Cheddar and Marmite Scones

Last week Kaffeine had a menu that loosely celebrated New Zealand in honor of Wiatangi Day. Instead of savoury muffins, a roulade of Cheddar and Marmite Scones was decided. These are a New Zealand favorite and a traditional part of growing up being Kiwi. In every kitchen, you are almost guaranteed to find of a copy Edmond's Cookbook. This is a cooking bible for every Kiwi household and a life-saver for most mothers. All recipes are tested, simple and fool-proof. Since first published in 1908 several varieties of scone recipes have been featured in Edmond's Cookbooks.
However, I still prefer the Yankees' technique for scone making and I've married the flavours of a Kiwi savoury scone into the method used to make an American scone. Ultimately your arteries are worse off but the texture and flavour is far, far superior.

500g plain flour
250 salted butter, cold
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
150g mature cheddar, grated
250ml buttermilk
150ml double cream
1 large egg

FILLING:
300g mature cheddar, grated
100g marmite

Method:
Mix flour, baking powder, salt and cheddar to a large mixing bowl. Grate the butter and add to the dry ingredients and rub into flour using your hands. When the butter is well blended, pour buttermilk, cream and egg, and gently knead together until you can form a ball. Dust a clean surface and a rolling pin with flour and put the scone dough at the center. Sprinkle a little extra flour over scone dough and begin to roll out. It's best to try and keep a rough rectangle shape as you roll. If the dough sticks to the rolling pin or bench top, dust with a little extra flour. Once the dough is roughly 1cm think and a rectangle shape, trim the edges. Carefully spread the Marmite over the surface of the scone dough and make sure you get Marmite around the edges as this will help the roulade to stick when the time comes to roll the dough into a cylinder. Evenly sprinkle the remainder of the cheddar over the dough, and starting from the bottom edge of the dough tightly roll the scone dough away from you, pressing the dough as you roll will create a tight and firm roulade. Once you have a long cylinder-shape roulade, roll the scone dough back and forth to even out and to help seal the edge. Slice the scone cylinder into around 15-16 pieces using a sharp knife. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper and lay the scones by 4's along the tray. When baking, the scones will grow and stick together and can be torn apart after baking. Place scones in oven on middle shelf, set at 180˚C for 24 minutes. Once cooked leave the scones to cool for 15 minutes before tearing apart.

Baked Sweet Salmon with Pickled Sea Radish

In this recipe I've used sea radish which is a coastal cabbage like vegetable. Slightly bitter and has a lingering flavour and best cooked or pickled much like any other green vegetable. Sea radish thrives in poor soil and sandy areas and best picked and eaten during winter months.
For this recipe I've pickled the sea radish until tender and served it with salmon baked in kecap manis. Kecap manis is a fermented sweet soy sauce. A versatile ingredient and simply amazing on its own. Every asian supermarket will sell it, and recently I've seen it being sold in big chain supermarkets.
This dish has a lovely balance of salty and sweet, also worth noting it is a meal on its own.

600g whole salmon filet
100ml kecap manis
300g new potatoes
100g baby spinach, washed

Pickled Sea Radish:
400g sea radish
100ml cider vinegar
200ml water
4 springs tarragon
1 red onion
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 dried red chilli
2 tablespoons sea salt

Tartar Sauce:
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon dijon
4 springs dill
3 tablespoons fine capers
2 gherkins
350ml vegetable oil
50ml cold water
Cracked black pepper and sea salt

Method:
Wash the sea radish and slice into 5cm long pieces and place in a large pot. Peel the onion and slice in half (place one half of the onion aside as you will be using it in the tartar sauce) and thinly slice one half the the onion and add to sea radish. Peel the garlic and thinly slice. Add garlic, vinegar, water, tarragon, mustard seeds, chilli and salt into pot with sea radish. Bring the pot to a steady boil over a high heat and cook for a further 10 minutes until sea radish is tender. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Put the potatoes in a pot and just cover with cold water. Place the pot over a medium/high heat and bring to a simmer. Cook the potatoes until just tender then drain and leave to cool.

In the meantime place salmon filet in a baking tray with risen edges and pour over the kecap manis. Cover the tray tightly with foil and bake in oven set at 180˚C for 25 minutes.

To make the tartar sauce you will need to place yolks, lemon, mustard, dill, capers, gherkins, other half of the red onion and a good amount of salt and pepper to season, in a food processor. Blend ingredients together for 30 seconds, while the processor is still on very slowly pour in half the oil. If you pour the oil in too quickly the sauce will split. Half way through mixing add the water followed by slowly pouring in the remainder of the oil. Taste the tartar sauce and add more seasoning if need be.
To make the salad you can either construct one large platter or make 4-6 individual plates. First lay down the spinach, next evenly distribute over sliced potatoes and desired amount of pickled sea radish. Lastly finish the salad with flaked pieces salmon and dress the top with tartar sauce and serve.

Cox Apples, Gorgonzola, Alexanders and Spiced Walnut Salad

This is another recipe using Alexanders. I talked about these in the last recipe I posted, so if you are unaware what they are I sugest you read this link Wild Boar and Alexander Stew.
For this salad I have lightly sautéed them and added the alexanders to a salad loosely based on the Waldorf, less creamy and more sweet, spicy and textural in flavour.

4 cox apples
250g gorgonzola
400g alexanders, washed
70g rocket, washed
70g walnut halves
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 white onion
25g butter
1 lemon
Sea salt to season
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Method:
Heat a fry pan over a medium heat and add the cumin seeds, when the seeds become fragrant add the chilli flakes and toast for a further 10 second. Pour spices into a pestle and mortar and ground into a powder.
Peel and finely dice the onion. Melt butter in the same fry pan over a medium heat then add the onions. Stir and cook the onions until they become soft and translucent. Stir the ground spices into to the onions then add walnuts and toss around pan until walnuts are start to toast, lastly squeeze in the juice of the lemon and season with salt. Remove the walnuts from the heat.
Thinly slice the whole alexanders including leaves. Heat a pot over a high heat and add olive oil and alexanders, season well with salt. Cook the alexanders until just tender, then remove from heat.
Peel the apples and grate, place the grated apples in a large bowl with rocket, alexanders, walnuts and gorgonzola torn into smaller pieces. Using clean hands mix all ingredients together until evenly incorporated. Serve the salad as soon as possible.

Wild Boar and Alexander Stew

The festive season is officially over and this is usually the time of year things get bleak for a few months. The best way to over come this is booking a summer holiday months in advance and cooking comfort food.

Wild boar is basically a wild pig more gamey in flavour and quite fatty which makes it good for slow cooking. This is quite a simple stew and doesn’t require loads of over powering spices or herbs.

I’ve also used Alexanders which was introduced to the UK during the Roman occupation, and by today's standards would have been considered the celery of its time. Alexanders are sweet and fragrant, similar to cumin. Best foraged however I’m sure you can buy some on line from a few boutique fruit and vegetable sites.

800g wild boar

2 carrots

4 sticks celery

3 white onions

400g alexanders

4 plum tomatoes

3 cloves garlic

2 fresh bay leaves

50g butter

250ml red wine

Sprig thyme

1 dried red chilli

2 tablespoons plain flour

Sea salt to season

METHOD:

Dice the boar into 2cm pieces. Peel and slice carrots, slice celery, peel and slice onions, wash and slice alexanders into 5cm length pieces, quarter tomatoes and finely slice garlic. 

Melt half the butter in a large pot over high-heat, add the boar and a good pinch of salt. Cook until the meat starts to brown, then stir in the flour. When the meat has been coated in flour pour out into a bowl and place to one side. 

Add the remainder of the butter to the same pot and melt over a medium heat. Add the onion, celery and garlic, stir and cook until the onion softens and begins to lightly brown then add the carrots and alexanders. Once the carrots are hot and starting to steam add the boar, bay leaves, red wine, thyme and torn chilli. Pour in 250ml of water and season with extra salt. Once the liquid comes to a simmer turn the head down to low and cover. Cook for 2 and half hours giving the stew a little stir every half hour.  Once stew is cooked serve with either crusty bread or roasted potatoes.

Baked Lemon Ricotta Tart with Ginger Pastry and Golden Saxifrage

Happy New Year. I know it’s been a very long time since I last updated my blog, apologies. However I will try to keep on top of it starting now.

The main reason I haven’t up-dated my blog is because sadly Sadiq can no longer take my pictures because of other commitments, but I thank him for his skills, efforts and time.

I still get asked for the recipes of the dishes I create at Kaffeine, so I shell up-date redjarcooking without shinny wonderful pictures for now. I still have a few remaining images which I will use from time to time. I'm also looking into investing in a decent camera. Plus my secret Santa bought me an amazing book on food photography, which I'm currently reading.

In the meantime I will be re-editing some of my recipes and work on more recipes cards, which are still available at Kaffeine.

Here is my latest recipe, a savoury baked ricotta tart. It looks very festive on a plate (you'll have to take my word) and I've garnished this ricotta tart with a foraged item Golden Saxifrage. Crisp, textural and ever so slightly bitter leafy green. Best eaten raw and lightly dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. The refreshing taste of golden saxifrage goes well with creamy citrus ricotta, sweet tomato sauce and slightly spiced flaky pastry. You may find this recipe a tad labour intensive to make, none the less the end result is very therapeutic.

PASTRY:

300g plain flour

150g butter

50g grated cheddar

1 egg

3 tablespoons water

11/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Pinch of sea salt

TOMATO SAUCE:

3 plum tomatoes

1 white onion

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

4 basil leaves

Dash of dry sherry

Sea salt and ground white pepper

RICOTTA FILLING:

600g good quality full fat ricotta

1 white onion

150g grated gruyere

3 eggs

25g butter

2 lemons

Sea salt and ground white pepper to season

GARNISH:

60g golden saxifrage

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

METHOD:

Start with making the pastry, place flour, cheddar, ginger and salt in large mixing bowl. Cube the butter and add to dry mixture, rub butter into flour until well blended together then add egg and cold water. Lightly knead together until only just combined. Wrap pastry in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.

Grease a fluted flan tin with removable base 30cm in diameter and 3cm deep. Once the pastry has rested roll out on a floured surface until about 4-5mm thick and line the tin with pastry, pinch and press down around the edges and refrigerate for a further 30 minutes.

Once pastry has rested using a folk prick the base of pastry 10 times and line with grease proof paper then fill with uncooked rice or dried legumes, bake in oven set at 200ºC for 12 minutes. When the pastry is baked remove parchment paper and legumes and bake the pastry for further 8 minutes until golden brown.

To make the tomato sauce peel and finely dice the onion, crush the garlic and roughly dice the tomatoes. Warm a sauce pan over a medium heat and add olive oil followed by onions and garlic, gently cook until onions have softened. Add the tomatoes, sherry and season with salt and pepper, cook until tomatoes begin to break down. When tomatoes become mushy remove from heat and pour into a food processor with basil, blend into a smooth sauce.

For the ricotta filling peel and finely dice the onion. Add butter into a fry pan and warm over a medium heat until the butter has melted. Add onion to fry pan and cook until onions become translucent then remove from heat. In a large mixing bowl add ricotta, onion, gruyere, eggs, lemon juice and season with salt and pepper, mix together until evenly combined.

Spread the tomato sauce over the base of the pastry then evenly top with ricotta and smooth out, bake in oven on middle shelf set at 180ºC. When the tart has finished baking leave to cool for 30 minutes before cutting into 8 pieces.

To garnish gently mix golden saxifrage, lemon juice and olive oil together and top each slice of tart with the dressed golden saxifrage and serve.

Making Your Own Yeast and Black Garlic Bread

Photo provided by Sadiq Food Photography (Click here)

Making your own yeast in a simple and lost art form within home economists. It's surprisingly easy and makes a much tastier loaf than dried yeast. It's just a matter of time and patience, but once you have created your own yeast you can keep it for years and years like aged whisky. When your homemade yeast is running low, simply add more water and flour into the starter. This will feed the fermentation process and will keep the good bacteria growing. To ferment the water, you can use just about anything from dried cherries to grapefruit. For the sake of this recipe I'll use sultanas as most people have a bag somewhere in their pantry.

Under the yeast starter recipe I've attached one of my preferred bread loaf recipes, I make this recipe 3 or 4 times a week for the soup bread at Kaffeine. It's also amazing toasted and served with sliced tomato and sprinkled with salt and pepper. There is also black garlic in the bread, this is probably a new ingredient for most people however it's quite easy to buy and most supermarkets now stock it. Black garlic starts as a regular white bulb, after a little heating and left to ferment, the garlic becomes sweet, dark and jellied. The best part is it has twice as much antioxidants and leaves no smell or bad breath.

Natural Yeast Starter:
100g sultanas
750ml filtered water
1 tablespoon sugar
Plain flour

Method:
Place all ingredients in a 1 litre jar and stir, screw on the lid. Leave the jar to sit for one week at room temperature and give the jar a little shake twice a day.
When the water has fermented, sieve out the sultanas and pour water into a bowl, stir in flour until you have a thick wet paste. Spoon yeast back into jar and screw on the lid. Leave to sit in the fridge for 24 hours before using.

Photo provided by Sadiq Food Photography (Click here)

Black Gralic and Seeded Loaf:
750g strong flour
50g sugar
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 cloves black garlic
1 tablespoon linseeds
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
20g pumplin seeds
40g walnut pieces
100ml buttermilk
350ml warm water
3 tablespoon extra vigin olive oil
2 tablespoons of yeast starter

Method:
In a large bowl that attaches to a kitchen mixer add all ingredients, then place bowl in mixer and attach a dough hook. Knead the dough together on a low setting for 1 minute then turn up the speed to medium and knead for 5 minutes. Grease a large bowl with a little olive oil and scrap dough into bowl, wrap the whole bowl throughly with cling film and place bowl in a dark place for 24 hours.
Once the dough has proved turn out on a flour bench and knock out the air and knead until a smooth ball forms. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and put the ball of dough on tray. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour and cover with a dry tea towel. Put the loaf in a warm place, near a sunny window or on top of a heating oven. Leave the dough to prove for 1-2 hours to double in size.
Heat the oven to 200ºC and place a large tray of water on the lower shelf of oven, this will help the dough get a nice crisp crust. When the dough is proven, bake for 30 minutes, and to test if the loaf is baked, turn the bread upside down and tap the bottom, if there is a hollow sound the loaf is ready. Leave to cool before cutting.

Crown Prince Squash with Goats Cheese and Cucumber Dressing

Of all the varieties of squash, crown prince has to be my favourite: smooth, creamy and rich. It's a steak if you're a vegetarian. That's why it's perfect with a bit of light cucumber and lemon juice to cut through the richness. This is great for a light lunch or a side dish for your evening winter roast.

1 crown prince squash
200g goats cheese
100ml extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and cracked pepper

Dressing:
1 cucumber
1 lemon
Pinch of sea salt

Method:
Cut the crown prince squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Using a sharp knife, peel off the skin and cut squash into large chunks and lay out on baking tray. Drizzle over olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Place in oven set at 200ºC for 45 minutes.
For the dressing, cut the cucumber into quarters and place in food processor with juice of lemon and salt, blend together until cumber is puréed.
Once the squash is roasted, serve with large pieces of goats cheese and cucumber dressing.