Foreman and Field smoked salmon

I remember back in the day when smoked salmon was a real treat to be ooo and ahhh over. These days it's more of a daily commodity; a mainstay of office meeting catering that can often be taken for granted. However there are still producers that make smoked salmon that rises above the average supermarket offerings.

I had heard of Foreman's smoked salmon and their mail order arm Foreman and Field courtesy of some other food bloggers, so when I was asked if I'd like to try some of their London cure smoked Scottish salmon I said yes (very quickly).

I was sent 200g of their London cure, and wanting to keep things simple I used it in a big grilled asparagus, rocket and watercress salad for two, and two rounds of toast and scrambled eggs the following day. I think this actually might have been the nicest smoked salmon I've eaten. It was beautifully rich, but with a very mild smokiness that really let the flavour of the salmon come through. This delicate flavour meant that it was particular good with the eggs, and didn't dominate either dish.

As you might expect this quality doesn't come cheap, with 200g priced at £9.95 but this amount would easily serve four people as a generous starter (or an equivalent permutation). This is not really an everyday purchase, but is a great example of a product that is really worth a premium price and I quite like the idea of smoked salmon being something for special occasions again.


H.Foreman London cure Scottish smoked salmon from Foreman and Field
I rate it 9/10
Cost: From £9.95 for 200g

Thanks to Foreman and Field who sent me my smoked salmon for free and gratis.

Home-made pizza success

The idea of making my own pizza from scratch never occurred to me until quite recently. I'm not really sure why, but it probably relates to my fear (and poor track record) of making things involving yeast. However this recipe by Deepa on her Lazy Giraffe blog looked both pretty simple and very delicious. I followed Deepa's recipe exactly for the base, but had to omit the broccoli from the topping as I didn't have any. However the pizza turned out really well with just the garlic, creme fraiche, mozzarella and a sprinkling of herbs in a bianco style. As you can see from the picture, I had some oozing over the side issues so the lesson for next time is not to over-do things with the topping, but apart from that this pizza was amazingly good! Fully cooked through, light in the centre with a crisp crust, plenty of melting cheese, and authentic 'air pockets' (or whatever the technical term is).

I used more of the dough to make an alternative version with some bought sun-dried tomato pesto, more mozzarella cheese and some thinly sliced red onion- which was also fab.

Here are a few extra things I discovered while making this pizza:
i) I ended up with quite a lot of liquid leftover from the initial recipe so just chucked in some extra flour and made more dough. I split this into individual portions and put it in the freezer (in some well oiled freezer bags). I defrosted the dough in the fridge overnight when I wanted to use it, and it the next day it was perfect to roll out . Thanks to Deepa for this tip.
ii) I found this dough quite sticky, so you'll need a well floured board and hands to roll it out.
iii) I didn't heat up the tray the pizza went on, but did pre-heat my gas oven on the highest setting for about twenty minutes and put the tray on the highest shelf in there. The pizza took around 10-15minutes to cook.

So in conclusion, there are times when you wonder if it's worth making something at home that you can easily buy in the shops, but in this case it is definitely worth it. The recipe is simple enough to make as a quick post-work dinner (even with the proving time), and you can choose whatever you want as a topping- bonus!

Ryvita crackers

I remember when I was little that Ryvita crispbreads were firmly placed in my mind (alongside Weetabix) in a category of inedible foods that tasted like corrugated cardboard. So when a nice PR person asked if I'd like to sample some Ryvita crackers, I was not exactly biting their hand off. However, I think my tastes buds have matured a little over the years and as these crackers are billed as biscuits for cheese, I thought I'd give them a try.

Ryvita crackers come in two varieties, black pepper and golden rye. They both have a very light crunchy texture, but don't shatter everywhere. The black pepper crackers are pretty peppery though, which makes them ideal to go with a super-bland cream cheese, a super-flavoured strong cheese (I had them smothered in Boursin), or for dipping in hummous. The golden rye crackers are much more neutral though and therefore genuinely suitable for a whole range of cheeses. They are also high in fibre and low in fat (though less so when covered in butter or cheese), which is nice if you are into that sort of thing.
Another feature that I fully endorse is the packaging of these crackers. Each box contains about six packets, containing six crackers, which means that you don't have to worry about things going stale or finding biscuit tins. So overall a thumbs up!

Ryvita crackers
I rate them 7/10
Cost: Around £1.25 per pack

Thanks to Wildfire and Ryvita who sent me my crackers in a hamper for free and gratis.

Indian-style carrots with mustard

This is one of my mum's recipes which uses a very typical Bengali ingredient- mustard, and in this case ground whole black mustard seeds. It makes a perfect side dish to go with Indian food, and is pungent with mustard and garlic with a little carrot-y sweetness. For me it's an ideal way to use up a carrot glut, so just scale this recipe up (or down) as required.
You should be able to find whole black mustard seeds in any Indian grocery shop, and then grind them yourself. I use an electric coffee grinder for this, just don't expect to be able to use it for coffee beans too.

Recipe (enough for loads)
1kg carrots (grated)
Around 3-4 tsp ground black mustard seeds
3 medium cloves garlic (crushed)
Small bunch corriander (roughly chopped)
1 medium green chilli
Around 1-2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt (or enough to season to taste)

Put the oil in large pan, and heat until hot but not smoking and add in the carrots. Cook for a couple of minutes, and then add in the ground mustard. You basically want enough mustard so you can see the little grains against the carrot, as in the picture. Give everything a good stir, add in the garlic, pierce the chilli a few times and then add this in too. Piercing the chilli means you should get the flavour from it but not too much heat. Cover the pan and leave to cook for around ten to fifteen minutes or until the carrots are almost tender. Then add in the corriander and salt, stir and cook for another five minutes or so, by which time the carrots should be fully cooked through. Serve with dhal and rice or some Indian breads, or indeed anything that is likely to go with carrots and mustard.

Addendum: Following on-going conversations, my mother says that she also uses a couple of teaspoons of kalo jeera/black onion seeds in this dish- frying them in the oil at the start before the carrot goes in. However, I cook it without and it's still lovely. She also adds that if you are a serious mustard fan, you could also add some shorshe tel or mustard oil. It's pretty potent stuff though, so exercise caution!

Rhubarb and ginger crumble fool

Double layer of fool and crumble only for the truly gluttonous.

There was quite a bit of local rhubarb about in the market when I was in town the other day. The non-wintery conditions meant that making a rhubarb crumble with it didn't seem entirely appropriate, so instead I decided on a fool. Fool is essentially some fruit, sugar and cream, and so is one of the simplest desserts ever.
I had about half a kilo of trimmed rhubarb, cut into chunky pieces. This was cooked with a couple of tablespoons of water, three 'balls' of stem ginger (finely chopped), and about three tablespoons of brown sugar. The amount of sugar you'll need will depend on how sweet or sharp your rhubarb is, so have a taste as it softens and adjust as required. Simmer the rhubarb over a low heat until it's completely cooked and softened. This should take about twenty to thirty minutes.

In the meantime whisk up around 300ml of double cream into soft peaks, with a tablespoon of icing sugar. Once the rhubarb has completely cooled stir it into the cream, and your fool is done! I thought I'd still add a crumble element though, so I used the same method as this rhubarb crumble ice cream to cook some crumble topping separately. The one minor amendment was to add a couple of teaspoons of ground ginger to the mix. Once the crumble had been cooked and cooled, it just needed to be sprinkled over the fool (a ready made alternative would be to serve some ginger snaps on the side). My favourite April fool to date.

NB This fool can also be turned into an ice cream by using the rhubarb crumble ice cream method.

Stickybeaks Cafe, Cambridge, UK

Just a quick post on a new independent cafe that has appeared in the chain-opoly that is central Cambridge. Stickybeaks Cafe is tucked away on Hobson Street and offers a daily changing lunch menu, along with a range of cakes and drinks. I popped in for a late lunch yesterday with the male companion person and had a very nice (and at £4, reasonably priced) frittata with crab and artichoke, while he had a selection of salads.

It seemed rude not to sample some cakes too, so along with a genuinely chocolate-y hot chocolate I had a lamington which was light and not too sweet either.

I liked Stickybeaks. It wasn't doing anything amazing but it had a bright, homely interior and provides an alternative to the numerous Costas, Neros and Starbucks that populate the town centre.

I suspect it's going to be popular though and they could really do with trying to increase their seating, as once the word is out nabbing a table may become rather tricky.

Stickybeaks Cafe
Hobson Street
Cambridge CB1 1NL

Sticky ginger cake (or pudding)

I had a sudden hankering for dark ginger cake around Christmas time- a proper version with real stem ginger in it. I found this excellent BBC Good Food recipe, which contains both stem and ground ginger, golden syrup and black treacle, and produced a dark, rich, sticky cake (which I felt didn't need icing). I cooked this in my cupcake tray primarily because I couldn't find my regular cake tin. But in fact cooking individual cakes turned out to be an excellent move, as these cakes freeze incredibly well. I had about twenty in total, half of which were eaten just as cake and the rest were frozen for later.

A couple of months later, after defrosting overnight in the fridge, they were still moist and sticky, and this time they were eaten as pudding with warm vanilla custard (nb Sainsbury's Taste the Difference custard is very good). An excellent warming pudding for a winter's night.