Tasteful Scotland

On Taste.



First, an apology for my silence over the past month. I have been otherwise engaged with my studies, making cooking and blogging somewhat more difficult. Exams are over, however, and I am free once again.

This weekend, I have been in Edinburgh visiting my brother, and to attend the Taste Restaurant Festival.

Taste is a series of national festivals which showcase the best food Britain has to offer. With a stick, a ball and a pocket full of dreams, the brothers doughboy set off in search of deliciousness. The festival offered a selection of food from the best restaurants in Scotland (one, my loyal reader will be happy to know, was even vegetarian/vegan). We tried a selection of the treats of offer, including suckling pig, salmon fishcakes, pig's cheek with scallops, Italian pasta dishes, tiramisu, esspresso icecream, sorbets, beer, summer cocktails cheeses, oils, breads, whiskey and (of course) macarons.

The food was generally excellent, as was the atmosphere and (thankfully) the weather. I would heartily recommend next years festival, or get yourself some tickets to the upcoming London festival.

Below are a few photographs of some of the food, taken by my brother, as well as some links to a few of my favourite stands from the festival.

Links:
The Rutland Hotel
Kin Knives
Stewart Brewing ltd
Bougie Macarons & Tea

Cooked Cream and Balsamic Berries

On Panna Cotta.



Panna Cotta (literally translated as "cooked cream") is one of my favourite desserts. Deliciously creamy and rich, it goes well with a tart berry sauce. The most basic version of the dessert is a combination of cream, milk and sugar, boiled together with gelatin; I usually add orange zest and vanilla to mine as I think these flavours really lift the whole dish. Obviously, a dessert comprising of dairy and gelatin is not all that friendly to The Vegan, and so to keep my lovely and loyal reader happy, I've also included a recipe (and photograph, below) of a vegan panna cotta.

Panna Cotta - Makes about 6 Large Panna Cotta

1.2 litres Double (heavy) cream
150 ml Milk
60g Caster (superfine) Sugar
2 Vanilla Pods
The zest of two oranges
4 Leaves of Gelatin

1. Place the gelatin into the milk to soak, and set to one side.

2. In a large heavy bottomed pan, heat about 800ml of the cream with the sugar, vanilla pods and orange zest, and simmer until the cream has reduced by roughly one third.

3. Add the milk and soaked gelatin to the hot cream, stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved and the strain into a large bowl to cool. Preserve the vanilla pods.

4. Split and de-seed the vanilla pods, and place the seeds into the remaining cream. Whip the cream until thick, and fold into the boiled mixture.

5. Pour the mixture into ramekins, and leave for at least 3 hours to set.

Vegan Panna Cotta (adapted from here)

300ml Soya Milk (unsweetened)
150ml Soya Cream
1 Vanilla Pod
40g Caster (superfine) Sugar
1 ½ tsp Vege-gel
Zest of one orange

1. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod, and reserve.

2. Place the pod into the soya milk, and warm through, but do not boil. Leave to one side to infuse for about an hour.

3. In a separate pan, whisk the vege-gel into the soya cream, then add the vanilla seeds, orange zest and sugar. Strain the infused milk into the cream, and slowly bring to the boil, stirring continuously.

4. Allow to boil for about 30 seconds, and then remove from the heat. Allow to cool slightly, then transfer the mixture to ramekins and leave to set for at least 2 hours.

Balsamic Berry Sauce

100g Raspberries
100g Blueberries
50ml Good Quality (3 leaf+) Balsamic Vinegar
25g Icing (confectioners) Sugar

Put all the ingredients into a food processor, and blend until smooth. Pass through a sieve or muslin cloth, and it's ready to serve.

The above photograph is the non-vegan, and below is the vegan version of the pudding.



Enjoy.

Cheesy Puns and Cheese-Free Bread

On Bread.



Bread is the food.

Bread is somewhat of a basic human right. It is one of the foods which is pretty much universal around the globe, and as such I think it is high time I devote some column inches to it. Baking my own bread is one of my favourite things to do in the kitchen, as it is always delicious and satisfying.

There's lots one can do with bread, and the recipe below outline the basic method of baking a traditional risen loaf.

Basic Bread

500g Strong White Bread Flour
20g Fresh Yeast (or 7g Dry fast-yeast)
60g Olive Oil
Pinch of Salt

1. Rub the oil and salt into the flour. If using fresh yeast, crumble it into the flour and rub through with your fingers.

2. If using dried yeast, mix with a little warm water and a pinch of sugar, then add to the dry ingredients.

3. Add about 150-200ml of warm water, and mix the ingredients to a dough. Add a little more flour if it is too wet, or a splash more water if it is too dry.

4. On a clean, floured surface, knead the dough thoroughly for about 10 minutes. Put the dough into a covered container and allow to rise for about an hour. If you're not adding anything else to the bread, you can allow it to rise on a tray or loaf tin and bake directly after it has risen.

5. Take the risen dough, and knead it once more. If you are adding something to the bread, add it now and knead it in.

6. Put the dough into your loaf tin or on a baking tray, allow to rise for roughly an hour, and bake at 200C/390F for about 35 minutes.

7. Allow it to cool , and serve warm with lots of butter (or margarine for our Vegan friend)

Possible additions to the dough are caramelised onion, olive or sundried tomato (all of which are shown below).






Happy baking!

Lansdown and out?

On The Lansdown.



Another eatery review.

Although I am the one with the food blog, I am currently pretty much out of the catering industry (while at university, at least, but more about this later). The Vegan, however, has been working in the kitchen of a local pub for a number of months now, and during her time there has undertaken a little food revolution.

Deciding I should probably give it a try, I ventured up the road to the pub in question. Greeted by an extremely friendly barman, I ordered a pint of a pale ale, and the recommended vegan Caribbean Jerk Bean Burger.

The beer was fine, although the habit southerners have of not having any sparklers behind the bar to put a head on the beer always causes me to shed a single northern tear.

The burger was surprisingly excellent; Well seasoned, topped with fresh salad, tomato and pineapple. The texture was very pleasant - not the usual, grainy, soft texture which i so dislike in a bean burger. The only complaint i have about the burger is the pineapple; the delicate sweet fruit was somewhat lost behind the other big flavours in the bun. The side of chips were delightful too; chunky "rustic" chips with the skin on, well salted and fried to a satisfying crisp.

To follow, I was ordered to order a slice of the vegan carrot cake, and chose to accompany it with a coffee. The cake was excellent; moist, sweet and topped with a lovely lemon frosting, I thoroughly enjoy it. The coffee was about as good as can be expected from a pub espresso machine, although it was served undrinkably hot, a pet hate of mine.

Overall, I was very impressed with the food and service at the Lansdown, and encourage you to give it a try (even if you're not a vegan, or the friend of a vegan under duress).

Spawn of Seitan

On Seitan.

Again.

Not wishing to have it languish in the fridge any longer, it was decided the time to use us the Seitan. The Vegan was nominated guinea pig. Not really knowing what to expect from the glutinous mass, I went for a nice universal marinade - shish taouk, a Lebanese dressing of cayenne pepper, garlic, black pepper, cumin, lemon and olive oil.

1/3 tsp Ground Cayenne Pepper
1/3 tsp Ground Cumin
1/3 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1 1/2 Cloves of Garlic, finely chopped or pressed
Juice of 1 lemon
A good glug of Olive Oil

To make the marinade, simply mix all of the ingredients together (I used a Jamie Oliver "Flavourshaker" - purchased in a sale out of curiosity. It pleasantly surprised me.) and leave to infuse for a few minutes. The dressing can be used on pretty much anything, although it goes best with lamb and chicken.

The raw seitan was boiled for roughly an hour in water - it is recommended to boil the seitan in a tasty broth, but as I was unsure as to the results of this little experiment, I didn't want to commit further resources to a possible failure. I now definitely recommend a broth. The texture of the seitan was quite good, if a little bread-y, but it remained too moist after boiling. I would like to try again, draining the seitan with a cheese cloth before further cooking; the excess moisture did detract from the flavour and texture somewhat.

After boiling, the seitan was diced into small cubes, and marinated in the shish taouk for about 20 minutes. The texture of the seitan means it very readily absorbs dressings of this type. The cubes were they fried for about 20 minutes over a medium heat with a little bit of olive oil. The seitan was then served along side a leafy salad with gapes, walnuts and a wine wine vinegar and olive oil vinaigrette.

Personally, I was a little disappointed in the dish. I don't think the problem was with the seitan itself; I just need a little more practice cooking it. The Vegan was generally quite positive about the whole affair, and would surprisingly like to try seitan again. I think she is just being polite.

Bubbly Twenty-Something Seeks Similar.

On bubbles.



Well, bubble tea.

Bubble tea is a popular modern drink, originating in 1980s Taiwan.
It comprises of "pearls" of tapioca, or occaisonally aloe vera jelly, in a variety of drinks (but as the name suggests, usually some sort of tea).

The pearls can be bought, semi-dried, from East Asian supermarkets, and boiled brefily, before adding to a drink. Bubble tea is currently very fashionable in many countries around the world, although less so in the UK.

The Vegan is particularly fond of this eastern import, and purchased some of the pearls. We added them to a smoothie of banana, coconut and pineapple. Although not the usual beverage, this proved pretty tasty.

Popular flavours include green tea, coffee, chocolate, the taro root and various fruits. Pictures of our bubble tea to follow.

Get Thee Behind Me, Seitan.

On seitan.

This post is again brought to you through the influence of The Vegan.

Seitan is a meat substitute, popular in the east, made from wheat gluten. It's pretty easy to make, if a little time consuming.

This recipe was found on a popular vegan forum:


Seitan

600g High Gluten flour (tipo '00')
200g whole wheat flour
4 tbsp brewer’s yeast
¾ tsp salt/seasoning of your choice
¼ cup soya sauce
500ml water

Put all of the ingredients into a large bowl, and mix together with your hands. Knead the mixture and leave to rest for 25 minutes.

Add enough warm water to the bowl to cover the dough, and knead until the water becomes cloudy. Replace the water and repeat until the water is no longer clouded. You should be left with a rubbery putty. This is your seitan.

The seitan can be cooked in a number of ways, the most frequently recommended is to boil the gluten in a broth. I am yet to test seitan's next step, but when I do, you will be the first to know.

Stolen Moments with Stolen Mugs.

On Deli Delish.

Upon my return to my nameless university town, I found the top of my road suddenly populated by myriad (read: two) new businesses - an "alternative" shop, named ad hoc, which I have no intention of investigating further; and a deli, (maybe) called deli delish (although it really is more of a cafe).

Avoiding doing anything constructive, The Vegan and myself decided to visit this new eatery to satiate our midday hunger. Upon arrival, we determinedly marched up to the counter, and perused the menu. The polite, if a little jittery, service-drone informed us that they were without french sticks. Raising my fist to the heavens and cursing, I ordered a pastrami, pickle (dill), Gruyere and tomato sandwich on white sliced bread. Damn my tardy dining. The Vegan ordered a hummus and red pepper concoction on granary (without, only thanks to the quick thinking of one Doughboy, butter). We also ordered a couple of coffees: a cappuccino and a soy mocha.

The next obstacle was one of seating. With only one stool available at the awkwardly placed overlook-bar (from which one can enjoy a view of a table of external diners, mere inches away), we decided to wait for a table to become available. No sooner had one couple left, when a pair of newcomers gazumped our intended table. The good lord giveth...

Eventually, an outdoor table became available. Sitting down, our food was soon delivered, but our coffee took a full three minutes longer to arrive. In mugs from a rival cafe chain. I briefly wondered if maybe they had just run to said cafe and purchased out coffees there - it would explain the delay. The food was, to quote one Terry Alm, ex-homicide detective of Alberta, Canada, almost adequate. My sandwich was enjoyable, but nothing exciting. The Vegan reliably informs me her sandwich was also enjoyable, but she has had "nicer hummus on straighter bread."

Overall, while I wouldn't walk the streets singing its praises, or implore my friends and family to endeavour to eat at Deli Delish (if that is indeed it's name), it was a pleasant meal in pleasant company. The passers-by however, were a little zany.

Oreoboros

On macarons.





Again.

After my little vegan interlude, I once again returned to delicate egg whites and white chocolate delicacy.

I could lie to you, and pretend that my latest undertaking was plain sailing, and came together like one of the A-team's plans. Because who doesn't love it when a plan comes together?

But this week, I have not known as much success as I would have liked; I have been a fool worthy of pity. I began with the intention of making lime and ginger macarons - an intensely limey biscuit and a mild, sweet ginger cream. Sadly, it was not to be.

The first batch was a failure. I used a lime syrup comprised of the zest and flesh of a lime, but not the peel. Unfortunately, I was unaware lime zest's incredibly high pectin content (the substance in fruit which causes jam to set), indeed, Internet research quickly conducted by The Vegan put the figure at around 30% (30% of what is any one's guess, but on the same scale an apple was 1-1.5%). This led to a firm gel, rather than a syrup. Excellent, if I was aiming for haribo, but somewhat less useful for making macarons.

The second syrup was at least liquid by the time it ruined my egg whites. Apparently, the low pH lime syrup was not best friends with the delicate egg whites, and the resulting mixture was far too runny and moist. Despite my best efforts to salvage them, these macarons came out far too chewy and soft to be of any use, and failed to rise correctly. They did at least offer a fantastically limey taste, and my polite cohabitants still happily ate them. After this catalogue of failures, I decided to call it a night.

The next day, I started again. Having failed to marry lime and meringue, I decided that I would emulate Pierre Herme, le Marquis de le Macarons, and have a go at one of his most recently unveiled flavour combinations, wasabi and grapefruit. I also made the executive decision of putting the grapefruit into the cream and the wasabi into the biscuit - after the previous day's citrus sabotage, I couldn't face another molten meringue mess, and distinct lack of macarons.

The manufacture of this batch was pretty much as I have already detailed - the wasabi was a paste added at the last stage of mixing, and the filling is the white chocolate ganache, flavoured with grapefruit, and thickened slightly with icing sugar. The chocolate "rose" was made by melting chocolate, spreading it thinly on a sheet of greaseproof paper, scraping it off with a knife while still malleable and molding it with my fingers.



(this post's title an original witticism from The Vegan)

I Scream! You Scream! We All Scream, For a Cashew Disaster?

On vegan ices.

Vegan cooking is like being MacGyver.

Every week, MacGyver would build himself some sort of gun/car/laser/power-saw using nothing but a drainpipe, a tennis ball and a toothpick. Sure, given the parts for a gun/car/laser/power-saw, anyone could build one. But it wouldn't be a very entertaining show if it was just some guy building things from their constituent parts.

And that's what vegan cooking is. It's trying to make everyday things, without everyday parts. Anyone can bake a cake; but try baking a cake without any eggs, butter or milk. Try baking a cake with a drainpipe, a tennis ball and a toothpick.

Vegan ice cream is somewhat of a challenge. A dessert made by freezing various sweetened animal products, when said products are removed, doesn't leave much behind. Most vegan ice cream alternatives feature coconut milk, soy milk, rice milk drink ("rice dream") or cashews.

With this in mind, your anonymous blogger and The Vegan set to work on a vegan ice cream - orange flavour, with a cashew base. The Vegan had the plan; doughboy was relegated to sous-chef for this endeavour.

The cashew were soaked in orange juice (too much orange juice) for roughly half an hour, and then transferred to the food processor, along with the juice. After much blending and re-blending, we were left with a lumpy paste, which tasted far too much like cashew, and not nearly enough of orange. Apprehensively, this mixture was transferred to the ice cream maker. Apparently, we hoped it was magic.

The result was unpleasant.

We are not disheartened; previous success has been known in this area. MacGyver must have made a few lasers-from-contact-lenses-and-a-mag-lite that didn't work, right?

I hope that my next post on this topic will be a rallying cry of success, that our trials will produce a positively scrumptious frozen vegan-friendly dessert, and not another cashew disaster. I hope next time, MacGyver bursts out of the garage armed with a flamethrower.

Doughboy Dental

On fillings.

Macarons can be filled with all sorts of things; really anything that can hold the two halves together, and set enough to keep them in the same place.

Ganache is a popular choice; it provides a rich filling, is the perfect consistency and is easy to make and use. There's lots of different recipes for chocolate ganache; they vary by the intended use, but all contain cream and chocolate in some quantity, and usually butter. Ganache can be flavoured or left plain and deliciously chocolaty.

Basic Plain Chocolate Ganache:
150g Good-Quality Dark (plain) Chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
150ml Double (heavy) Cream

Put the chocolate in a large, heat resistant (ie. not plastic) mixing bowl
Place the cream into a heavy bottomed pan, and slowly bring to the boil. As soon as the cream boils, remove it from the heat and pour of the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted and combined with the cream, resulting in a shiny consistent chocolate mixture.

Allow to cool at room temperature until it is thick, but not set. Spoon roughly 1/2 tsp onto one of each pair of macarons, top with a second, and place in the fridge to set.

Basic White Chocolate Ganache:
150g Good-Quality White Chocolate
150ml Double (heavy) Cream

The process for making the white ganache is exactly the same as above. It is worth noting that some brands of white chocolate do not produce the same eventual set on the ganache. Some, namely Green & Blacks, will leave you with a very runny and sticky mixture, even when refrigerated. If you find this to be the case, if it possible to whip the ganache as you would cream, and this usually does the trick.

These two basic fillings can be very versatile, particularly the white chocolate ganache which, with the use of colourings, provides a nice blank canvas with which to make your macarons beautiful.

The dark chocolate ganche lends itself well to being flavoured with liqueurs; the rich flavours go together well. Another interesting avenue of flavour is the use of chili; this combination has come into vogue recently, and while it can be a bit of a flavour fad, a delicate spicing does work well with the deep chocolate.

The white chocolate ganache can be flavoured in a number of ways; it's flavour is far more delicate than that of its darker cousin, and so it lends itself well to lighter flavours such as lavender or green tea. I've found the best way to flavour white ganache is to infuse the cream before hand, and then make the filling as detailed above. A teaspoon of lavender warmed in the cream for an hour or so gives a wonderful flavour to the whole cookie.

Mellifluous Words

On syrups.

Syrups are pretty easy to make, and have all sorts of uses (which I will not detail here); the reason for discussing them here is with reference to the flavouring of the macarons recipe in my last post.

I've found a really effective way of flavouring the macarons is the use of Italian meringue (that is, a meringue made using a hot syrup instead of granulated sugar), made with flavoured syrups.

Syrups are generally made by melting sugar with a little water and boiling the sugar to the fine thread stage. By using different colours and flavours of syrup, we can easily flavour our macarons. Below are a few recipes for different syrups (the quantities given below are correct for making macarons. If you decide to use the syrups for something else, these recipes will readily scale up):

Earl Grey Syrup
2 Earl Grey Teabags
80g Granulated or Caster (superfine) Sugar
about 75ml of boiling water (the exact amount is not too important here, most of the water will be boiled off)

Put the teabags into the boiling water in a pan and stir. Leave to diffuse for around 4 minutes - we want the tea to be strong, but still clear. If the tea becomes cloudy discard it and start again -your tannins have gone awry. Once the tea is ready (it should be a deep red colour), remove the teabags and add the sugar to the pan. Stir until dissolved.
Bring the mixture to the boil and then turn the heat down and allow it to simmer. We're trying to remove the water and concentrate the flavour of the tea here. I tend to use the amount of bubbles as a guide to the amount of water left - the bubbles are water steam, and so give quite a good indication of the amount of water remaining. When the bubbling slows significantly, your syrup is ready. Remove from the heat and use immediately in your macarons recipe (see previous post).

Chocolate syrup
75g Caster (superfine) Sugar
75g Cocoa Powder
75ml Water

Put all the ingredients into a pan, and bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer.
As above, simmer until the bubbles slow significantly. Again, use immediately in your macarons.

Raspberry Syrup
100g Raspberries (washed)
75g Caster (superfine) Sugar
50ml Water

Again, put all of the ingredients into a pan, and bring to the boil, breaking up the raspberries as they soften with a wooden spoon or spatula. As with the previous recipes, we're trying to eliminate the water in the syrup (it may take a little longer here as the raspberries have a relatively high water content themselves). This time, sieve the syrup or filter through a muslin bag, then use in the macarons.

Happy baking. Next time: fillings.

This Week, I Have Been Mostly Making Macarons.

On Macarons.

Macarons only came to my attention very recently - I saw an interview with pastry chef Pierre Herme, wherein he showed off his latest macarons creations. I've always loved making pastries and desserts, and so I thought I'd give them a try.

It took my two or three batches to get the consistency right, and I am yet to really start experimenting with colours and flavours.

That said, here is the basic pastry recipe for the macarons:

110g Egg White (roughly 3 the whites large eggs)
225g Icing (confectioners) sugar
125g Ground Almonds
75g Caster (superfine) sugar
Pinch of salt

Sieve the almonds and icing sugar, then mix and sift again. Set aside.

Put the caster sugar into a heavy bottomed saucepan, wet with roughly 50ml of water (the water need not be exact, it will boil away when making a syrup. It just ensures the sugar melts and does not burn). Bring this to the boil, and allow to simmer. You want to get the sugar to the fine thread stage of cooking.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites, with a pinch of salt, until foamy. Speed up your whisking and slowly pour the syrup into the egg whites, whisking continuously. Don't pour the syrup directly onto the whisk beaters. The mixture should become firm and shiny, able to form stiff peaks. Keep whisking until the mixture is completely cooled. This stage is much easier if you use an electric whisk - without one you're going to be there a very long time and have a very tired arm.

Now, gradually fold the dry ingredients into the meringue, in about 4 portions. The finished batter should be the consistency of magma, it will flow slowly and have a shiny surface.

Using a piping bag fitted with a 3/8 inch tip, pipe the batter onto sheets of baking parchment on flat baking trays, in circles of roughly an inch. It is important to leave a bit of a gap between the separate disks - they will slowly spread out and we want to avoid contact between them.

Bake in an oven at about 130C/265F for about 10-15 minutes, depending on your oven.

When they're done, the outside will be crisp, and they should have risen a little "skirt" underneath.

Allow them to cool completely, and remove from the baking parchment.

Pair each macarons with another of a similar size. Put roughly 1/2 tsp of filling onto one and sandwich with the other. Place in the fridge to set the filling. Bring to room temperature before serving.

When you feel confident with the basic recipe, there are a number of ways to flavour them. Making a flavoured syrup for the meringue is a very effective method; I'll probably post some flavour ideas and syrup recipes later this week.

For filling the macarons you can use a simple chocolate ganache, butter icing, or any number of other soft fillings. Again, fillings will follow (probably in the same post as the syrups).

Below, are pictures of some earl grey and vanilla macarons I made last night.

Welcome. I Guess.

Hello, and welcome, to my blog.

I'm not particularly good at this writing for writing's sake, and so posts like this (that is, without real purpose), will be few and far between.

I intend to write a food blog, detailing my many culinary experiments (and occasional adventures); I'm a pretty competent cook, and thoroughly enjoy spending time in the kitchen.

I hope anyone who reads this (if, indeed, anyone reads this), finds it informative and maybe a little entertaining.

To the food!