Christmas Puddings with a Twist

And I'm not talking Oliver.

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If anyone wants some more in my household this Christmas, I'll be only too pleased.

What worries me though, is that I may have the opposite problem.

You see, I have guests coming from abroad and, whereas usually my foreign friends tuck heartily into Sussex pub grub washed down with gallons of Harveys bitter and would eat fish and chips with their buckets and spades if they could, this time I fear it may be different.

My guests have never been to the UK before, never eaten British food (or think they haven't) and, although they avow that they want the full Christmas experience, I'm concerned it might all prove a bit heavy for more delicate constitutions.

Particularly, by the time we get to Christmas pudding.

So, with that in mind I've been experimenting with puddings which are still Christmassy, but are a little bit lighter.

I began by caramelizing some clementines marinaded with a little rum. They were good and would be enhanced by some Cointreau cream or suitably rich ice cream.

Peel your clementines (or tangerines or satsumas) and slice them across the diameter, to make rings. Soak them in a couple of teaspoons of rum. Meanwhile boil up 1 tbsp caster sugar and 2-3 tbsp water until the mixture begins to turn golden. Quickly pour over the clementines and leave to cool.

Caramelized Clementines

Continuing with the clementine theme, I made a Caramel Clementine Upside Down Cake- and this time, I can honestly say it is the best cake I have ever made! I have to share the recipe with you so you can try it yourselves.
Instead of flour, I used part ground almonds and part pulverised almond biscottis (croquants for French readers) plus breadcrumbs for the mixture. I've never made a cake without flour before- but may never go back again! The almonds and the breadcrumbs made for a moist sponge- but the biscottis added a grainy texture which was scrumptious!

Caramel Clementine Upside Down Cake

Caramel Clementine Upside Down Cake

Ingredients:
150g caster sugar
50g ground almonds
50g pulverised almond biscuits
50g soft white breadcrumbs
2 tsp baking powder
4 beaten eggs
175ml sunflower oil
5 clementines- all 5 zested and 3 of them juiced, 2 of them peeled and sliced into rings
1 tbsp caster sugar and 2 of water for the caramel

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease and line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper
2. Make the caramel by boiling 1 tbsp of caster sugar and 2 of water until golden, then pour into the bottom of the lined tin
3. Lay rings of the sliced clementines in the caramel

4. Mix together the sugar, ground almonds, pulverised biscuits and baking powder in a bowl
5. In a separate bowl, whisk the beaten eggs, oil, zest and juice together
6. Combine all the ingredients well and pour over the clementine slices in the tin
7. Bake for 45-50 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean
8. Allow to cool completely before turning out


I also experimented with a Rum Punch sauce to go with it. I wanted a jammy, fruity, rummy, spicy flavour to the sauce so -guess what- I used jam, marmalade, fruit juice, spice and rum to make it!

Rum Punch Sauce

This is a great way to use up the last remnants in a jam or marmalade jar too.
 Mix together a tbsp of jam, a tbsp marmalade, 2 tbsp fruit juice, 1 tsp rum and 1tsp mixed spice and a sachet of vanilla sugar (25g). Boil until syrupy and pour into a serving jug. Serve warm.

This sauce went beautifully with the cake- but was also good the next day poured over ice cream. Or indeed both!

Clementine Cake with rum punch sauce and ice cream

Mincemeat (the traditional British fruit version- which has nothing to do with meat!) is an acquired taste. I thought I might introduce it into one of the meals, just to see how it goes before unleashing the full might of mince pies with brandy butter.
A gentle introduction would be in a crumble- as here. (Crumbles are very vogue at the moment in Europe, believe it or not!)

I make my crumble topping from 180g flour, 100g butter and 75g sugar blitzed or rubbed togther.

In a bowl or individual ramekins, combine apple compote (apples stewed with a little water and sugar until soft) with 2 tbsp mincemeat.

Top with the crumble mix and bake in a hot oven (190 degrees) until the topping is golden.

Mincemeat and apple crumble

Lighter still- but equally simple- would be mincemeat milles-feuilles, made with baked wontons rather than pastry.

Bake wonton wrappers quickly in a hot oven until golden and dust with icing sugar once cool. Layer with mincemeat and whipped cream.

Mincemeat mille-feuilles

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And finally- there's jelly.
It's light, it's fruity, it's Christmassy- and I shall bring it out if all else fails.




http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/jelly


Now to get into Christmas pudding mood..

#waronwaste

You've got to love Hugh. He is definitely the Crumpet-Eating Woman's Thinker (to paraphrase Frank Muir)*
He is a good cook with appealing recipes but he is also a very powerful lobbyist- whether he is having a Fish Fight or exhorting us to Grow our Own.
His latest crusade is one dear to my heart, as he is taking on the horrendous amount of waste- food, clothes, recyclables- in the UK and trying to change practice.

 His website www.waronwaste asks for reader's top tips for reducing food waste. Well, I don't know where to start.

I thought perhaps this week I would just look at an ordinary week's cooking- and how each meal led to another via its leftovers. Perhaps by coincidence ( and certainly not by design) I've ended up featuring some leftover classics.

So, this week, I made a Spaghetti Bolognaise on Sunday (along with many of you no doubt) - and had leftover meat sauce, also leftover tinned tomatoes. I also bought more fruit and veg than usual- as the fruit/veg bowl was looking bare.
So I made some fruity puds, some salads and some potato dishes (some to eat and some to freeze).
Many of these dishes generated others from their leftovers (eg. the spag bol).


Here was the menu: Tabbouleh (using up leftover tomato sauce) with a Quiche, Chilli Chips
(using up leftover meat sauce) Date and Orange Bread and Butter pudding, Caramel Clementine Upside Down Cake and Potato Boulangere (half of which could be frozen but I used the leftovers for Bubble and Squeak)

Here are the recipes:

Firstly, to make a good tomato sauce I recommend this recipe (Tomato Butter).

Soften some onion and garlic in a saucepan, add a carton of chopped tomatoes, a teaspoon each of red wine vinegar and sugar, a pinch each of salt and pepper and simmer away for 15 minutes or so. Just before serving, stir in a knob of butter. The butter emulsifies and enrichens the sauce in an instant.

Tomato butter sauce

 It is simple and quick but has a lovely glossy look and a rich flavour. I use it to coat Stuffed Cabbage Leaves

Stuffed Cabbage Leaves
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/jour-du-marche.html

Aubergine Canneloni
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/vegetable-madness.html

or poured over Aubergine Canneloni, but today I only had a couple of spoonfuls left over so used it to pep up a Tabbouleh salad.

Ingredients:
2-3 tbsp tomato butter sauce
1 cup couscous
 1 tbsp sultanas
chopped spring onion, red or yellow peppers, whatever you have to use up
1 tbsp chopped mint and parsley
2 cups hot vegetable stock
seasoning/olive oil

Pour the hot stock over the couscous in a large bowl. Cover and allow the grains to soak up the liquid.
Mix in the tomato sauce, vegetables, sultanas and herbs.
Taste and adjust seasoning, adding a swirl of olive oil just before serving.

Tabbouleh

The tabbouleh accompanied a Quiche. I made this one from some pieces of ham from the fridge- but Quiche is one of my go-to-recipes when I need a meal but don't have many ingredients- favourite fillings are mushroom, spinach, chard, salmon, watercress, bacon and combinations thereof.

Quiche Lorraine

At its simplest- you need a pastry case (pre-cooked or baked blind)- filled with 125g cheese, 3-4 eggs depending on the size of your pastry case, ditto 200-300 ml milk and whatever you use as your filling.

Arrange the filling on the pastry base, sprinkle on the cheese, mix the eggs with the milk and season well. Pour carefully over the filling and bake at 170 degrees for 20-30 minutes until risen and golden.

Next day I turned my attention to the leftover Spag Bol sauce.
I have two favourite ways to use this up- if I only have a few tablespoons, then I make a frittata:

Frittata
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/frittata

But if I have a bit more, then I add a tin of kidney beans in chili sauce, a little more chili for kick and pour the whole lot over a bowl of chips. Not really a recipe- but I do love to eat it!

Chili chips

The best recipe of the week though, for me, was the Potato Boulangere.

Ingredients:

1kg of potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

300ml of vegetable stock made from 2 heaped tsp Marmite dissolved in boiling water

40g garlic butter

salt, pepper and a scattering of fresh thyme or rosemary

a handful of flavoursome grated cheese to top

1, Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

2. Butter a gratin dish (I use garlic butter)

3. Layer up potatoes, onions, salt and pepper and herbs, finishing with potato.

Layer up potatoes and onions

Pour on stock and dot with butter

4. Pour on the stock, pressing the vegs down into it

5. Dot with the rest of the garlic butter

6. Bake for 30 minutes until starting to crisp

7. Top with the cheese and cook for a further 20 minutes until golden and tender

Potatoes Boulangere

It's like a Dauphinoise, but without all the cream- as the potatoes are cooked in stock with onions.

Dear reader, let me tell you - it was scrumptious.








Better still, the next day, the leftovers made little Bubble and Squeak cakes- mashed with leftover spinach and peas, coated in flour and fried in vegetable oil.

Bubble and Squeak

Now for a few puddings.

You can't get a more classic leftover dish than good old Bread and Butter pudding. I gave this one a different flavour by adding some grated orange zest and chopped dates, along with the sultanas (which I soaked in a teaspoon of leftover Pimms from the drinks cabinet).

Ingredients:

4 pieces of stale bread, buttered and most of the crusts cut off
1 egg
300 ml milk
1 tbsp sultanas and 3-4 chopped dates
grated zest of 1 orange
1 tsp Pimms or rum
2 sachets of vanilla sugar (30g)
nutmeg to grate over

1. Soak the fruit in the booze for an hour or so.
2. Butter a pudding dish and then layer in the bread ( cut into triangles), fruit, orange zest and vanilla sugar
3. Whisk the egg and milk together and pour over the bread.
4. Lay a saucer over the top and press the mixture for an hour or so with a heavy tin.
5. Dust the top with grated nutmeg.
6. Place the pudding dish in a bain marie of hot water and cook in the oven at 160 degrees for 20 -30 minutes until risen and golden.

Date and Orange Bread and Butter Pud

And finally- if you missed it in The Guardian this week- and there was an awful (and I mean awful) lot of other things going on- here is my Caramel Clementine Upside Down Cake- which I like to make around Christmas time when I have fruit to use up, as well as almond biscotti and breadcrumbs.

Caramel clementine upside-down cake

This is quite simply the best cake I’ve ever made! It’s good to eat at any time, but the flavours of clementines and almonds make it a lovely Christmassy dish; I served it as a lighter alternative to Xmas pud last year. It is dairy-free too.
LeftoverLiz, via GuardianWitness

 LeftoverLiz’s caramel clementine upside-down cake: ‘a lighter alternative to Xmas pud... It is dairy-free too’. Photograph: LeftoverLiz/GuardianWitness

Serves 8
For the caramel
3 tbsp caster sugar
100ml water

For the cake
5 clementines, all 5 zested, 3 of them juiced, 2 peeled and sliced into rings
150g caster sugar
50g ground almonds
50g biscotti, blitzed to crumbs in a food processor
50g soft white breadcrumbs
2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs, beaten
175ml sunflower oil

1 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4, then grease and line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper.

2 Make the caramel by putting the sugar and water into a small saucepan, then bring to the boil and cook until golden. Pour into the bottom of the lined tin. Lay rings of the sliced clementines in the caramel.

3 Mix together the sugar, ground almonds, biscuits, breadcrumbs and baking powder in a bowl.

4 In a separate bowl, whisk the beaten eggs, oil, zest and juice together. Combine all the ingredients well and pour over the clementine slices into the tin. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before turning out.

Holders of the Title

*Frank Muir once described Joan Bakewell as 'The Thinking Man's Crumpet', then Melvyn Bragg was christened the 'Thinking Woman's Crumpet', and there have been many holders of the crown since- the latest being Benedict Cumberbatch.






Me? I like my crumpet toasted with butter and Marmite.

The Blogging Woman's Crumpet

Winter Citrus

It's funny to think that, on a cold November night, sunny citrus is in season and at it's best. Fragrant lemons, juicy Clementines and tart Seville oranges for marmalade are all ready to shine over the next few months.
Just as well- as I have a large bowl of lemons to use up after a drinks party last week. (The miserable weather sent everyone towards the warm mulled wine and cider rather than opting for ice and a slice in their drinks!)


Now, lemon zest and juice freeze well and can be kept frozen until you make a dish requiring a squeeze of lemon or similar ( and let's face it, there are plenty of them.)

Lemon juice and zest for the freezer

But this time I wanted to make a selection of dishes from the fruit.

I started with a classic Tarte Au Citron - lemon, eggs, sugar and cream poured into a sweet pastry case. You can either use a pre-prepared case or make your own sweet pastry from 175g plain flour, pinch of salt, 100g of butter, 25g of icing sugar and 1 egg. (Blitz up the flour, salt and butter. Add the sugar and the egg and mix until you have a soft dough to line your tart dish. Bake 'blind for 15-20 minutes at 190 degrees) Allow to cool.

For a 23cm diameter pastry case you will need 3 eggs, the juice and zest of 3 lemons, 100ml of double cream and 100g of sugar. 

Begin by creaming together the eggs and the sugar using an electric mixer.

Cream together the eggs and sugar 

Beat for around 10 minutes until the mixture is pale and creamy.

Now add the lemon zest, juice and then slowly pour in the cream whilst the motor is running.

Slowly add the cream to the egg, sugar and lemon

Beat for another 5 minutes and then pour into the pastry case. Bake in a moderate oven ( 125 degrees) until set firm ( about 30 minutes ).

Once cool, sprinkle with icing sugar and serve.

Tarte au Citron

My tart case was smaller than 23 cm - so I had lemon cream mixture leftover. I poured it into ramekins, placed them in a bain marie and cooked them alongside the tart.

Lemon creams in a bain marie

Once cool, they are sprinkled with sugar and glazed with a blowtorch ( or hot grill) to make Lemon Crème Brulée. These were so nice, they'd be worth just making on their own and forget about the pastry case!

Lemon Crème Brulée

If you prefer your tart to be meringue topped- whisk up egg whites with caster sugar and a pinch of cornflour, top the tart and glaze it with a blowtorch:

Meringue topped lemon pie

Now for a savoury dish- Chinese Style Lemon Chicken. (Crispy chicken breast in breadcrumbs with a fresh lemon sauce).

Marinade chicken breasts in soy sauce and a little mirin or sherry. Then roll them in fresh breadcrumbs and place on a lightly greased baking tray. bake at 180 degrees until crispy and golden.

Crispy chicken..mmm!

Now make your sauce: Put 200ml of chicken stock, juice and zest of 1 lemon and 2-3 very thin slices of lemon and 1 dessertspoon of sugar or honey in a pan and simmer until the lemon slices are tender.

Simmer lemon zest and juice with stock and sugar

Mix 1 dessertpoon of cornflour with a little water in a cup and then add it a teaspoon at a time into your simmering lemon mixture until you have the consistency of sauce you like.

Thicken with cornflour

Taste and add more sugar if really too tart for your taste and then pour over your sliced crispy chicken.

Chinese Style Lemon Chicken

Finally, a couple of other citrus dishes that I like to make at this time of your year. Firstly my Caramel Clementine Upside Down Cake- which is quite simply the best cake I ever make! 

Caramel Clementine Upside Down Cake
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.com/search?q=clementines

Click on the link below the picture for the recipe.

And lastly- Marmelade Madeleine Pudding- great for using up leftover cake ( it doesn't have to be madeleines!)

Just split the madeleines and spread them with marmelade. Pack them into a buttered dish and pour over a custard made from 350ml of milk, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla essence and 1 sachet of vanilla sugar. Leave to soak for a while ( you can add a bit of orange liqueur too if you want)

Soak the madeleines in the custard

 and then bake in a moderate oven (150 degrees) in a bain marie until set and risen.

Et voila- a Proustian Pud in a matter of moments.

Marmelade Madeleine Pudding

And so ends my lemon and orangey oddysey. Happy juicing and zesting- and I hope to see you at Christmas time!

Camp fire Cookery

If cooking on a camp stove means corned beef hash or sausages and beans to you, I thought I might try to inspire you with something a bit different this summer.
After a weekend of fun and frolics canoe-camping in the gorgeous Wye Valley a few weeks ago, I was myself inspired by my fellow campers.






So, I'm offering you Halloumi and Chutney fritters with couscous, Couscous Chicken Doris and Chocolate Orange Bombes for dessert. How does that sound?

Halloumi and Veg kebabs

Halloumi cheese is great for cooking on the BBQ- lightly oiled, sliced and cooked with peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms as a kebab.









Or, made into crispy fritters to fry in the pan over the camping stove:

Halloumi and Chutney fritters

1. Slice the halloumi into 1 cm thick slices
2. Beat 1 egg with a tablespoon of chutney
3. Lay out 3 dishes- 1 each of flour, the chutney/egg mix and breadcrumbs

Ready to coat

Halloumi and Chutney Fritters

4. Coat the slices first in flour, then egg mix, then breadcrumbs and fry in hot oil
5. Serve with salad and couscous

Make the couscous with boiling water as directed by the packet
Thanks Ainsley!

The leftover couscous makes the perfect coating for Chicken Doris (named after the skinny chicken who was the mascot for the weekend).

Chicken Doris

1. Marinade chicken breast fillets in 2 tbsp of natural yogurt

mmm..doesn't that look appetising?

2. Coat the yoghurty chicken with leftover couscous, pressing it on all over.

Chicken coated in couscous

3. Either fry in hot oil over the camp stove until golden and crispy or ( if you are at home, bake in a hot oven 190 degrees for 20 mins or so).

Chicken Doris
(Sorry it's a bit blurry- too much wine went in at this point- into the cook that is, not the food.)

Of course, if you would rather have Corned Beef Hash or Sausage and Bean Stew, the recipes are here on the blog too:

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=corned+beef+hash

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=sausage+and+bean+stew

And for dessert, I was very taken with this dessert prepared by my camping neighbours:

Chocolate Orange Bombes

1. Cut a lid from the top of each of 4 oranges and hollow them out, using a sharp knife. Keep the juice and pulp to one side.

Preparing the mix

2. Mix up a chocolate cake mix using eggs as directed, but substitute orange juice for the water.
3. Spoon the mix into the hollowed-out oranges
4. Wrap them in aluminium foil and place on the BBQ to cook ( for at least 30 minutes )

Orange Bombes on the BBQ

5. Unwrap and serve.

Chocolate Orange Bombes

The result is a gooey, Brownie-like pud that tastes like a Terry's Chocolate Orange( but one you don't need to share).

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=clementines

The pulp and leftover juice from the oranges makes a nice breakfast with yoghurt - or mix it with caramel sauce for another pud:












All too soon, the camping weekend was over - as is this post.

Thanks to Steve for the photos, Paula for the pud recipe and Doris for the entertainment!

Can you spot Doris?