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.
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.
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.
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© 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
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.
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.
How to make Ricciarelli Biscuits, 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. And note to self, remember to try our Luxury Cranberry and Whisky Mince Pies.
Ricciarelli Biscuits, also make great gifts, wrap them in cellophane bags and hand them out to friends for a very personal gift.
To get the best flavour we are going to make our own ground almonds. If this is a problem for you, shop bought ground almonds will work. Try and get the best quality you can to get the freshness. I avoid using shop bought almond essence as its closer to paraffin than almonds. You can buy a very good almond oil but its quite expensive, and may be hard to find.
Using a small food processor, grind the almonds down. This is best done in two batches to avoid the almonds becoming too warm with the friction created. If the almonds are overdone, oils will be released from the nuts and they will begin to form a paste, spoiling the mix.
Split the vanilla pod longways and using the back of a small knife scrape out the seeds.
Take a mixing bowl and add the vanilla with all the dry ingredients. Using a very fine grater remove the zest from the lemon and add to the bowl. Mix everything together and set aside.
Take the stainless-steel bowl and insure it is spotlessly clean. Any traces of fat on the bowl or the whisk will prevent the whites from aerating.
Separate the eggs allowing the white to fall into the bowl keeping the yolks separately for other uses. Add a pinch of salt to help the whites expand then whisk to stiff peaks.
When the whites are ready, tip them out onto the dry ingredients and fold the white into the mix to make a soft paste.
I like to leave the bowl to stand for about 10 minutes at this point to allow the mix to settle. paste.
Take a large flat plate and add a liberal amount of icing sugar. Using two dessert spoons scoop shapes of dough a little smaller than your thumb onto the sugar. Roll the shapes in the sugar, then transfer each one to a lined baking tray pressing the flat of your finger down to flatten the dough slightly.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are a light golden colour and the centres are just soft. Cool the biscuits on a wire then sieve icing sugar over the top.
When complete cooled store in an air-tight container where they should be fine for 3-4 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.
Join The ‘Westcoaster Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter to receive regular updates of what’s new and upcoming at ‘The Westcoaster.’
©John Webber. 2023
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 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.
Making your own Exotic Flavoured Gin at Home. 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 some 250ml bottles to use as Christmas presents, always welcome gifts. If you are interested in Scottish Gin production look up the Scottish Gin Distillers Map. or our local distillery Pixel Spirits in Ballachulish.
This is another one of my late Summer /Autumn jobs to take advantage of the abundance of wild and cultivated fruit available. And don’t just stick to my suggestions, experiment by using different fruits and spices added to the spirit.
As for the gin itself, don’t use the very best as any subtle flavours will be masked by the fruit. But likewise, don’t use very cheap harsh gin, any middle of the road brand will do.
Quite simply the aim is to extract the flavour and juices of the fruit and flavourings into the base gin. Where you are dealing with a skin on the fruit such as sloes it is necessary to pierce the skin to allow the flavours to escape the fruit into the spirit. Make sure all the bottles and jars you use are clean and sterile. If you’re not sure how to do this look up our information on Home Preserving, The golden rules.
Sugar is normally added to sweeten the gin and counter any bitterness from the fruit. I like to use the sugar in some of my recipes to extract more flavour. By mixing the fruit with the sugar. Then leaving it to stand in the storage jar before adding the liquid natural curing will take place. The sugar will draw liquid from the fruit, and I believe produce more flavour.
The gin is now added to the fruit and sugar. Seal the jar and turn the jar back and forth three or four times to mix all the ingredients together. Don’t worry if all the sugar hasn’t dissolved it will in time. Every day for the next week, take the jar from the cupboard and turn it a couple of times to give it a mix. By the end of the week all the sugar should have disappeared. Don’t be tempted to mix the contents with a spoon as this will break up the fruit too much.
Leave the jars in a cool dark place for at least five weeks, I like to give mine about 8-9 weeks.
When ready we need to strain off the gin. The best way to do this is to use a double thickness of muslin cloth supported in a sieve. Gently decant the contents of the jar into the sieve and let the liquid drip down into a clean bowl. A gentil shake of the cloth from time to time will assist the liquid in draining through.
When recipes ask for muslin to be used to strain a liquid, they never explain how to use it. Well, here’s how. Always buy more muslin than you think you need and don’t cut it into small sections. Bear in mind that you may be using it doubled over and it has to line your container plus have plenty to work with as an overlap.
Now here’s the key. Don’t use the muslin from new. The weave of the cloth will be too coarse to be effective. Give the cloth a hot wash, followed by a tumble dry. This is the one instance in life where we want our cloth to shrink. This will not only clean the cloth but tighten up the weave giving better filtering of liquid passed through it.
When finished give the cloth a hot wash and dry completely before storing to use again.
Follow the process above, taking care to remove any mouldy fruit before you start. Leave the fruit and sugar to cure for 30 minutes then add the gin. I cheat a bit here and when straining the gin. I lightly press the fruit in the muslin. This gets very bit of fruit juice into the finished gin. Try this with Raspberries as well, great as a summer cooler.
Wash the rhubarb and thinly slice across the stalk. Add to a jar with the sliced ginger and sugar then add the gin. Then proceed as per the process above.
Wash the fruit then with the point of a small knife stab though the skin all over. Cut each plum in half and remove the stone. Mix the fruit ginger and sugar in a jar and leave 30 minutes before adding the gin.
A more complex slightly spiced gin.
Wash the fruit and stab each one about 15 to 20 times with the point of a small sharp knife.
Pack the fruit and flavourings into sterile preserving jar and add the sugar.
Give the jar a shake and leave to stand a couple of hours.
Add the gin, seal the lid then shake again to dissolve the sugar.
A real classic
This is one to make in front of the television. Wash the sloes then using a needle prick each fruit at least five times. Add the fruit to a jar with the sugar and shake well.
Leave the jar to stand for at least two hours before adding the gin then follow the standard procedure shown above.
Serve the gin with your favourite mixer, I tend to go for ether Tonic water or lemonade. Both the Sloe and Bramble gins are great served neat as a winter warning tipple. Although watch out, they are stronger than you think !!
No not at all, in fact freezing the fruit breaks down the cell structure releasing the flavours. You may find the gin has some sediment from the fruit, but this is easily filtered out before bottling.
As we have added fruit juices to the spirit. I like to look at a year as a maximum storage time. So, I’m making my gin now to drink next year. Kept longer than that you may find some change in colour, but is should still be drinkable. If you see and fermentation (bubbles) in the gin, don’t drink it!
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
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.
Baking your own Bread at home can be a puzzle, let us help you answer your questions. All you need to know to bake great bread at home is here.