Christmas Fever #2!!!

My christmas gift to you this week is the joy if home baking in the name of: my delicious recipe for flakey soft sweet and spicy Christmas Mince Pies!

I know you might think that it's a bit silly to make your own when you can buy perfectly delicious ones from the shop... But believe you me, there is something so satisfying about the smell of sweet spices wafting out your oven and filling the house with Christmas spirit, then sinking your teeth into a freshly baked, still warm soft and flaky, spicy and sweet homemade mince pie, knowing that YOU made them!

When making these you need to think a few days in advance. The longer you leave your mince to "mature" the more flavour you will get out of it.

Ingredients:
2 cups of raisins
2 cups of sultanas
2 cups of dried figs- chopped
1 cup of Candied peel- diced
1 cup of slithered almonds
250g suet grated (easily available at the supermarket, just ask!)
3 large apples, grated
1 Tbs ground cinnamon
1 Tbs ground ginger
1/2 Tbs ground cloves
1/2 Tbs ground nutmeg (freshly grated is best)
500ml Brandy

( with all the ingredients, add more or less depending on what your preferences are... These quantities are just guidelines)

1) mix all the ingredients together and then pour the brandy over and leave it to soak.
2) cover and leave- the longer the better! Can leave it over night at least.(I made mine at Christmas last year and then through out the year I fed it a little brandy to help the flavours develop and mature, then when you want to use it, freshen it up with another grated apple).

Pastry: (makes 32 mini pies and 15 larger ones)

50g sugar
125g butter
1 egg
200g flour
Pinch of salt
Zest of 1/2 an orange
1 tsp cinnamon

1) Cream the butter, sugar, orange zest and cinnamon in an electric mixer for about 5 mins, scraping the edges in to make sure it's all incorporated.

2) Mix in the egg until its all smooth

3) Add the flour and on a low speed mix it until it forms a dough.

4) take out the bowl, and roll it into a ball, but Try touch it as little as possible, wrap it in cling film and flatten it. Put it in the fridge to rest for 20 mins.

5) Dust a clean surface with flour and roll the pastry out about 3mm thick. Using a pastry cutter, cut out disks of pastry and line the small muffin tin or mini cupcake tin with the pastry, pushing it in and up the sides, make sure to get the pastry into the corners. Repeat until the whole tray is lined.

6) spoon the fruit mince into the pastry then cover it with a star shaped pastry cut out! Put it into the fridge to rest for 15 mins before baking it

7) bake at 175•C for 8-13 minutes or until the pastry starts to go slightly golden.

8) Take a pie out and check the base is cooked through and slightly golden too. If so, remove all the pies and put onto a cooling rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar while they are still warm so the frosty snow effect sticks!

Enjoy!!!!

Christmas fever!!! •<=) #1

Those of you who know me, know that I might just possibly, maybe, ok definitely have a mildly immense obsession of Christmas... To put it lightly.

So I have decided to do a blog series and dedicate it solely to the splendour of the Christmas season and all it's joy, happiness, laughter, fairy lights, mulled wine and delicious eats!

If you ask me, the Christmas season is just not long enough! I think it's the most wonderful time of year, not just for the presents and festive food, but for what happens to people and society around this time of year. There is love that can be felt in every corner of the earth, generosity is in abundance and people seem to forget their problems at large. Families come together, friends bond and no one seems to be forgotten. The world seems like a better place, made even better by the jingle of carols echoing through the streets and bellowing out windows.

So that said- number on on my agenda is : CHRISTMAS JUMPER DAY!! Get involved, do it! Give and wear a jumper (that's a jersey to us South Africans)!! 14 December is the day! And for those in sunny SA, wear a t-shirt or a Father Christmas hat! This is not in vain! It's for a charity, support the children.... Giving children the world over hope for a better life. So if you can- go to www.savethechildren.org.uk/jumpers and register or donate or get a group of friends together and have a fund raiser or if you want to, just wear a Christmas jumper and do a good deed that day or find your own charity to support! But it's in the Christmas spirit and there is no better thing to so than give!

Ok- so now for the juicy bits... The yumminess of Christmas!!
Over the next few weeks I'm going to be exploring London and its Christmas markets and scouting around for the best Christmas ideas.. Give these to you, then hopefully add my spin onto it! Just for the Christmas spirit!

walking down the streets of London, it's although Christmas has vomited all
Over it!! But in a good way! More like a glitzy shiny fairy light encrusted bomb has exploded! (Yes, that is a much better description)! Every street is lined with the most incredible array of lights and the shop windows are ho ho ho-ing! There are Christmas markets everywhere, Finnish markets, german markets and my favourite, winter wonderland!!

I have only visited the german Christmas market on the south bank of the Thames so far this year. It's a small market filled with wondrous Christmas goodies!, all set up in pine swiss chalet styled huts, laced with fake snow and beaming with lights, the air is thick with the smell of Glhuwien - or as the English call it, mulled wine! This is the ultimate toe warming, belly glowing drink!
It is traditionally made with a spicy more full bodied wine, such as a Shiraz , and then had a few spices thrown into it, a bit of sugar and maybe an orange or two then warmed up! Absolutely delicious!

I have decided to give you my recipe for the perfect mulled wine:

1 bottle of spicy wine such as Shiraz ( don't use the best quality ones as you are adding stuff to it and the wine makes would murder you)
Spices:
3 cloves
1 stick of cinnamon
2 cardamom pods (cracked open)
Vanilla pod split open (or a splash of vanilla extract)
1 star anise
A small knob of ginger

Zest and juice of 1 orange
2 table spoons of sugar (can add more depending on how much of a sweet tooth you have!)

1) Put the wine, spices, sugar and orange into a pot.
2) warm it up, with the lid on. Don't let it boil or you will boil the alcohol away.
3) when steam starts coming off, turn the heat off and leave the lid on and let it sit to infuse for about 15 minutes so all the spices can flavour the wine.
4) taste a little for sweetness; then strain off the spices and WARM up again to drink!
- remember to never bring it to the boil!!

Enjoy :-)



That's Christmas fever #1! Keep checking for more Christmassy updates!

Xxx

Dom and I at the turning on of the Regent Street Christmas Lights

The Covent Garden Christmas Tree

2012 and my Foodie Experiences!

2012 has been a year, very different to my year last year!
Quick run down:
I worked At the Ivy in Covent Garden for a few months, in the Pastry Kitchen.
Then I worked in an Italian Restaurant called Zucca for a little while ... In between all that working i have been enjoying the spenders of london, traveling to italy and had a brief trip home...
And now its back to Le Cordon Bleu, unfortunately not back into the kitchens, but taking a look into the more complex side of cooking and being successful, because its all very well being able to put a souffle on the table, its all about the management and marketing, and legal and financial side of things, and thats what I'm doing!

Now for the Detail!

The IVY:
I was very excited about getting this job, as it was a job in the pastry kitchen... now i know that i studied patisserie and did much MUCH better than i expected, so i thought, well why not take that and enhance my what i learnt, and carry on my learning experiences.
The Ivy is a restaurant that goes back into the history of london restaurants, so getting this job was quite an achievement (in my books).  It was all very nerve racking, I had to go for a Trial, and upon setting foot into the buzzing basement kitchen, was whizzed around on a quick tour, dodging the chefs racing around at break neck speed getting their Mis en Place (preparation) ready for service. I then changed into the XXL sized chef whites that were tossed to me, and told to make 3L of Creme anglais... now, the thing was, I know how to make creme anglais, but 1, had never made 3L of it at once, nor did i actually know the exact quantities... but i put my head down and got cracking... warming my milk and cream, infusing it with vanilla, blanching my yolks and sugar... then cooking it on the stove, standing on my toes so I could reach into the pot and see over the edge so as not to let it curdle. and i JUST made it, as i was pouring it through a sieve (to get rid of any lumps that could be in it) the anglais started curdling. My heart sank. I thought, "well there goes my chance and being a chef or ever working in a restaurant like the IVY" but to my surprise, the chef then asked me to create a desert of my own, using absolutely anything i could find in the fridge and dry store! anyway... at the end of the day, I got the job!

MY time at the IVY was spent mostly doing lunch service. I arrived at 6.45am, set up, checked fruit, prepared for service, cleaned the fridge (twice a day), made ice cream, made anglais and coulis and baked off cookies, did a bit of chocolate piping and got to do plating for service before leaving at about 5.30pm. It was all tremendous fun. All the Chefs in the Kitchen were friendly, much to contrary belief about chefs. It really was a great working experience and I learnt a Huge amount. all things that you can only learn from practical experience, and can never learn in a classroom.

I was offered Opportunity do to an Internship with a Cake decorating Company, so I very half heartedly resigned from my job at the IVY, only to find out a few days later that the internship had fallen through for various reasons...  I was left feeling very blue.

SO the job hunt started again...

ZUCCA:
My next job.... I went in for an interview and was offered a 3 day trial, and if they liked me, then i was to come back in 2 weeks and start the job.

So my 3 day trial began... I WAS IN HEAVEN. Zucca is Modern Italian restaurant... but doesn't sell itself as an italian restaurant, as none of the chefs in the kitchen actually came from Italy, but all had a passion for fresh, seasonal, heart-felt food.
Fresh bread and pasta is made every day, all the ingredients are seasonal and the menu changes depending on whats going on in the markets. Delicious home made Ice creams and cakes, and a passion for wine and olive oil and lemon... i had found my heaven.
My first job at Zucca was to chop herbs!!! I spent about 1 hour, maybe less, maybe more, i cant quite remember, chopping: Mint, Tarragon, Basil, parsley and Dill. With every herb, there was the smell that traveled its way up your nose, awaking your senses and brain. I could Imagine the pink lamb to eat with the mint, and making roast baby chickens with tarragon, eating ripe tomato burschetta with basil,  chopping fresh parsley into a greamolata for osso bucco and cooking a sea bass fillet with dill... but then all the herbs were mixed together into a bowl, and the smell of all those herbs together, blew me away with excitement to be in this kitchen.

I had 2 weeks to spare before i started my new Job at Zucca.
So I went to Italy!!!!!

ITALY
Now, i went to italy 3 times this summer, LUCKY LUCKY me! So i am going to combine them all into 1 and focus mainly on the deliciousness of Italy (the food deliciousness that is)!
Domenico, lives in Ischia. Which is an island just of the coast of Naples.
A very beautiful Island. Surrounded by the Mediterranean which is swarming with fresh fish, mussels, octopus, squid, clams..... Its soils are rich, which allows for the deepest red, sweetest most succulent tomatoes you could dare to imagine. The herbs are so fragrant that the evening air is filled with their aroma after a long hot day of the golden sun beating down on them.
The wonderful thing about italy that everyone loves food. Everybody has pots of basil and parsley growing in terra cotta pots outside their houses, where you can hear laughter and happiness echoing through the windows. There must be some correlation between the Love of fresh, simple food, home made wine and the golden glow of the sun that gives Italians the beam of life that radiates throughout the country.
I could go on for chapters and volumes on my experiences with Italian food and the warm generous Italian way of life and Hospitality and open arms, but I wont. I will Just mention a few Highlights... Staying With Domenico's family gave me such a deep insight into the way of life and the importance of a meal to the italian household. My First meal In italy was rich, meaty musseles and clams cooked in a sauce of sweet tomatoes just roughly cut up, some basil torn into it and garlic all swimming in green olive oil. The Sauce left over from cooking the muscles with was then used to enrobe spaghetti.... I have decided to add a few pics of some of the most delicious things i ate in Ischia, just to add to the experience.

View from the ferry

Spaghetti Vongole
Cooked By Doms Dad- Fresh tomatoes and lots of garlic.... DELICIOUS!!!

Bruschetta - need i say more?

Aglio Olio
This is made with lots of spring onions and garlic and parsley, this particular one  also had celery in it which gives an added lightness and freshness  to the flavour. a perfect kick of chilli and seasoned to perfection. 

Pizza with Parma ham and Rocket
The Neapolitans really do make the best pizzas in the world

Exploring Italy, in the true italian style - on the back of a vespa scooter!
Domenico and Me 

Roast Chicken
Wood fired rotisserie, with chickens stuffed with garlic and rosemary and those little aluminum trays filled with potatoes are cooking from the flavourfull chicken fats dripping off into them.
I can honestly say i don't think ive ever eaten such delicious chicken in my life.  

Chef Luigi
mussel Bruschetta 

Succlent Rabbit with tomato (grown from the garden)
and absolutely juicy!!!

Chef Luigi
Boccatini (wholattini)
in the juices that the rabbit was cooked in

One Thing i learnt from the Italian way of cooking is that nothing goes to waist. Every possible ingredients gets used to its full potential. There is respect for family, and warmth towards guests, every day seems to be an occasion as well as every meal.

Getting back to Zucca, after experiencing my little taste of italy, gave me passion and enthusiasm for putting my head down and my full heart into working and cooking fresh, seasonal, succulent ingredients.

July Came, as did the olympics, and summer and home was calling!!!! So I said good bye to Zucca after again learning so much, about respect for food and meeting such wonderful people in the kitchen. and I had spent some lovely quality family and friend time, which is always appreciated!!

As summer drew to an end i had one last fleeting visit to Italy for Doms Sisters wedding, Pigged out on more absolutely mouth watering food, to fatten up to brace myself for the cold of what London's winter has in Stall for me!

Im now, neck deep in focusing on marketing and managing and all those funny things that right now don't have any relation to food, but i know one day they will be the key to the success of wherever i hope to take my passion.
I keep up going to London's newest and funnest restaurants, and reading up on whats hip, hop and happening and expanding my ideas, memories and knowledge for one day when I will Have a name for my own ideas in the industry, and some graduate from cooking school will be blogging about being nervous about having a trial with me!!!

The world goes around, as does the Industry, and all we need to do is have Respect for the Love of food and remember that the ingredients need to be treated  with the utmost of care.

Until Next time

xxx