery era and I’m proud of it and shall celebrate it for as long as I can.

The benefits of this technique is that when you incorporate air mechanically, in a fierce manner, into a very intense and strong flavoured sauce  you expand the flavour so it becomes light and sumptuous and the volume doubles.

As briefly explained before there are two kinds of foams. I  differentiate the two as follows:

1. The one that I refer to as a foam or cappuccino is made with a hand held immersion blender creating a wispy foam,
2. The other foam,  espuma or air ,is created by a cream whipper, also known as a siphon, using N₂O cartridges to incorporate the air which creates a  dense mousse type foam.

Which foam to use  and when is a matter of personal preference. To create the perfect foam or air it is important that you have a understanding of how to achieve this and I have listed a few facts that should set you on your way.

Espuma and Foaming facts:

• The liquid or puree must be thick and or dense enough to hold its shape.
• For the foam to hold its shape for a period of time there must be some form of thickening or gelling agent present in the liquid.
• Thickening and gelling agents are: gelatine, lecithin, agar and natural fats such as butter, cream and other dairy produce
  
• For hot foams the best thickeners are fat or starch; this could be found in butter, cream or milk. It’s also important to make sure that the liquid is not too hot, the perfect temperature is between 5o°C and 65°C. Place the cream whipper in a bain-marie filled with hot water; do not keep for longer than 2 hours.
• Cold foams also require fat to stabilise the shape but if you make dairy free foam you can use gelatine with dense liquid or purees, to stabilise the foam. All depends on what  you are making but I normally use 1 leaf of gelatine to 250ml of dense liquid. If your choice is dairy you can add fat by adding yoghurt, crème fraîche or cream.
• There are two different gasses available to charge the cream whipper . Standard gas bulbs that will give you the foaming characteristics are Nitrous oxide (N₂O) .
• Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) is also available and will give the liquid a fizzy texture commonly found in fizzy drinks. Select your gas carefully to give you the desired end result. If you would like to experiment with making fizzy soda drinks I recommend that you should investigate the Soda Siphons bottles.

British Larder Recipes Creating Foams

• Molasses Roasted Pineapple with Dark Brown Sugar
• Oyster Beignets With a Sorrel Velouté
• Cauliflower Soup with Morbier Air Profiteroles
• Celeriac Espuma with Ras-el-Hanout Steamed Tiger Prawns
• Apple Snowball
• White Hot Chocolate Espuma with The Ultimate Chocolate Brownies
• Clementine Sherbet Verrines
• Tamarind Pears with Creamed Tapioca and Toffee Pear Lollipops
• Mango and Blackcurrant Espuma
• Pink Peppercorn Strawberry Jelly and Thyme Infused Honey Custard
• Chilled Pea Soup With Parmesan Cream and Soft-Boiled Gulls’s Egg
• Restaurant Sat Bains presents a “Sweet Curry”
• Vinegar Air and Salty Crispy Potatoes

Instead  I have added a delicious creamy Oxford Blue to the mayonnaise base to add a touch of zing, difference and excitement to this old classic.

Well I never thought that I would ever hear myself saying a Waldorf salad looks sexy but this one does. This salad does not only look fantastic but also tastes wonderful. I have chosen to use Oxford Blue cheese, I like the perfect balance of the creaminess, acid and the fragrance of the blue. You could substitute the Oxford Blue for any creamy blue cheese of your choice, such as Roquefort, Gorgonzola or Suffolk Blue.

This  Waldorf  version works for me on all levels, it’s got a diverse range of textures from the crisp crunch of the granny Smith apples, celery and  the roasted walnuts to the soft texture of the crumbly Oxford Blue and finally the creaminess of the Oxford Blue dressing.

It’s not only the textures that deliver and make this salad exciting but also the flavours. The strength of the blue cheese stands up against the tang of the granny Smith apple and the pepperiness of the watercress. All the flavours and textures work well together and make this salad interesting and delicious, or shall I say memorable and exciting.

I have chosen to use Granny Smith apples as I wanted the tangy sharpness that this variety of apple brings to this dish. You can customise your Waldorf salad to suit your own tastes, choose an apple of your choice, or even change the walnuts for others such as cobnuts, pecan nuts or hazelnuts.

Cockles and whelks are synonymous with the British seaside, pickled in a vinegary solution, eaten on the pier out of a white polystyrene cup with a plastic fork. Wow I hope these thoughts have just evoked a few good old childhood memories.

I love them for their flavour especially in the way I cook them as they fill the pan with the’ taste of the sea’ . Steaming them quickly in a hot pot with white wine and lots of sliced shallots and then using the cooking liquid to make the creamy cockle velouté. A rich full flavoured helping of the sea,delicately coating the subtle soft flesh of the lightly cooked John Dory, crispy pillows of pan-fried gnocchi and crisp salty samphire and juicy clams, all the flavours of the sea with bags of texture.

This plate of food is the kind that I would definitely not get bored with. It often happens  that when I eat in  a restaurant I do not finish my main course, the reason being  is that I get bored with the sameness of the textures and flavours, especially if it’s a large portion. John Dory is an attractive flat fish with a large head and a distinctive large black spot on its side, said to be the thumbprint of St Peter. The flesh is slightly sweet when super fresh and compliments the sweetness of the fresh cockles in this delicious recipe.

I added the gnocchi for the texture and the fresh samphire reminds me of how incredibly lucky I am to live where I do. It’s close enough for a day trip to Norfolk or Suffolk to pick samphire and sea purslane and purchase a net of fresh cockles from the boats. I can pop off to London’s Billingsgate market to pick up a fresh John Dory from the South coast. I’m spoiled for seasonal choice!

The culinary world has gone into a macaron frenzy. It’s macarons wherever you turn your head. So it’s time that I jumped on the macaron band wagon and give it a whirl.

My recent visit to Pierre Hermé’s exclusive macaron boutique at Selfridges confirmed what a true master he is with funky flavour combination’s. My favourite must be the wasabi and strawberry.

I am also addicted to all pretty things in life, so my aim is not only to make my macarons as pretty as possible but also give it the professional look.

I achieved this with my macarons by using a garnish of  freeze dried raspberries, black sesame seeds and chopped pistachio nuts. I made one batch of macaron mixture, coloured it with one colour, used different garnishes and flavoured fillings. I made my own version of wasabi and white chocolate butter cream as well as a toasted black sesame seed butter cream and for the third flavour combination I used a strawberry and rose jam as a filling.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You might think that the wasabi flavouring is a weird combination, honestly I though the same but all I can say is WOW! The wasabi has acidic and citrus undertones and combined with a really good quality white chocolate, I chose one with floral notes,to provide an  absolute dream flavour explosion. It surpassed all my expectations. I even think it tasted more fragrant than the wasabi and strawberry one I bought at Selfridges. (Hope no one takes any offence to me saying that.)  You have to add the wasabi to suit your taste, I suggest you start with a little  and mix it very well. I used a butter cream made from unsalted butter as my carrier for the wasabi. I also used wasabi paste and not powder, it’s entirely your choice. If you only have powder then I suggest that you should first make it into a paste and then add, to taste, to the butter cream.

To add a bit of glamour and sparkle to your baked macarons dust with edible glitter. You can get all sorts of funky shades and colours.

What I love  most about macarons is that you can make as many interesting colour and flavour combination’s as you wish. I have listed only a very few in the recipe below. I hope this short video will also give every macaron lover the confidence to give it a go and crack the art of making macarons.

This time of the year when the days are getting longer and there is more light I feel more alive and have more energy to do lots.  Easter is approaching and I have had my fair share of Easter buns  but then I can never get enough of these.

Last month I bought two freshly baked Chelsea buns at Great Garnets farmers market from an old lady and gent who bake bread and buns in their kitchen at home. I was gobsmacked as they were both of  retiring age and I could not believe that they were baking so much for a farmers market. Once we arrived back home we enjoyed the Chelsea buns, slightly warmed, with a cup of tea. When I took the first bite I gasped as it was the most delicious Chelsea bun that I have ever tasted. It was feather light, moist, the glaze was just right not too sweet and just simply memorably delicious.

I analysed the buns and was wondering if she had used suet as they where incredibly light. I was on a mission looking for the perfect recipe and must have paged through at least 18 bakery cookbooks and scoured the web but not even Dan Lepard’s bun recipe came close. Not one suggested using suet so I set off working on my own recipe, trying to recreate the taste and feather lightness of those Great Garnets buns.

So I have been pondering for a month on how to replicate these incredibly delicious Chelsea buns, and yes it took a month before I felt I had the right ammunition and knowledge to attempt the baking challenge.

Well the results were absolutely fantastic!!! Feather light, moist and simply delicious!!!

I had to add my own twist and as I love both cinnamon and Chelsea buns I thought I should combine the two and add my own addition of orange and blossom honey. Even though this is not close to the traditional hot cross bun it makes a well deserved alternative, perfect for breakfast and the spring picnic basket.