This Easy Thai Salmon Burger brings all the flavours of the east and marries them with the traditional burger, and a healthy one at that. We are using salmon instead of beef to produce a lighter version of a burger that is packed with flavour.
This simple Duck Confit is both rustic and refined. The process of curing and cooking the meat in fat produces a flavour unobtainable buy any other method. And I love it! I’m serving the confit with a Lentil, Bacon, and Chestnuts Stew, a great winter warmer.
These Irresistible Chocolate Custard Cookies are so easy to make. Which is a good job as they don’t last long when people start tucking in. They are great just served as a cookie, adults and children both love them. Alternatively serve alongside a dessert that needs some added texture such as a Crème Brûlee. The dough can be kept in the freezer ready to bake as a useful standby when needed.
Make sure your butter is at room temperature and soft enough to spread. Place the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl or food mixer then cream the two together until the mixture becomes light and creamy, (about 3-4 minutes).
Using a spatula fold the chocolate drops and vanilla into the mix. When combined sieve the flour and custard powder together into the butter/sugar mixture. Don’t beat the flour in just gently fold together.
When the flour is incorporated add the ready to eat custard, again folding gently.
Break off a sheet of greaseproof paper roughly the size of an A4 sheet of paper. Turn the paper landscape format then spoon half of the dough just above the bottom edge. Using the pallet knife form the dough into a sausage of about 4cm in diameter.
Roll the bottom of the paper up and over the dough, tightening the wrap as you go. Twist the ends of the paper to resemble a Christmas cracker then repeat the process with the second half of the dough.
The dough now needs to go into the fridge for at least half an hour or can be frozen for later use.
To cook, take the dough from the fridge and unwrap. Slice the dough across into discs 6mm thick. Place the biscuits onto baking paper and cook in a 175°c oven for 10 to 12 minutes.
When cooked the biscuits should be golden and still be moist inside. Let the cookies stand for 5 minutes then place on a cooling wire and let them cool completely. Store the cookies you haven’t already eaten in an airtight tin for up to four days.
Enjoy Life!
John.
Hi, my name is John Webber, award winning chef and tutor, now retired to the west coast of Scotland. Welcome to our blog focusing on food, cooking, and countryside. My aim is to pass on my years of skills and knowledge together with an appreciation of the countryside.
Join us to experience the beauty of the west coast, cook some great food and be at ease in the kitchen.
If you enjoyed your visit with us, please subscribe up to our newsletter to receive regular updates of what’s new and upcoming at The Westcoaster. Subscribe Here
©John Webber. 2023
This Thai Chicken and Prawn Soup for me sums up the joy of Thai cooking. Been both fresh and light yet with plenty of substance in the flavour department.
If you are a lover of long cool drinks, then this is for you. They are easy to make and all you really need is some space to store the gin while it is steeping and the patience not to get stuck in too quickly. I always fill hold of some 250ml bottles to use as Christmas presents, always welcome gifts.
If you’re not sure how warm your water should be, here’s a simple baker’s trick.
Take the temperature you want your dough to be, let’s say 26˚c then double it, that’s 52˚c.
Take the temperature of the flour you are using. Let’s say it’s been in the larder and is only 18˚c.
Take that from the target temperature, and that’s the water temperature you need- 52˚c-18˚c =34˚c.
The dough should be sticky when you first start to knead. Use a little flour on your hands and table but don’t try to work flour into the dough. Too dry a dough will be tough. Keep kneading and the gluten will begin to from together and the dough will come away to form a ball and take on a silky finish.
Struggling to work with rye flour? It can be extremely rewarding to bake, and very good for you. The problem is that it can be very gooey and tricky to work with.
A simple solution to this is to wet your equipment and hands with cold water. Then as you handle the dough the moisture will allow it to slide off.
Proving is allowing the yeast in the dough to feed on the carbohydrates in the flour. This in turn allows the yeast to multiply. As the yeast feeds it produces carbon dioxide witch form bubbles in the dough and gives the bread its light texture.
The first proving of the dough allows the yeast to establish itself in the dough and multiply. This also gives time for the gluten in the flour to develop.
We then form the dough into the required shape
The second prove after shaping gives the yeast access to more food. The now multiplied cells can produce lots of gas to push the dough outwards. This gives us a lighter loaf with a good crumb.
Rich doughs like buns have a lot of fat and sugar in the dough. This will slow the progress of the yeast. That’s perfectly normal, using fast action yeast will speed things up a little.
If your dry goods are stored in a cool larder let them come up to room temperature before mixing. If your flour is very cold use slightly warmer water to mix.
When proving the dough for the first time or proving the final produce place the tray in a bag (bin bags are great). Throw up the open end of the bag to catch some air then tuck the open end under the tray. This will form a tent of trapped air making the bread prove evenly and stop the bread forming a skin.
To get the best crust and finish on your bread it needs to begin cooking in moist heat. Place a shallow tray in the bottom of the oven as it is heating up and when you place the bread in the oven throw a few ice cubes into the tray below. The ice will melt then form steam and help the crust form
This is the traditional method of checking if your bread is ready. After the recommended cooking time lift the bread using a tea towel or oven cloth. Tap the base of the bread and listen. The cooked bread should make a hollow sound. If the sound is a dull thud the centre is still wet and unrisen.
The second option is to use a probe thermometer. Lighter breads like Focaccia should be between 83˚c – 91˚c in the centre. Heaver rich breads should be between 88˚c – 91˚c in the centre.
Storing dried yeast in the freezer will help it retain its power. Fresh yeast can also be frozen for a short time in an emergency. Add just a little more to the recipe to make up for the damage freezing will do.
When using dried yeast where the recipe stipulates fresh use half the weight. If using fresh in place of dried use double the weight.
Dried Yeast is normally sold in a small tin and needs to be mixed with water before use. DO NOT add it directly into the flour as it will not dissolve in the dough. Works fine, I would always recommend making a ferment to make sure the yeast is properly dissolved.
Fast Action Yeast is in the one you buy in the little tin foil pouches. Originally developed for bread making machines this is a finer grain. This means it will dissolve in a dough without pre-mixing with water. The ‘Fast Action part is because vitamin C has been added to the yeast to supercharge it and help the machine produce a lighter loaf.
It could be that your yeast is just too old and dead. Always check the use by date on the packaging before use. You may be using water that is too hot, blood heat water is ideal for use with yeast.
Never expose yeast to concentrations of fat, salt, or sugar they will kill the yeast. Be sure to separate them in the mixing of the dough.
Well, what is flour? A type of flour can be made from many grains, beans, nuts, roots, or seeds. As long as they have enough starch content to allow us to grind them into flour.
Most of the time we are talking about wheat flour but there are many other options out there. For example, rye, spelt, cassava, arrowroot, corn, rice, chickpeas, potato, and nuts.
Bread flour also known as strong flour is made from wheat with a high protein content. Its these proteins that form gluten when moistened and kneaded. Other flours like a plain pastry flour have a lower protein content.
You can make some flatbreads using plain flour but as the name indicates they will be flat.
Don’t try to exchange bread (strong) flour for plain (soft) flour in a recipe. The larger amount of gluten in the bread flour will allow the dough to rise correctly.
Yes, substitute up to 20% of the flour with strong white flour. This will make the dough lighter and easier to work. Depending on the flour you may need to reduce the liquid content slightly
I hope all that helps check out The Fundamentals of Making Bread at Home for even more hints and tips.
Enjoy life!
John.
Hi, my name is John Webber, award winning chef and tutor, now retired to the west coast of Scotland. Welcome to our blog focusing on food, cooking, and countryside. My aim is to pass on my years of skills and knowledge together with an appreciation of the countryside.
Join us to experience the beauty of the west coast, cook some great food and be at ease in the kitchen.
If you enjoyed your visit with us, please subscribe up to our newsletter to receive regular updates of what’s new and upcoming at The Westcoaster. Subscribe Here
©John Webber. 2023
8 Easy Summertime Fruit Drinks for all the family. If you are having a barbeque or just lying back enjoying the summer sun, there is nothing better than having a long cool drink on hand.
Halfway between a drink and a slush this Raspberry Cooler is a hit with children and adults alike.
In fact, you can serve it both ways at once. Spoon the sieved base into small containers as a raspberry slush for the children. Then simply dilute the rest of the slush into drinks for the adults.
This delicious Elderflower, Apple, and Mint Fizz is the easiest of all our summertime drink recipes. No special equipment needed and only takes a couple of minutes to make. So, it’s a great standby if friends turn up unexpectedly and need a quick cooling drink.
Don’t forget to look up our home page on Easy Summertime Coolers for more summertime drinks.
The elderflower cordial may be the only ingredient you don’t already have. The good news is that its easy to find with most supermarkets having it available. If you have never tried it, I would recommend you give it a try. Its more versatile than you think and can be used in baking, salad dressings and of course cocktails. Try a fruit salad of chilled melon sprinkled with the cordial – fantastic.
Pick the mint leaves and roll each one in your fingers. You don’t want to crush them, just lightly bruise the leaves. This will release some of the flavour without been too strong.
Wash and thinly slice the flesh off the apple working around the core Pop the sliced apple and mint leaves into a jug and pour the apple juice over the top.
Add the elderflower cordial, and lemon juice then mix well. Top up the jug with the sparkling mineral water and ice cubes.
Serve as cold as possible in chilled glasses with some of the apple slices and mint.
Enjoy Life !
John.
Hi, my name is John Webber, award winning chef and tutor, now retired to the west coast of Scotland. Welcome to our blog focusing on food, cooking, and countryside. My aim is to pass on my years of skills and knowledge together with an appreciation of the countryside.
Join us to experience the beauty of the west coast, cook some great food and be at ease in the kitchen.
If you enjoyed your visit with us, please subscribe up to our newsletter to receive regular updates of what’s new and upcoming at The Westcoaster. Subscribe Here
©John Webber. 2023
Classic Fruity Iced Tea, the flavour of tea with a hint of citrus to cool you down. The infusion is made the day before, then allowed to chill overnight.
This Coconut and Pineapple Cooler works in a similar way to our Creamy Mango Milkshake. The sharpness of the Pineapple and lime is offset with the richness of the coconut milk and sweetness of the syrup.
Drinking Chilled Watermelon Lemonade brings back memories of sitting back in the sun, eating chilled watermelon slices.
As with most of these cooler recipes the base can be made in advance and finished later. We are adding soda water and stock syrup to the watermelon juice to add sweetness and fizz. If that’s not to your liking, try using a good quality lemonade to mix with the watermelon juice.
And don’t forget to look up our home page on Easy Summertime Coolers for more summertime drinks.
soda water
stock syrup
Peel the watermelon keeping some long strips of peel to use as a glass stirrer. Cut the flesh into pieces and pop into the blender. Don’t worry about the seeds as we can remove them later. If you don’t have a jug blender, the stick version will work fine. Puree the fruit in the blender using the pulse control. Don’t over blend the fruit at full speed or the seeds will be crushed and make the juice bitter.
Pass the juice though the fine sieve into a Pyrex bowl. The best way to do this is to rub the juices through the sieve using the back of a small ladle. You will be surprised how well this works, leaving only the seeds and some watermelon fibre behind.
The watermelon juice can be kept in the fridge for up to three days or frozen.
Take a mixing jug and add 1 part of stock syrup to two parts of watermelon juice. Mix in 1-part chilled soda water and stir together, i.e., 100ml syrup, 200ml watermelon juice, 100ml soda water.
Add some ice cubes to a tall glass and drop in a couple of slices of orange and lemon. Tear of chop two or three leaves of mint, add them to the glass and fill the glass with the cooler. Decorate with some fruit and a stick of watermelon peel then serve.
Enjoy Life !
John.
Hi, my name is John Webber, award winning chef and tutor, now retired to the west coast of Scotland. Welcome to our blog focusing on food, cooking, and countryside. My aim is to pass on my years of skills and knowledge together with an appreciation of the countryside.
Join us to experience the beauty of the west coast, cook some great food and be at ease in the kitchen.
If you enjoyed your visit with us, please subscribe up to our newsletter to receive regular updates of what’s new and upcoming at The Westcoaster. Subscribe Here
©John Webber. 2023
This Easy Creamy Mango Milkshake is a guaranteed hit with the kids, and who doesn’t like a milkshake?
This easy Lemon Barley Water is a British classic and a must for any outdoor event. This is not difficult to make but takes a little time to infuse and chill. Make it the day before to let it get as cold as possible before use. Once you have tasted the real thing, you will never go back to shop-bought cordial again.
