One of my favourite Scottish dishes, Cullen Skink is a rich fish soup with leek and potatoes. The 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.
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.
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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.
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
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.
Astonishing salt, no other ingredient I know has had a greater effect on cooking and the kitchen. We need it to live, but an excess is bad for us and may even kill us!
So why do we have a love affair with it? And what does it actually do? Read on and I’ll do my best to explain.
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
These Buttermilk Bread Rolls will really impress your dinner party guests. They go well with most starters that don’t require crispy rolls served alongside.
Home-Made Sausages are one of the most flexible foods we have available to us. Whether it’s a comforting plate of bangers and mash, fending off the cold weather. A quick buttered sausage roll as a snack or the compulsory BBQ sausage, it’s a year round go to treat.
This Rosemary and Red Onion Focaccia is one of my favourite breads to make at home. Soft textured and delicately flavoured it is an ideal as picnic bread or served with a casual lunch. Try out some variations by adding cooked onions or sun blushed tomatoes into the dough with the herbs. I also use this focaccia for my ultimate B.L.T.
To get flavour throughout the bread. I blend the water, garlic, and olive oil together. This ‘milkshake’ is to in then used to bring the dough together. I have also used marjoram in the dough. And rosemary and red onions set into pockets pushed into the dough. Which also hold olive oil to keep the bread moist. Alternatively try some stoned olives in the pockets and a sprinkling of flaky sea salt on the crust before baking.
I would recommend you check out the Food Files pages on What is Yeast and our Guide to flour. Also the fundamentals of Making bread at home will help you to fully understand the bread making process.
If you are interested in the origins of focaccia, or other Italian dishes take a look at. https://www.deliciousitaly.com/liguria-food/origins-of-focaccia
600g Bread Flour
1.5 tsp Salt
1.5 tsp Sugar
3 tsp fresh chopped marjoram leaves, or 1tsp dried
360ml/g Water
7g dried yeast
2tbsp water @ blood heat
3tsp olive oil
1 clove of garlic, sliced
olive oil for the crust
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 red onion peeled and cut into small wedges
flaky sea salt to sprinkle on crust
Mixing bowl or food mixer with dough hook.
Scales.
Hand blender and goblet.
Chopping board and knife.
2 x 20cm x 4cm sponge tins.
If you are using dried yeast. Measure it into a small container and mix with the 3 tbsp of water to form a smooth paste. Add a pinch of flour and put it to one side while you weigh up the other ingredients. If you are using fast action yeast mix it directly into the flour.
In the blender goblet mix the water, salt, sugar, olive oil, and sliced garlic. And blend until smooth.
Place the flour in the mixing bowl, and if your using dried marjoram (oregano) add that now. Check the yeast container. It should be beginning to foam. If so, congratulations, you have made a ferment and improved the actions of the yeast.
Add the water mix to the dry ingredients followed by the yeast ferment and knead on a low speed for 5 minutes. The dough does not need an enormous amount of kneading as we are making a flattish soft loaf.
Cover the bowl and leave the dough to prove until doubled in size. Don’t place the bowl in a very warm place. Normal room temperature is fine. In fact, if you need freshly baked loaves for the morning. Make the dough in the evening with cool but not cold water. Place the bowl in the fridge and the dough will be ready to finish at breakfast time.
Re mix the dough for two minutes (known as knocking back). If you are using fresh marjoram add it at this stage. This is also the time to add other flavourings if using (see below).
Divide the dough into two and form into rounds 20 cm across and 1cm thick.
Set the rounds onto a greased sponge tins and press your thumb into the dough in a regular pattern with 3 cm spaces.
Rub a little olive oil into the surface of the dough, cover and allow to prove until doubled. Placing the tins in a clean bin bag and forming a tent with the bag works well if the kitchen is very cold.
When the dough has proved, you may need to use your thumb again to open up the indents made earlier. Push thin wedges of red onion and rosemary into the pockets alternating each one. Brush very lightly once more with olive oil and sprinkle with flaky sea salt if wished.
Bake at 185°C/ 370°f fan oven, 200˚c conventional oven for twenty minutes.
When ready remove the bread from the tins and cool on a cooling wire. I like to brush a little more olive on the crust as the bread cools.
Try adding other flavourings into the dough, like fried onions, stoned black olives or sundried tomatoes at the second proving stage.
You can half the dough if you only need one loaf, but as the bread frezzes well I always make two at a time to make best use of the oven.
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
Rich, and delicious, Walnut Bread is a perfect bread to serve with cheese at a casual lunch. Or as part of a dinner party meal. Savoury yet sweet it’s very moreish and is just as good lightly toasted and served with butter.
This baker’s guide to yeast will explain all you need to know about using yeast.
Learn the different types of yeast available and how to use them to get the best results in your bread and baking
