Fattoush is a great summer salad perfect for eating al fresco with a friends or a barbeque. This is a rustic country salad from Syria and Lebanon that uses a dressing make from buttermilk. This gives the salad a smooth let sharp finish that makes it so refreshing.
How to make – Cheats Chocolate Fondant. The classic restaurant chocolate fondant is a challenge for the pastry chef needing dexterity and exact timing to be served to perfection.
This version is much easier to make and is far more forgiving in cooking and serving as it is made in advance.
How To Be A Shortbread Expert. There are thousands of recipes for shortbread, and an equal number of opinions as to the ingredients, methods, and baking. I suppose really you could think of shortbread as posh pastry, uplifted to celebrity status. The fundamentals of making shortbread are very like pastry and it would be worth reading our post on ‘Getting to grips with pastry.’ To put things into perspective.
The big barrier to getting crisp, light shortbread is gluten so a low protein plain flour, maximum 10% must be used. Shipton Mill do a nice Organic Soft Cake and Pastry White Flour with just over 9% protein.
This is a gluten free agent added into the flour to further reduce the protein in the flour and make it lighter.
Cornflour, always on hand and disappears into the flour perfectly. Use if you need a biscuit with a good snap Overdoing the quantity can make a dry powdery finish in the mouth.
Rice flour gives a rougher texture to the dough with a crumbly nature.
Ground almonds, make the dough crumblier, but also heavier. They also need a dash of almond essence to boost their flavour.
Some people like granulated sugar to give a gritty texture, but I’m not a fan.
Caster Sugar is a common choice and gives a good result. Golden caster offers a little more flavour in the dough.
Icing sugar is my preferred choice, unrefined sugar could also be used.
Use the best unsalted butter you can. The lower the water content of the butter the better the shortbread will be. While it may seem counter intuitive some chef’s lower quality use a pastry butter / margarine instead of superior quality dairy butter. This is because the pastry butter has an exceptionally low moisture content. The shortbread is crisper, but the flavour suffers.
True shortbread dough should be au natural, but I sometimes use a little vanilla to enhance the flavour of the butter. You could also add some chocolate chips or citrus zest if you like. Try sprinkling demerara sugar on the surface of the dough before cooking to add a sweet crunch.
Some small tweaks here to make the lightest shortbread. I use a two to one mix of plain flour and cornflour to really reduce the gluten content. I also like to add a touch of baking powder to help the dough rise in the oven and become airier. Finally, we use icing sugar to make a nice smooth dough. I like to roll the dough into logs and then slice the biscuits off (see below). This minimises stretching, and toughening the dough.
Here the rice flour helps lighten the dough. The texture of the rice flour is coarser, hence the ‘Sandy’ nature of the shortbread
This recipe uses ground almonds to reduce the gluten content of the flour. Along with the egg yolk this makes the shortbread richer abet slightly heavier.
Mix the butter icing sugar, vanilla, and salt (Unless you’re using salted butter) on low speed in the mixer until smooth. Increase the speed of the mixer to medium and cream the butter mix for three to four minutes. The mix should become soft and lighten.
Bring the speed of the mixer back to low and add the sifted flours mixing only just enough to incorporate the flour. Take extra care not to overwork the dough! It is better to finish the mixing of the dough by hand The lighter this is done the better the final shortbread will be.
Rollout the dough carefully dusting with a little flour as you go. Don’t be too vigorous with the rolling and turn the dough as you go. This will Roll the dough to the required thickness according to use and cut out with a cutter dipped in flour on each cut.
The remaining dough can be brought together once more then re rolled and cut again. Discard and dough left over from the second rolling.
If you can’t be bothered with all that rolling, and don’t mind slightly rustic biscuits there’s another option. Bring the dough together and split into two. Roll each dough into a log 4cm in diameter and wrap in greaseproof paper. Chill for 15 minutes, then slice into 1cm rounds.
Lay the biscuits out onto a baking sheet and prick with a fork. Leave to rest for about 15 minutes, use that time to heat up the oven read for baking. Bake the shortbread in the centre of the oven at 160° for roughly until light golden brown around the edges.
As the biscuits are removed from the oven dust with caster sugar and allow to cool before storage.
If you don’t have a food mixer you can make the dough in a food processor, or by hand. The processor makes a decent job of the creaming, but great care is needed not to overwork the dough when the flour is added. I would recommend using the processor just to cream the butter and sugar and then work in the flour by hand.
Yes, the best way of doing this is to carefully roll the dough into a log about 5cm in diameter. Wrap the log in greaseproof paper, then freeze on a tray. To bake, remove the cling film from the logs and slice into 5mm thick discs. Lay the biscuits out onto a baking tray, then place in the oven for around 8 minutes, until nicely golden brown.
I always do, but some people choose to use the rubbing in method. Mix the flour and sugar together then rub the cold diced butter in with your fingers or a pastry knife.
This will make a very crumbly shortbread with very little snap.
Easy, make the dough as described above. Line a rectangular baking tin with baking paper leaving a good overlap at the sides. Press the dough into the tin to a dept of 2cm than prick the dough all over with a fork. Leave the dough to rest for 15 minutes then bake as above. When cooked, remove from the oven, and let cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Then using the paper overlap, carefully lift the shortbread out onto a chopping board. Take a cook’s knife and using a guillotine like motion cut the shortbread into fingers. Let the shortbread cool completely before removing from the paper.
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.
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© Copywrite, John Webber. 2024
© Copywrite, John Webber. 2024
Vanilla Panna Cotta must be one of the easiest desserts to make, but perhaps harder to get exactly right. Success depends on using the best ingredients and taking care to blend them perfectly. Read on to learn just how to do that.
Why Not Make Your Own Easy Flatbreads at home? It’s much easier than you think, and makes an impressive addition served with snacks and dips when entertaining
Baba Ganoush is easy to make at home and so much nicer then the bought in versions. Serve it as a snack or as part of a mezze spread with warmed Pita breads. Why not go the whole hog and try our recipe to make your own flatbreads and impress your guests even more.
Baba Ganoush is commonly eaten throughout Syria and Lebanon and is traditionally made with aubergines roasted over an open fire. Great if you have one available, but I’ve explained how to do this in your kitchen at home.
I prefer to use Roast Garlic for this recipe as its less pungent and makes for a more delicate yet flavourful dish. If you don’t want to go to the bother of roasting garlic, have a look at the F.A.Qs below for a tip to mellow fresh garlic. If you do, look up our post on How to Be a Garlic Expert, to see how to do it, it’s easy!
Take the aubergines and prick them all over with a small knife. This is to stop the possibility of the aubergines exploding when handled. Getting covered in boiling hot aubergine is definitely not recommended.
Rub the skins with a dash of oil then place them on a tray in a very hot oven. Set the oven as high as it will go. Alternatively, if you cook on gas and don’t mind the mess just pop the aubergine directly over the open flame. This is the traditional was of cooking the aubergines and adds a smokie hint to the mixture. You could of course use the barbeque to do this as well.
After about 20 minutes the aubergines should be ready. If doing this in the oven I also like to attack them with a chef’s blowtorch. This will add a little of the flavour we are missing by using the oven. If you’re not sure on how to do this safely don’t try it, it’s not essential to the dish.
Carefully slice each aubergine oven then let them cool for five minutes.
The skin should just peel off the flesh. If it’s too hot to handle place one in a sieve set over a bowl and scoop out the flesh from the skin with a spoon.
When all the flesh is in the sieve, discard the skins, then spread the flesh around the sides of the sieve, pressing it lightly. The objective is to strain off as much liquid as possible from the flesh, you will be amazed how much is released from the flesh.
Tip the flesh from the sieve into a mixing bowl, we want the mix to be rustic with some texture. But if you want the mix to be totally smooth and creamy use a small food processor. Don’t run the machine constantly, just pulse it or the mix will be too watery.
Add the roast garlic, salt, chilli flakes, Sumac and Tahini. Work the ingredients together with a spatula. If some bits refuse to break down use a table fork to soften them down.
Add the olive oil and half of the lemon juice and mix again. Have a taste and add more lemon juice and salt if needed. Be generous with the lemon juice as it will lighten the mix and give a fresh tang to the aubergine.
When you are happy with the flavour, cover the bowl and leave the mixture to stand for at least an hour before serving. Make it the day before by all means, store it in the fridge and let it come to room temperature before serving.
Spread the mixture out onto a deep plate. Using a bowl spoils the presentation and makes it more difficult to serve yourself.
Sprinkle the surface with toasted pine kernels and a few pomegranate seeds. The sharpness of the pomegranate works well against the rich mixture.
Finish with some chopped parsley and I like to use a little herb oil to top things off.
Yes, we can just use fresh garlic. I would only use 1- 1½ cloves for the recipe as its much stronger than the roasted version.
Peel and crush garlic, squeeze the juice from the lemon then steep the sliced garlic in the juice for 20 minutes. This will take some of the fierceness off the garlic. The garlic and the juice can then both be used in the recipe.
Tahini is a paste made from ground sesame seeds and olive oil. Some varieties may also include some sesame oil for added punch. It is used as a thickening and flavouring ingredient in middle eastern cooking. Don’t just limit it to that, it makes a good dip, salad dressing, or just have it on toast!
Sumac is the ground berry of a shrub found in the middle east and parts of Europe.
The berries are deseeded, dried and ground into a powdered spice.
It has a deep crimson-red colour and is a really useful spice to lift fish and vegetable dishes. It has a tangy slightly sour flavour. Think of it like a powdered slightly sweet lemon juice. Great for bringing out flavours in food.
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.
Join The ‘Westcoaster Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter to receive regular updates of what’s new and upcoming at ‘The Westcoaster.’
© Copywrite, John Webber. 2024
How to make Hummus. It’s easy to make this classic middle eastern snack, better and fresher than the bought version. Its smooth healthy, and full of flavour. And once you have mastered the process there is a wealth of other flavours you can add to the basic mix.
Flavoured Butters are one of the easiest ways of putting flavour onto a dish. I simply can’t think of anything else you can that make that will transform your cooking so quickly and efficiently. Imagine a simple jacket potato lifted by adding cheesy bacon butter. Boring cooked rice given a punch with lime, ginger, chilli, and coriander butter. Or a grilled chicken breast topped with harissa flavoured butter, amazing!
Scottish Cullen Skink is one of my favourite dishes. It is a rich fish soup with leek and potatoes and its name originates from Cullen a small fishing village on the Northeast coast of Scotland. And the term ‘Skink is derived from the Gaelic for ‘essence’ a good description of the aroma of fishy peat smoke coming from the haddock.
You could serve this as a starter, but it’s a hearty soup more suited to a supper main course or Lunchtime treat. If you are in Appin and can’t, be bothered with all the cooking pop into The Pierhouse Hotel (at the pier) for a warming plate full of Skink.
To get the very best flavour from the dish look for pale, sometimes called peat smoked haddock. This is fish which has been cured and smoked in the traditional method. Try a good fishmonger to find it. In the supermarkets you are more likely to find its bright yellow cousin which has not had much if any time in the smoker. And has been coated in colour and flavour. If that’s all you can get, it will still work but will not as deeply be flavoured as the real thing. You will just have to travel to Scotland and experience real Skink.
750g skin on peat smoked haddock fillet, about 600g after trimming.
Take the smoked haddock and remove the skin (it should just pull off with a bit of persuasion) and any bones. Cut the fish into roughly 3cm chunks and set aside. Place the skin bones and any trimmings into a saucepan along with the rest of the ingredients. Bring to the boil then simmer gently for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, cover and let stand for 1 hour. Pass the stock though a fine strainer and refrigerate until needed. This can be done the day before cooking the Skink.
Don’t be tempted to add salt at all until the very end of cooking and then only after tasting. The smoked haddock itself is salty, which should be enough for the whole dish.
Give the leek a rinse then cut into two longways. Open out the two halves and slice into strips about 1.5cm wide. Turn the strips around and then slice across to make squares of leek. Finely chop the shallot then slice the garlic into thin slices. Crushing the garlic would make it too strong in the dish.
Add the butter to the saucepan and place over a low heat. When the butter has melted, add the leek, shallots, and garlic. Notice we are not using any onion in this recipe. Onions contain too much sugar and will put a sweet tone into the skink, that we want to avoid. Cook the vegetables for about five minutes and while they are cooking, deal with the potatoes.
Cut the potato into chips with about 1.5cm sides. Slice the chips across approximately 3mm thick to produce little square slices of potato.
Add the potatoes to the pan followed by the stock milk and cream. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 6-8 minutes then add the fish.
Return the pan to the simmer and cook for another 6 minutes stirring occasionally. Don’t worry is the fish and potatoes break up a little, that will thicken the Skink. Add two or three turns of the peppermill and taste.
Serve in deep wide plates scattered with chopped chives and plenty of crusty bread to soak up the juices.
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.
Join The ‘Westcoaster Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter to receive regular updates of what’s new and upcoming at ‘The Westcoaster.’
© Copywrite, John Webber. 2024
Potato and Roast Garlic Soup is a simple recipe, yet quite refined. Ideal as a starter for a dinner party or served in expresso cups as a pre-starter. Its rich, smooth consistency, offset by serving the soup with parsley pesto is always a winner!
How to Become a Garlic Expert, every time you cook is often a mystery to the British. While other cultures across the world utilise garlic in many forms, we simply push a clove of garlic into a crude metal press and squeeze the life out of the clove into whatever we think will benefit from a hit of flavour. Leaning how to use garlic properly will open up avenue in your cooking.
How to make Perfect Mashed Potatoes. One of life’s guilty pleasures has to be a bowl of hot mashed potato. And it is one of the most versatile products that we can use to create a great plate of food. They can be used to form a foundation for the presentation, provide a contrasting texture on the plate, and become ‘a vehicle of flavour’. That is, they become a method of adding a complimentary flavour to a plate. Such as horseradish mash with beef, or saffron mash with fish. In a similar way, they can absorb flavour on a plate such as the gravy of a stew or braise.
Best of all they are simple to make. All you need for Perfect mashed Potato is the right potatoes and the right technique. This comes down to an understanding of the potatoes themselves and how to control the cooking.
Potato varieties can be broken down according to their starch content. The easiest way to think of this is.
For a good mash we need a potato that is not waxy but won’t fall apart in the pan and produce a wet sloppy mash.
Rich, creamy and sweet, these potatoes taste like they’ve already been buttered. Perfect for mash, Vivaldi also make great jacket potatoes and are particularly good at absorbing flavours when dressed in sauces or oils.
Red-skinned potatoes with a fairly waxy texture that work well as an all-rounder. Their creamy yellow flesh makes a good mash.
One of the best potatoes for mashing thanks to its incredibly creamy texture and rich, sweet flavour.
One of the most versatile varieties around, suitable for most uses. Mostly oval shaped making them ideal for my recommendation on cutting the potato.
The most widely grown potatoes in the UK as they’re great roasted, mashed, boiled, chipped, or baked, despite being dry and floury.
King Edward potatoes are renowned for its light fluffy texture, making a great mash. Again, mostly oval shaped.
Waxy potatoes are totally unsuitable for mashing. So, ones to avoid are Charlottes, Rattes, Jersey Royals, and Desiree.
These varieties don’t break down, and when you start to work the potato, it will be become sticky and waxy, more like wallpaper paste.
We need to cook the potatoes evenly without have ether uncooked potato or the potatoes dissolving into the cooking water. To achieve this, we need to control both the distance the heat needs to travel in the potato and the speed of cooking.
Choosing even sized and shaped potatoes makes this a breeze. Don’t worry if that’s not possible just keep the following in mind when cutting the potatoes for the pot. The heat will penetrate the potato by the shortest route. If you have simply cut lumps of potato the heat will have further to travel, and the potato may become waterlogged, or the corners will break off into the water.
Once you have chosen your potatoes, it’s time to get to work. Wash and peel them using a peeler, a knife is far to wasteful. Cut the potatoes in half longways, not across the width as you would do for roasting. This will give you a larger piece that you might be used to but look closely at it and you will see the potato is much thinner cut this way.
Some people advocate cutting the potato into cubes to cook quickly. But I think that produces to many vulnerable corners to fall off during cooking.
Cover the potatoes with cold water and two generous pinches of salt and bring to the simmer. I prefer to do this with the lid off so I can keep and eye on the pan.
The important thing is not to rapidly boil the potatoes. It’s a common idea that turning up the heat on food will make it cook quicker. Well, NO. It will make the food cook blacker as it burns, or in our case as make potato soup, instead of mash.
We need the heat to cook the potato through, but a simmer is plenty of heat to do that. The difference between boiling and simmering is only 3-4˚c. But boiling the pan will throw the potatoes against each other and the sides of the pan. That will simply break off the soft, cooked corners, which will dissolve into the cooking water.
Pop a lid on the pan by all means but keep a close eye on how fast the water is moving.
Check if the potatoes are cooked with the tip of a knife and if ready drain off the water. The best way of doing this is with the lid but take great care not to burn yourself with the hot water or steam. If that’s not possible use a colander. But check that the potato has not blocked up all the holes and is still sitting in hot water.
Return the potatoes to the pan and place the pan back over a very low heat and let any remaining moisture evaporate away for a couple of minutes.
My favourite tool for mashing the cooked potatoes is a moulin. This tool has been around for decades and guarantees lump free purees. On the flip side its also great for soups, leaving just a little texture in the finished soup.
Some chefs favour a drum sieve. This is a flat sieve where a wire mesh is pulled taught over a rigid frame. Again, a very useful tool, but been large a bit awkward to store at home. Small amounts of potato can be pressed through a standard kitchen sieve. But its shape is not ideal and you risk overworking the potato. Our third option is a Potato Ricer, for most people this may be ideal. Its only downside is that it can only perform the one function of mashing potatoes.
If you are planning to serve the mashed potato to guests, I would recommend doing all the work up to this stage in advance. Cover the prepared potato and it will be fine kept at room temperature for an hour or two.
When you are ready to serve take a pan suitable to reheat the mash without the mix been too deep. Up to 50mm is ideal, place the pan on the heat and add the butter. My preference is to use both butter and double cream. Some people prefer to use only butter, but whatever you choose, Don’t use Milk. Milk will make the mash very wet and grainy.
As the butter begins to melt add the potato. Don’t drop it all in at once, add it to the pan in two or three batches. As the first batch comes together, then add the next.
When all the potato are in the pan, add a drop of the cream. As you mix it in you will see the potato form a smoother, more coherent mass. Add more cream until you are happy with the consistency. You may not need all the cream; you may need a little more. It all depends on the type of potato used, time of year and how well the cooking has been carried out.
Crispy bacon and leek mash
Mustard mash
Horseradish mash
Roast Garlic mash
Cheese mash
Spring onion mash – Champ
Pesto mash
Caramelised onion mash
Truffle oil mash
Well yes you can. Take the potatoes to the stage where they have been put tough the moulin or sieve, then cover and let cool completely. When you need to serve them, reheat as in the recipe, you may need a spot more cream than when freshly cooked. The flavour won’t be as good as when freshly cooked but if you are adding a flavouring, it will be difficult to tell.
You can use vegetable-based spreads of course, but some can make the mash a little oily.
Try full fat coconut milk instead. Put the can in the fridge overnight, then when opened you will find all the rich fat has floated to the top and set. Use some of this coconut fat in place of butter. The coconut water sitting below the fat can be used to loosen the mash if needed.
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.
Join The ‘Westcoaster Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter to receive regular updates of what’s new and upcoming at ‘The Westcoaster.’
© Copywrite, John Webber. 2024
Braised Oxtail is my idea of heaven on a cold winter’s day. So, with the frost on the ground and minus five on the thermometer I decided the time was right to get cooking.
For me Braised Oxtail is the pinnacle of meat eating. Its not difficult to cook, but it does take a little time. If the idea of having the oven on for such a long cook, use a slow cooker to do most of the cooking.
These Italian delicate almond cookies with a melt in the mouth centre are usually enjoyed during Christmas time in Tuscany. Try them out as an alternative to or in addition to mince pies when entertaining guest over the holiday.