Baking (cough, 'cooking with flour') all over the world... Somalian anjero

So extensive googling revealed that the Somali kitchen looks like an excellent place to be. There are lots of recipes and blogs packed with amazing looking recipes, from spiced rice and meat dishes to american inspired cookies and cakes.

I decided to try "Anjero", a sourdough pancake often eaten for breakfast with a little butter and sugar. Which, I have to say, was an excellent way to start this morning :)

The recipe is from here and is tres simple: 1/2 cup cornflour, 2 cups self raising flour, approx 2 cups lukewarm water blended together and left for a day or two to ferment in a warm place. They were then cooked in a buttered pan and turned out like lovely, slightly crumpetty tangy pancakes. Lush.

I can imagine these would be really good with savoury foods; sadly the Brits are crap at doing anything imaginative with any form of pancake. 'Lemon and sugar' seems to be as far as they can think. I reckon these would be lovely with something savoury and sloppy, like a good spiced bean stew, or layered with shredded chicken and chillis and cheese and whacked under a grill. You could also add corn, chopped spring onions and chilli to the batter and make a nice savoury corny pancake thing. I'm making myself hungry again now... :)

Baking all over the world gets to... Sweden! Saffranbuller lussekatter

Swedish saffron scented little golden buns, studded with raisins. Yummy! These are apparently a Christmassy treat, the rest of the year is more cinnamon bunny. I'm a complete chelsea bun addict though, so I wanted to try to make something a bit different, as I'm not sure anything in the world could hold a candle to the chelsea bun in the cinnamon bun stakes. Although I've been wrong many times before...

Lussekatter means St Lucia buns. For reasons which escape me the Swedish celebrate St Lucia on 13th December, so these are a treat for then. Saffranbuller means saffron buns. I'm not eveb sure what the proper names for these bad boys are.

So how do they taste? Really good actually, delicately scented with saffron but comfortingly sweet. My hand slipped with the sugar so they ended up probably too sweet for me, but Mr B was a definite fan. The dough is unbelievably silky and wonderous to handle, and the texture of the crumb was probably the softest I've ever managed. Lush with a cup of tea. This recipe makes about 15-20 so I have plenty in the freezer :)

Ingredients
250ml warm milk
12g dried yeast (seems like loads but it actually needs it - all the sugar and butter retards its action)
75g sugar
75g melted butter
big pinch of saffron threads, ground in a pestle and mortar
generous pinch of salt
125g quark (or natural greek yogurt would work I reckon)
approx 3-4 cups strong white bread flour
Some raisins
Egg for egg wash

Method
1. Plop the yeast and sugar into the milk, then whisk in the melted butter. Stir in the saffron.
2. Put the wet ingredients into the bowl of a mixer, then add the quark and a cup or two of the flour. Use the dough hook to mix together and gradually add enough flour to make a soft dough - don't add too much as it will make it too tight, but too little and you'll get a paste. Which nobody wants.
3. Knead it in the mixer for 10 minutes. I know, it seems like ages. But all the recipes I found agreed on this one. If you don't have a mixer, just combine the ingredients with a spoon and knead for (sorry...) 15 minutes.
4. You should get a gently golden, beautifully silky dough. Leave it, covered, to prove for approx an hour or so until doubled in size.
 5. Knock the dough back and knead it gently. Divide the dough into about 20 equal portions (mine were about 50g each). Roll each into a sausage about 25cm long, then curl each end around to make a big 'S' shape and stud with a raisin...

6. Place them, well spaced, onto a baking tray (greased or covered with baking paper) and cover again to prove for another 30 mins or so. I use big polythene bags (pedal bin liners) as I can just put the whole tray in and tuck the edges under instead of trying to cover it with cling film or unpeel any stuck dishcloths...

7. Brush with egg (not essential but I forgot and my raisins fell off!) Bake at a very high temp (220 degrees fan oven) for 8 mins. Be careful as the enriched dough will catch really quickly and you'll end up with a bitter bun. Sad times.

8. Devour... :)

Kind of Cornish pasties... Cheap eats!

These puppies are actually pretty good. Excellent to stock your freezer with and for feeding a crowd, they're cheap, tasty, fun to make... Sadly they're not exactly a health food, but we don't want that all the time do we?!

On this note, I was reading an article on 'Orthorexia' earlier. The obsession with eating 'correct' foods is something which is becoming probably more common... I'm sure we all open magazines and papers regularly and get told what we should (or more often shouldn't) be eating. 

My obsession with food in general is accompanied by a healthy interest in nutrition, and the scientist in me in always interested in learning how the body deals with different foods, and how food is inextricably linked to health. Also I happen to be female, and therefore according to the great British media should look like a lingerie model or be a failure in life (ahem). Well, rest assured, I do not resemble a Victorias Secret model in my undies. However if I eat a pasty one day, I'll probably not eat seven tonnes of other pastry that day... Also I heart internittent fasting which I genuinely believe helps. My BMI (a terrible measure of health but please don't get me started on that) is good, and I'm happy with my weight. So you can love your food and your treats, just not every day.

Right, rant over!! Pasties! 

I am lucky not to have any dietary allergies or intolerances (except a strong aversion to Ruby from GBBO) but you could easily make these with gluten free flour.

Pastry:

135g butter, margarine or other fat

1tsp salt

500g bread flour

Approx 175ml chilled water 

Filling:

200g beef mince (lean is good)

150g waxy spuds, skin on

150g peeled swede

1 smallish onion

Dash of Lea and Perrins

Salt and pepper

Rub the fat into the salt and flour, then add enough water to make a dough. Wrap well and chill. This pastry is robust... Don't worry too much about overworking it. Also it'll last for a few days well wrapped in the fridge.

Next make the filling: slice all the veg nice and small, mix with other ingredients.

Now, this recipe will make 8 big pasties, 16 smaller ones, 32 mini ones etc. basically, quite a lot!

Divide pastry into however many bits...

Roll... And fill...

Fold and egg wash if you like... 

Bake at 170 for 40 mins. Lush.

JB x

Pie pie pie!!!

Pork and egg pie actually (or gala pie if you're that way inclined...

It's a bad photo. But an excellent recipe and one which I will definitely do again!

It's a Gordon Ramsay effort, to be found with a google search as I'm using my phone today. Or kind of abridged here:

Ingredients (serves 6 very hungry or 8 reasonably polite people)

Filling: 

5 eggs

400g pork mince 

The innards of 200g good quality sausages

100-150g cooked ham, cubed (please buy a joint and boil it yourself, cheaper than ready cooked and sooooo much better. And you get lush sandwiches, risotto, salads, pasta etc for a week and stock to freeze too!)

10 sage leaves, shredded

Plenty of salt and pepper

Pastry

150ml water

60ml milk

140g fat (I used veg fat, you could use lard, dripping etc. I won't tell your cardiologist if you don't.)

450g plain flour

Egg for egg wash

Method:

Boil the eggs for 7 mins (straight into hot water). Then plop them into cold water to cool.

Schmush the meaty and herby ingredients together, and season really well... You want it a bit over seasoned so be a little heavy handed.

Peel the eggs.

Make the hot water crust by putting the milk, fat and water in a pan and warming until melted. Dump all the flour in and mix mix mix until all combined, then knead quickly (mind your fingers, it'll be a bit hot to start with!) until you get a lovely warm pliable dough.

Use a 1lb loaf tin greased and lined with baking parchment, but leave plenty of paper hanging over the edges. Divide the pastry into 2/3 and 1/3, then roll out to roughly line the tin, or squidge with your fingers (more fun!). Pack half of the meat in, line your little eggy surprises up along the middle of the tin, then encase it all with the rest if the meat. If it's slightly domed then don't worry. Roll the rest if the pastry into a lid, and egg was the edges to glue it onto the sides and crimp. Egg wash the top generously.

Make a couple of holes in the lid, then bake at 180 for 30 minutes, then an hour more at 160. Cool in the tin, then fall in love with a carby meaty eggy lump of wonder.

Enhanced by pickles and chutney. But then what isn't?!

JB xx

Around the world etc... Argentinian alfajores!

Yummy yummy yummy... When searching for an Argentine recipe these little puppies jumped out at me. They are shortbread style buttery cookies sandwiched with dulce de leche... And sometimes tolled in coconut for good measure. 

I found a few recipes and concocted my own as I always think I know best... But these were an out and out success and absolutely deeeelish!

I made the dough and left it in the fridge, well wrapped, overnight. Once warmed up it is a dream to work with, silky and forgiving, and the biscuits remain beautifully short and melty even when you've re rolled it for the billionth time.

The recipe here makes a lot, I got about 40 out of mine. But don't let that put you off. Just share the love...

Just out of the oven...

Rolled in coconut...

Salted caramel version...... Phwoar!!!

Ingredients

250g salted butter, softened 

2/3 cup caster sugar

2 egg yolks plus one whole egg from happy chickens 

1tsp proper vanilla extract or seeds from a pod

1 cup cornflour

2 cups self raising flour

2 tbsp milk (dependent upon egg size!)

1 tin carnation caramel (or similar)

Optional: 

Flakes of sea salt

Dedicated coconut

Icing sugar

Equipment: 2 big baking trays lined with non stick paper and a cutter of your choice (I used a round 5cm cutter)

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar really well until pale and fluffy. 

2. Add the eggy and vanilla bits and mix it up until nice and evenly combined

3. Add about half of the flours and mix in, then add the other half. It should create a pretty soft dough, if it's a little stiff then add the milk.

4. Pat it into a kind of disc, wrap will and chill the dough until it's Alfajore'o'clock (at least 2 hrs I reckon, until then it was still too squidgy to work with).

5. When you want to bake, preheat a fab oven to 160, and get your dough out of the fridge. Break it into a few pieces and knead it on a floured surface a few times until it warms and becomes pliable enough to roll without cracking.

6. Roll it to about 4-5 mm thick, cut into cookies and bake for 10 mins (they will still be pale - also you may need to do a few batches as you get a lot of dough!)

7. Cool on a rack, then sandwich 2 cookies together with a dollop of caramel/dulce de leche. If you like (and I LOVE) salted caramel then add a few salt flakes sprinkled over the caramel before sandwiching. Yummy tummy! You can then roll in coconut as the picture, sprinkle with icing sugar, drizzle with chocolate, or just bury your face straight in. Which I did, unashamedly.

I think I might move to Argentina...

JB x

Around the world in 80ish (kind of) bakes... India!

So we've arrived in India. Due to being away last week, this week I'm starting in India and ending in Argentina... exciting times!

Today was a little bit of a cheat... I had to do something savoury as we were starving, and having eaten the WORLD in Cornwall last week (pasties, clotted cream, scones, ice cream, scones, more ice cream etc on repeat until near nausea) I wanted something kind of healthy.

So Indian cuisine is one of my faves - Daddy Webb makes some pretty amazing curries, and I'm often o be found making my own naan and curry spice mixes. They're not as good as they could be, but I LOVE making and eating Indian food! So today, we have... the bakes Samosa.

Sorry India, these are probably as authentic as Sharon Osbourne's face. But they are rather delicious, rather easy, and rather healthy. Winners all round?!

Not a beauty contest winner - I made them a bit wonky due to laziness!

Ingredients - makes 12 samosas

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 big or 2 small cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped (mine was homegrown and pretty h-h-hot, so I deseeded it but feel free to leave yours in)
• 2cm piece of ginger, grated
• 1/2 tsp nigella seeds
• 1/2 tsp tumeric
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 3 medium potatoes, microwaved until soft (10 mins or so) or cooked and mashed (I like the skins on)
• Couple of tablespoons of frozen peas
• 1 cup wholemeal bread flour
• large pinch salt
• water

Method

1. Dough - mix the flour and salt with enough water to make a firm dough and knead for 5-7 minutes. Set aside.
   

2. Filling - gently saute the onion in a little butter or oil until softening, then add the chilli, garlic, ginger and nigella seeds. Yummy...

3. Cook for another minute or two, then add the rest of the spices and a pinch of salt. Mash in the potatoes, then add the peas...

4. Filling done! Time to assemble...

First, roll out the dough and cut into strips about 2-3 inches wide. Put a big teaspoon of filling into the dough, and stretch the rolled out dough around the filling and pinch it well to seal.

 You should have about 12ish samosas. At this point, you could pop them in the fridge or freezer (well wrapped) until you need to use them. When you want them, just bake them at 200C for 20 minutes (or 25 from frozen I would think).

Done!! Argentina next...


JB x

Spiced plum jam

So, my neighbour has a secret apple and plum tree. Secret from me until last week, that is. And he doesn't use the fruit from them at all...?! Seems like madness to me! So when he mentioned that he had these trees and he didn't want / use the plums, I went along like a little tramp with lots of carrier bags to gather some local wares.

The plums were almost over, but there were about a Sainsbury's (other supermarkets are available) bag full which hadn't gone off yet. I have no idea what variety they are, they are golden in colour with quite a sweet flavour but a slightly tart skin.

People often think jam takes ages, but please don't listen to them... I collected the plums (10 minutes), stoned and quartered them (15 minutes) and made the jam (30 minutes)... Less than an hour for some lovely homemade jars of smugness :)

These would be nice as presents, or I imagine would last well. See previous posts on how to sterilise your jars so you don't get green furry things living on your jam.

Makes 3 1/2 lbs / 1.7 kg
800g plums, stones and quartered (I like chunky jam, if you don't just blitz it before bottling)
800g granulated sugar plus one sachet of pectin or 800g jam sugar
cinnamon stick*
a couple of star anise*
squeeze of lemon juice*

* all optional and to taste.

Method: This is pretty tricky. Keep up.
1. Put fruit (fresh or frozen works just fine) in a big non metallic bowl. I froze the plums a week or two ago, so mine were in a lump.

2. Plonk sugar and spices on top (if using). Squeeze over lemon juice. Or don't. Then stand bowl on a plate and put another plate on top.

3. Microwave for 6 minutes on full power. Stir. Put back in for another 6-8 minutes until the jam passes the 'wrinkle' test - dip a cold spoon in the jam, then push it with your finger - if you see a little wrinkle on the surface of the jam, it's ready. If not, give it another minute or two.

4. Spoon into (hot) jars being very careful - hot jam is like napalm. Screw lids on tightly.

5. Cool upside down for 45 mins or so, then turn right side up - this will mean the fruit sets evenly throughout the jam rather than being all at the top. 

And that's it! Now you can gloat at being hugely middle aged before your time! Who would have thought my age begins with a '2' still?!!

JB x