As in Castelnaudary, I make mine with pork rind/fat, pork sausage, garlic and beans as the main ingredients.  I do sometimes use confit d’oie (goose or duck confit), but then I stick to a more traditional format.  This time I’ve gone goose free and added a selection of garden veg and tomatoes instead.

If you are using dried beans you will need

• about 600g of white beans. 
• Soak them overnight then discard the water.
• Put the beans in a large pot with 2 litres of water
• a large peeled onion with a clove embedded in it
• 2 whole peeled carrots
• 2 whole crushed garlic cloves
• a bay leaf
• 2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped

Bring to the boil and cook until the beans are tender (around 1 1/2 – 2 hours)

Alternatively, you can use a tin of organic haricot or kidney beans.

For the rest:

Soften 2 onions (chunkily chopped) in a little olive oil. 

When they are translucent add 3 large cloves of garlic, 2 chopped and one whole.  Allow to colour slightly.

Add 1/2 cup finely chopped celery, including the tender inner leaves, and soften

Add 1 large tin of whole peeled plum tomatoes, or 6 large peeled and seeded fresh tomatoes.

Add 2 large peeled and chopped carrots, or a small bunch of baby carrots (these you can leave unpeeled)

A bouguet garni or a couple of fresh bay leaves would be good now too.

Add your cooked or tinned (drained ) beans in a layer on top and season generously.

Top up with 2 cups of boiling water, bring the whole mix to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for  1 1/2 – 2 hours.

Rub an oven proof casserole dish with a clove of garlic, then 

Add 4-6 fresh pork sausages and allow to brown.

Add the rest of your ingredients to the pot, with a touch more water if you feel it is necessary.

Put a lid on your pot and cook in the oven on low heat (around 120*C) for a further hour – 1 1/2 hours, checking and stirring occasionally.

Serve with fresh chopped herbs and plenty of fresh ground sea salt and pepper.

Enjoy

French Apple Flan

This tart is really quick and easy.  It uses one of my favourite pastries, one that is quite biscuity which really compliments the comforting bland juiciness of the apples.  Feel free to use as much sugar and spice for the filling as you require.  The best tarts are always tailor made.

For the pastry:

work

• 260 g unsalted butter into
• 350 g of plain (cake) flour
• 180ml caster sugar
• and a pinch of salt.

until it resembles breadcrumbs.  Continue to knead until the pastry comes together.

Chill for an hour, then line a buttered and floured pastry case by pressing the pastry in with your hands.

For the filling:

• Peel and core 8-10 apples (or however many you may need to fill your pastry base, bearing in mind that they will reduce in size as they cook.
• Slice the apples and braise them in a little butter with several tablespoons of brown sugar and some spices.  I use pimento spices with cinnamon, cardamom and cloves.
• When the apples are slightly translucent drain them and add
• 2 Tbspns of grated lemon zest
• 1/2 cup of ground almonds
• 1 tspn of vanilla

Toss to mix, then fill the pastry case and top up with

• 1 – 2 cups of double cream or creme fraiche

Sprinkle lavishly with demmerrara sugar and bake @ 180*C for 45 minutes to an hour.  Your pastry should be biscuity and browned, and the apples should be soft and juicy.

Serve warm with loads of freshly whipped cream , mascarpone or more creme fraiche.

peanuts, oats and chocolate candy…

Preheat your oven to 180*C and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

Cream:

• 225g granulated sugar
• 175g brown sugar
• 225g butter

Add:

• 2 eggs, lighlty beaten
• 1Tablespoon vanilla extract

and beat until light and fluffy.

Sift:

• 300g plain (cake) flour
• 5 ml bicarbonate of soda

Add to egg mix together with

• 125g rolled oats
• 1/2 cup of peanuts

Spoon 1/4 cup of mix onto your baking sheet at a time.  I usually get four cookies to one large sheet.  Make sure you leave plenty of space for them to spread out.

Poke your smarties (or chocolate m&m’s ) into the top of the cookie, and bake for 8-10 minutes (or until lightly browned).

The cookies will still be soft and you need to let them harden for a few minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.  Try and wait until they are cooled completely to enjoy them at their best.

Vanilla sponge fairycakes with rose and vanilla buttercream

This is a simple Victoria sponge recipe, that works every time and improves over 2 or 3 days.  The recipe makes 6 -8 giant muffins or 12 – 16 regular muffins.

Cream

• 350g butter
• 350g caster sugar

Sift together

• 350g Plain (cake) flour
• 2 pinches of bicarb
• 2 t baking powder

Lightly beat

• 6 large freerange eggs
• 1/4 cup warm water

When the buttercream is light and fluffy, fold in the dry ingredients with the flatbeater on low speed.

Then swap back to the whisk and beat in the egg mix until it is all incorporated.  Don’t overbeat.

Spoon into well buttered and floured muffin tins, mine are individual moulds, and bake for 20 -35 mins at 180*C – 200*C.

The temperature and length of baking time depends on how large your cupcakes are and how hot your oven is.  Slightly lower temp and longer cooking time for larger cupcakes, and hotter shorter times for smaller cakes.  To check for readiness a skewer inserted should come out largley dry with only a few crumbs clinging to it, and the cupcake should be pulling away slightly from the tin.

Leave for a moment to cool, then turn out and leave on a baking rack to cool completely before icing.  Click through here for perfect and easy buttercream icing.  Once iced, we wrap in squares of baking paper and tie with some string.  This keeps the cupcake from drying out too quickly, and it looks pretty…

Happy baking.

perfect pastry, perfect cheesy mix, dark chocolate - YUM!

This is not the cheesecake I learnt to bake at my mother’s knee.  That cheesecake is a light and fluffy, lemonscented confection.  This cheesecake is heavier, richer, chocolatey-er, and easier to bake.  I have been making it a lot at the deli recently and as it has been so well received we keep baking it.  The original recipe came from Julie Le Clerc’s Little Cafe Cakes.  And she says the idea for a polka dot cheesecake came from Maida Heatter.  Genius-whoever started it.  Here is my version.

For the pastry:

Put

4 cups plain (cake ) flour

• 8T caster sugar
• 240g ground almond
• 500g chilled butter

into your food processor and pulse till grainy

Add

• 2 t vanilla extract

Mix

• 8 egg yolks:16T cold water

Gently work into a pastry.

Push into buttered, floured, loose based tins.  This pastry makes 2 20-25cm tins.  You can always freeze the one prepared tin, ready for your next baking day. Chill the other one in the freezer too, until ready to bake.

Preheat the oven to 180*C

For the filling:

Melt:  150g dark bitter chocolate and allow to cool

Cream together

• 300g  ricotta
• 150g creme fraiche
• 100g cream cheese
• 1 golden caster sugar

When light and fluffy, add

• 1 t vanilla extract
• 2 large freerange eggs

and beat gently until all combined.

Take the pastry tin out of the freezer and grate a few hazelnuts over the bottom.

Bake for 10 minutes then remove and cool.

Take out 1/4 to 1/3 of the mix and fold in the melted chocolate.

Fill the cooled pastry case with the rest of the ricotta mix.

Put the chocolate mix into a piping bag with a large nozzle.  Pipe big blobs of chocolate ricotta into the cake at regular (or random) intervals.

You can drag a skewer through the blobs if you prefer hearts to polka dots.

Lower the oven temp to 150*C and bake for 25 minutes (if doing small individual cakes) or up to 50 mins for larger cakes.  The surface should be dry but not cracked and the centre should still be a little wobbly.

Allow to cool before cutting.

YUM!