Adrian's Blog

Category: Recipes

  • Devonshire Scones

    Devonshire Scones

    Print Recipe
    Servings: 16 scones
    Ingredients Method Notes

    Ingredients
      

    • 450 g self-raising flour
    • 2 teaspoons roundedbaking powder
    • 75 g butter (room temperature)
    • 50 g caster sugar
    • 2 eggs
    • 225 ml milk

    Method
     

    1. Pre-heat the oven to 220°C/Gas 7.
    2. Rub the butter into the flour and baking powder until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.
    3. Beat the eggs make up to 300ml with the milk, then put 1 tablespoons of the egg/milk aside in a cup for glazing the scones. Gradually add the egg/milk mixture to the dry ingredients to form a soft dough. A wetter mixture will rise better.
    4. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll to a thickness of 1-2 cm. Use a 5 cm cutter to cut out – lift it straight out, don;t twist.
    5. Brush the tops with the reserved beaten egg/milk mixture to glaze. Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until well risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack, covered with a clean tea towel to keep them moist.

    Notes

    Freeze as soon as cold or eat same day.

  • Singapore Fried Rice Noodles

    Singapore Fried Rice Noodles

    Print Recipe
    Prep Time 15 minutes
    Cook Time 5 minutes
    Total Time 20 minutes
    Servings: 2 people
    Ingredients Method

    Ingredients
      

    • 2 pieces Rice vermicelli
    • 4 cloves garlic minced
    • 1 tsp peeled and grated fresh ginger
    • 8-10 small prawns shelled and deveined
    • ½ lb char siu thinly sliced
    • 2 eggs beaten, cooked in an omelette, and sliced into strips
    • 1 red bell pepper thinly sliced
    • 2 spring onions thinly sliced
    • ½ green chilli shredded
    Sauce:
    • 5 tbsp soy sauce
    • 2 tbsp cooking wine
    • 2 ½ tsp curry powder
    • ½ tsp sugar
    • 1/4 tsp white pepper powder
    • ½ tsp ground turmeric

    Method
     

    1. Soak the dried rice vermicelli in a large mixing bowl with some hot water while prepping for other ingredients.
    2. Mix the sauce together and set aside.
    3. On medium-high heat, add oil to the wok. Cook the prawns for about 2 minutes each side then set aside.
    4. Drain the rice vermicelli. Cut it for convenience, or keep the noodles whole for long life. Your choice.
    5. On medium-high heat, cook the garlic and ginger until fragrant, then add all the vegetables. Cook for 3-4 minutes until softened. Set aside.
    6. On high heat, add a little oil to the wok and cook the rice vermicelli until it turns soft, about 3 minutes, then add the vegetable, shrimp, char siu, and eggs. Stir in the sauce. Stir fry for a few minutes until the sauce has coloured all of the noodles. Cover if necessary.
    7. Serve immediately.

  • Tiger Bread

    Tiger Bread

    Print Recipe
    Ingredients Method

    Ingredients
      

    For the dough
    • 500 g bread flour
    • 7 g sachet quick yeast
    • 1 tsp salt
    • 300 ml warm water
    For the tiger paste
    • 100 g rice flour
    • 1/4 tsp salt
    • 1 tsp sugar
    • ½ tsp fast action dried yeast
    • 150 ml warm water
    • 3 tbsp sesame oil

    Method
     

    1. Mix the dough ingredients together with a mixer & dough hook.
    2. Cover in oiled cling film and leave to rise until doubled in size.
    3. Knock back and shape the loaves or rolls.
    4. Mix together the tiger paste ingredients and spread thickly over the bread.
    5. Leave to rise for a further 1/2 hour then bake as normal at 220C / 200C fan / Gas mark 7.

  • Brined Turkey

    The best way to cook a turkey is to brine it first; brining results in a more tender, juicy turkey and also adds spice flavours to the meat. Don’t worry about a salty taste, and be careful with cooking time; a brined turkey cooks a little faster than a plain one.

    Our recipe is sufficient to brine a 5.5kg (12lb) turkey. Smaller birds can be brined in the same solution, but for larger turkeys you will need to scale up the amount of water and salt.

    The most important step is to find a suitable container; it needs to be big enough to contain the turkey in the brine, and fit into your fridge. We use a plastic storage container from Ikea, but any clean strong plastic or stainless steel container is OK.

    Ingredients

    • 5.5kg Turkey, giblets removed
    • 6 litres of cold water
    • 150g salt (use ordinary table salt, not the more expensive sea salt)
    • 1 large orange
    • 1 large onion, quartered
    • 2 tbsp black pepper corns, cracked
    • 1 tbsp sichuan peppercorns
    • 2 sticks of cinnamon bark
    • 8 star aniseed
    • 4 dried bay leaves1 tbsp goji berries
    • 200g sugar
    • 4 tbsp honey
    • 4 tsp five spice powder
    • 4 cloves of garlic, crushed with the flat of a knife
    • 5cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
    • A handful of fresh parsley, including stalks, roughly chopped

    for the glaze:

    • 75g butter
    • 3 tablespoons honey

    Method

    Pour the water into your container, add the salt, sugar and honey and stir to dissolve. Stir in the five spice powder. Place the turkey into the brine. Halve and squeeze the orange into the brine, drop in the squeezed shell and the onion quarters. Drop the rest of the spices, garlic, ginger and parsley into the brine around the turkey.

    You may find it better to break up the cinnamon bark into smaller pieces. Make sure that the turkey is submerged in the brine. Top up with cold water if not. You may
    need to put an upturned plate on the top of the turkey to weigh it down in the brine.

    If your container has a cover, put this on. Put your container onto the bottom
    shelf of your fridge, being careful to not slop the brine everywhere! Brine your turkey for up to two days before cooking, or at least overnight. Take the
    turkey out of the brine 2 hours before you need to start cooking, and wipe it dry with kitchen paper. make sure you have tipped the brine out of the cavity. Throw the brine away, it cannot be reused.

    Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius / gas mark 6. Melt the butter and mix with the honey to make your marinade. Brush the turkey all over with the marinade, but remember you will need to brush more on during cooking. Cook for 2.5 hours for a 5.5kg (12lb) turkey. See the table below for other sizes. Note that the marinade will make the skin both dark and crispy.

    It is best to use a meat thermometer pushed into the thickest part of the meat; it should read a minimum of 75 degrees Celsius when the turkey is cooked. If you don’t have a thermometer, push a skewer or sharp knife into the thickest part of knee joint and make sure juices run clear; if not carry on cooking for another 20 minutes and try again. Cover with foil and rest the meat for up to one hour before
    carving.

    Cooking times:

    Weight of Turkey Cooking Time
    2.25kg/5lb 1 ½ hours
    4.5kg/10lb 2 hours
    5.5kg/12lb 2 ½ hours
    7.5kg/17lb 3 hours
    9kg/20lb 3 ½ hours

       

  • Fajita Spice Mix

    Ingredients

    • 1 tbsp cornflour
    • 1 tsp medium chilli powder
    • 2 tsp smoked paprika
    • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
    • 1 tsp cumin powder
    • 1 tsp salt
    • 1 tsp sugar

    Method

    Mix all ingredients together, stir fry chicken & vegetables until part cooked, then sprinkle over spice mix and finish cooking.

  • Chinese Sausage

    Chinese Sausage

    Here is the recipe for Chinese sausage (lop ch’eung) that we followed for our recent attempt. We think, though that the five spice should be doubled at least, and a mixture of light and dark soy should be used to give a darker colour.

    sausages hanging

    Ingredients

    • 2.25kg pork shoulder
    • 350g pork fat diced into small cubes
    • 70g sugar
    • 50ml soy sauce
    • 50ml rice wine
    • 35g salt
    • 7g Prague powder #2
    • 3g five spice powder
    • 3g ground white pepper
    • sheep casings 22-24mm

    Method

    Mince the meat through the coarse disk twice. Add the diced fat. Mix all of the dry ingredients together and mix well into the meat.

    Add the rice wine and soy sauce, mix thoroughly.

    Refrigerate for 24 hours.

    Stuff into the sausage casings. Use string or straw to form links.

    Dehydrate at 60 degrees C until the sausages lose 30% of their weight.

    Vacuum pack and store.

  • Bread and Butter Pudding

    This worked quite well.

    bread-and-butter-pudding

    Ingredients

    • 500ml milk
    • 60g butter, cubed
    • 2 eggs, beaten
    • 100g caster sugar
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 1 teaspoon brandy (optional)
    • 1 teaspoon lemon or orange zest (optional)
    • 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    • 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
    • 6 slices brioche, cubed
    • 75g raisins

    Method

    Warm the milk, take a couple of tablespoons and whisk in to the eggs. Melt the butter into the milk and beat in the egg mixture, together with the sugar, vanilla, brandy, zest and spices.

    Put the cubed brioche into an oven-proof dish and pour over the milk mixture.

    Bake at 200 degrees celsius for 40 minutes.

     

  • Risotto in the Rice Cooker

    Ingredients

    • 1 tablespoon olive oil
    • 1 tablespoon butter
    • 2 carrots, diced
    • 1 small onion, finely chopped
    • 1 cup arborio rice
    • 3 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock)

    Method

    1. Put oil and butter in rice cooker pot, switch on.
    2. When butter is melted, add carrots and onions. Cook until softened, 3-5 minutes.
    3. Add rice, stir until it is coated with oil.
    4. Add chicken stock and switch to cook.
    5. Check consistency when rice cooker switches to warm. If it is too chewy, add 1/4 cup water and switch on again.

    Serves 4-6

  • Irish Fruit Cake

    With thanks to Mum for digging out the recipe.

    Ingredients

    4 oz margarine
    1/2 pint cold tea
    8 oz mixed fruit
    4 oz castor sugar
    1 tbs golden syrup
    8 oz self raising flour
    1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
    pinch of salt
    1/2 tsp mixed spice
    1/2 tsp cinnamon

    Method

    Soak the fruit in the cold tea over night. Do not put the fruit into hot tea or it will taste bitter.
    Put the fruit mixture in a pan with the margarine, sugar,and syrup and melt over a low heat. Simmer for five minutes. Cool.

    Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the fruit mixture and mix well.

    Pour into a greased deep cake tin.

    Sprinkle demerara sugar on the top.

    Cook at 160 degrees for about 1 hour 20 minutes.

    Note: if the mixture seems a bit wet add some more flour or the cake will sink.

    The cake gets more moist the longer you leave it before eating it.

    You can vary this recipe by using coffee.

  • Chicken Kare Lomen

    For Rachael.
    Kare means “curry” and lomen is a corruption of “Lo Mein” which means boiled & drained noodles.

    Ingredients

    For the kare base:
    2 pieces of lemon grass, discard any dry leaves
    3cm piece of galangal root, peeled and sliced
    2 cloves of garlic, peeled and grated
    2 small onions, peeled and chopped
    1 red pepper, de-seeded and chopped
    1 tsp paprika
    1 tsp fennel seeds
    1/2 tsp chilli powder or small red thai chilli, de-seeded and sliced
    1/2 tsp turmeric (fresh is best, finely chopped, but use powder if you don’t want yellow stained fingers)
    1/2 tsp yellow curry powder
    1 tsp shrimp paste

    For the kare sauce:
    1/2 tsp salt
    1/2 tsp sugar
    1/2 tsp MSG (optional)
    250ml water
    250ml coconut milk

    For the noodles:
    250g of somen (fine white wheat noodles, these are very thin and so need very little cooking)
    50g beansprouts (ok, a handful)
    50g cucumber, sloppy seeds removed, and cut into thin strips
    10g corriander leaves, remove any tough stalks

    For the chicken:
    2 medium skinless chicken breasts, inner fillet removed, fat trimmed
    2 tbsp soy sauce
    1 clove garlic, grated

    Method

    Mix the garlic and soy together and marinate the chicken for at least 1/2 hour.

    Take all of the ingredients for the kare base and whiz up in a blender to form a paste. Cook in a hot oiled pan for 10-15 minutes, the sauce will thicken slightly and turn a lovely red colour. Add the coconut milk, water, salt, sugar and MSG if using. Simmer slowly, do not boil, or the coconut milk will split.

    Grill the chicken, check it is cooked through.

    Meanwhile, bring a pan of water to the boil and drop in the somen. Cook for 2-3 minutes and drain. Quickly blanch the beansprouts* in the same boiling water.

    Divide the noodles between a couple of bowls and pour over the kare sauce.  Dress with the cucumber, beansprouts and coriander. Slice the chicken and arrange over the noodles. Serve with teryaki sauce.

    *Never, ever eat raw beansprouts, unless you have grown them yourself or can otherwise be sure they aren’t contaminated with e-coli.